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

You wonrsquot miss the yellow faccedilade of Saffron amp Mishri blooming with flowers of its namesake in Mahalaxmirsquos 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 newlylaunched 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 cafeacute seating that displays wire art botanicals from her previous exhibitionFrom left A view of the Mithai Theatre Golden pishori pistachio and Gulkand barfiThrough the glass door a display showcases mithai from South India UPrsquos 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 handson experiences mdash Make Your Own Memories MYOMThe last and the main section is where the magic sweetens mdash the walkthrough 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 sulphatefree sugarGunjan ShrivastavaldquoI 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 workrdquo she reveals Her tasteful art shows up even on the mithai boxes that have kantha and Benarasi patterns The store also exhibits panels of kanthaArt of mithaildquoEvery 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 anotherrdquo Shrivastava shares adding ldquoI 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 mithairdquo she adds suggesting that she found the mithai culture in Mumbai contemporary when she moved in 2014ldquoMithai palates change in a cosmopolitan city with migration from every part of Indiardquo 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 IranTaste Test Kuchh meetha ho jayeThe mithai offerings are divided into signature luxe and ultraluxe 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 nuttinessMysore pakThe 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 doodhjalebi 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 bitsFrom the signature classics their bestselling Kanpuri moti chur ladoo boasts of a size zero in boondis ldquoIt 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 sugarrdquo Shrivastava explains Phorum Pandya making cranberry coconut laddoosIf yoursquore a desi mithai fan like us the Dharwad peda and kesar peda will not disappoint Mysore pak stands out for its meltinthemouth 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 ldquoIn Maigalganj there is a gulab jamun shop after every 100 metres While Mumbai is used to a smoother softer texture this version is texturedrdquo Shrivastava explainsMake your own mithaiThe last hour is at the handson 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 weighttraining comes handy when we fold in the cranberries and roll the mixture into roundels The result is a kopra paklike laddoo that has the acidity of the dried berries and comfort of the milky coconut We take home some for our mothershiprsquos approvalAt Shop no 15 Nahar Amaryllis Tower Naharrsquos Amrit Shakti Road Chandivali Powai Bank of Baroda first floor Jacob Circle BycullaCall 8828155002