The festival of colours this time will be enriched with the indulgent tastes of chocolates as manufaturers experiment with their product to offer people delightful treats that also serve up as an option to traditional sweets.
The festival of colours this time will be enriched with the indulgent tastes of chocolates as manufaturers experiment with their product to offer people delightful treats that also serve up as an option to traditional sweets.
While balloon shaped chocolates and nut-filled 'ghujias,' fresh summer flavours and glitzy packaging will try wooing customers, colourful assortments and customised orders offered by some will also welcome them.
"You will certainly see the surge during festivities. Be it Holi, Diwali, Rakhi or be it anything, the sale does obviously goes up," Nisha Kurup, manager at Lebanese brand 'Patchi' outlet in Saket, said.
Chocolate-makers are trying to give an extra edge to the their product by introducing treats especially for the festival.
Sanjiv Obhrai of 'Chocolatiers- The Chocolate Boutique' and Priyanka Gupta of 'Chocolics' have introduced new flavours for the season.
A collection with flavoured syrups of rose and exotic fruits like kiwis are being centre-filled in Obhrai's 'boutique' and assortments of chocolates including 'raseela-rangeela aam' are being drenched in "all flavours and colours of Holi" for Gupta's online business.
"Hand-made chocolate is still a very exclusive product, which is not the 'average' mithai", Gupta felt on why customers are buying chocolates to celebrate festivals, adding that chocolate gifting is "still a very new concept" and is "growing."
Colourful bars, attractive boxes and delicacies tailored to the patron's needs are being forwarded by them. 'Bhang' chocolates are also being sought by chocolate buyers this time.
"We are not touching bhang at all because it's not something which gels with our kind of business," Obhrai, who sees an almost 25 per cent jump in sales during this time, said.
Yet, for many, Holi has still not become as big a festival as probably Diwali is.
"I don't think the chocolate demand is that much during Holi," Rashmi Kandhari, who makes home-made chocolates for individual customers, corporates and hotels under 'Sinfully Yours', said.
In her experience, Holi is a festival where people open boxes of sweets while receiving guests rather than gifting them. She has received orders, but not ones related to the festival.
"Chocolate is very seasonal. Now with summer coming on, the demand for giving out chocolates will go down a little," she said, adding that "innovating" to make the chocolates "look different" has to be continuously done.
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