Taste test: What you need to know about this new mithai store in Mumbai

(From left) Dharwad peda, kesar peda and wild rose treat on display. Pics Courtesy/Phorum Pandya; Saffron & Mishri

You won't miss the yellow façade of Saffron & Mishri blooming with flowers of its namesake in Mahalaxmi's bylane, off Jacob Circle. A slender flight of white marble steps makes it easy to presume that it leads to a design store. Turns out the founder of the newly-launched artisanal mithai venture, Gunjan Shrivastava, is a contemporary visual artist with a PhD in Visual Arts and an educator for the past 25 years. The space is divided into an al fresco café seating that displays wire art botanicals from her previous exhibition.

(From left) A view of the Mithai Theatre, Golden pishori pistachio and Gulkand barfi

Through the glass door, a display showcases mithai from South India, UP's Benaras stretch, Bengal, Indore and Rajasthan. A digital screen above entices one with savouries like kachoris, samosas, chaats and fresh drinks. In another section, the store has a display of namkeens and a Mithai Theatre, where she conducts hands-on experiences - Make Your Own Memories (MYOM).

The last and the main section is where the magic sweetens - the walk-through kitchen. We put on the hairnets and shoe covers and enter the corridor lined by enclosed sections. Workers are in the midst of hand rolling ladoos and pedas and stirring khoya. All sweets on the menu are made using sulphate-free sugar.

Gunjan Shrivastava

"I promote slow and conscious art so that you can feel more in the process. As a textile artist, I have sown kantha work into these leaf prints. I pick broken and dried leaves; wash them in a studio like one would treat a photograph negative. I sow red threads in the kantha work," she reveals. Her tasteful art shows up even on the mithai boxes that have kantha and Benarasi patterns. The store also exhibits panels of kantha.

Art of mithai

"Every halwai is an artist, and mithai is the art form. A lot goes into the making of mithai. There is a transition and transformation of ingredients from one process to another," Shrivastava shares, adding, "I am from Prayagraj where mithai is an emotion. We love a bite of mostly homemade sweets after every meal. Today, the gifting culture has shifted towards wines and chocolate from mithai. I want to make it cool again. I want to bring the new generation who love mithai back, and get them to know their mithai," she adds, suggesting that she found the mithai culture in Mumbai contemporary when she moved in 2014.

"Mithai palates change in a cosmopolitan city with migration from every part of India," she explains. This inspired her to research on sourcing authentic ingredients for regional mithai, be it ghee from South India for Mysore pak, roses from Pushkar, or pistas from Iran.

Taste Test: Kuchh meetha ho jaye

The mithai offerings are divided into signature, luxe and ultra-luxe collections. Our first bite is a modern tasting Biscoff mithai, with the base of an almond barfi topped with a Biscoff mixture and a gold leaf for garnish. The almond dough has a sweet nuttiness.

Mysore pak

The wild rose laddu is a khoya treat wrapped in variants of rose petals where each is chosen for colour, fragrance and flavour. We drool over the boondi bliss bite. The fine moti choor boondi sits on a milky Ajmeri kalakand exuding North Indian doodh-jalebi vibes. Our favourite, is a flavour we have never really taken to until now. The pistachio paan is made with pishori pista, a higher quality of the dry fruit sourced from Iran. It is subtly topped with a mix of gulkand and cashew nut bits.

From the signature classics, their bestselling Kanpuri moti chur ladoo boasts of a size zero in boondis. "It takes double the time. You make a besan batter, pass it through a zero jali and then you hit the rim hard for them to drop into the hot ghee for frying. They are then dipped in sugar," Shrivastava explains.

Phorum Pandya making cranberry coconut laddoos

If you're a desi mithai fan like us, the Dharwad peda and kesar peda will not disappoint. Mysore pak stands out for its melt-in-the-mouth texture, making it one of the best in the city. The gulab jamuns are typical of Maigalganj in UP. The coating is thicker than usual and the inside is firm and dry. "In Maigalganj, there is a gulab jamun shop after every 100 metres. While Mumbai is used to a smoother, softer texture, this version is textured," Shrivastava explains.

Make your own mithai

The last hour is at the hands-on mithai workshop. The team has ingredients for cranberry and coconut laddoos. We patiently stir sugar in hot water to turn it into chasni, and fold in the desiccated coconut and and khoya at precise intervals. We season it with elaichi. The weight-training comes handy when we fold in the cranberries and roll the mixture into roundels. The result is a kopra pak-like laddoo that has the acidity of the dried berries and comfort of the milky coconut. We take home some for our mothership's approval.

At Shop no 15, Nahar Amaryllis Tower, Nahar's Amrit Shakti Road, Chandivali, Powai; Bank of Baroda, first floor, Jacob Circle, Byculla.
Call 8828155002