Rasgullas in a variety of flavours and colours go well with thandai at Panch Bhog

A dash of pink, a splash of green, a coat of yellow and a dab of purple. The colours of Holi have splashed on to the counters of the sweet shops in Howrah as different types of flavoured and colourful sweets have been made to spread the cheer of Holi. After playing with colours, people would love to treat each other with these colourful offerings available at the sweet shops around town. Without using harmful food colours, the shop owners have found different ways of colouring the sweets using flavoured syrups and natural fruit colourants to decorate their products.

The spread is huge at the glass counter in Panch Bhog at Watkins Lane in north Howrah. Colourful rasgullas in strawberry, kiwi, black currant, orange and lemon flavours are not just good to look at but have a different taste compared to the traditional white ball of chhana. The bowls full of pink, orange, green, yellow and purple rasgullas attract many customers to the store on Holi. These are specially made for the Holi season along with other sandesh and kheer items. Orange flavoured laddus, Kanpuri topped with nuts, strawberry kancha golla sandesh, kaju pista paan shaped like a heart with green and yellow colour and other sweets made of milk cream and decorated with fruits on the top also look attractive and fit for the season and occasion. Panch Bhog also offers thandai to its customers on Holi day, sold in glasses. A similar variety of barfis and kheer sweets are available at Kanha, on GT Road near Sandhya Bazaar. Red coloured mewa anarkalis made from khowa kheer are being sold for Rs 400 per kg. Kaju paan with a light green coloured body stuffed with dry fruits looks attractive. Kaju pizza is a similar item that looks like a half moon and is yellow in colour. The kaju pista barfi has a thin crust of green over the white base of the sweet. Those who prefer the traditional non-Bengali sweets can choose from gulab jamun being sold for Rs 15 per piece, kaju barfi for Rs 460 per kg and sohan papri for Rs 320 per kg. “We generally sell these items more during Holi season,” said Dilip, the store manager at Kanha.

Motichur laddus at Kanha	Anjeer barfi at Banchharam	Multicoloured Dil Maange More at Kasturi

Among the Bengali sweet shops, there are some who are catering to the non Bengali community as well with their wide variety of colourful and creative sweets. Kasturi, near Kadamtala Bazaar, is offering four types of rosogollas to their customers for Dol. The orange kamala bhog, yellow kesari bhog, green mango rosogolla and chocolate rosogolla are hit items at the store during this festive season. “We get a lot of Bengali customers during Dol, but nowadays we find some non Bengali customers as well who come here to buy their festive sweets,” said Sushanta Mukherjee, a partner of the shop. The rosogollas are all sold for Rs 5 per piece except the chocolate one that is Rs 8 per piece. Among sandesh, there are some flavoured sweets like the yellow coloured lemon sandesh, the green coloured mango sandesh, pink strawberry sandesh and yellow butterscotch sandesh. “Since Dol is a festival of colours, we like to keep these sweets in the counter as customers prefer such items.

Lotus sandesh at Kasturi and (right) Delux barfi at Bachharam

However, these are not always regular items that can be found at the counter,” said Mukherjee. The tiranga sandesh, that symbolises the Indian tri-colour is another hit item in this season and is made occasionally at Kasturi. The tiranga sandesh is sold for Rs 15 per piece.

Banchharam, that has opened its Howrah outlet in Sandhya Bazaar on GT Road about one and half years ago, has also stocked a number of barfi and kheer items along with its regular Bengali sweets like jalbhara and chhana sweets. The red anjeer barfi, white kaju barfi, and yellow kesar barfi are all priced at Rs 12 per piece.

Those who are looking for colourful sweets, could try these out at the new shop. Another sweet called Delux, is another barfi item topped with almond and cashewnuts. This too is priced at Rs 12 per piece. “We have had to stock the items according to the type of customers we find here. We get many non-Bengali customers too,” said Arun, manning the counter.

Dalia Mukherjee