Paan-tastic, your mouth freshner

Eating paan after a meal and serving it at social occasions has been a tradition in India. Paan is considered a mouth freshener. Originally paan consisted of betel leaf with areca nut and slaked lime paste. As time passed the paanwalas also modified with the change in trends and styles.

Today we have a huge variety of flavours in paan. “There are various kinds of paans made at my shop,” says Muchhad paanwala. He adds, “We have a variety in meetha paans like kalkatta meetha, magai meetha, chocolate meetha, special meetha, pineapple and raspberry meetha. These are a little different paans from the regular ones.” He also says, “The chocolate meetha is the paan which sells the most; the crowds love it.”

Yash Prakash paanwala says, “Strawberry, raatraani, pineapple, rose, kesar, khus and rajbhog are the different flavours we have.”

Ask him the ingredients, and he says, “The ingredients are chobra (grated coconut), kattha, choona (slaked lime paste), khajur (dates), kesar (saffron). These are the regular ingredients and the flavoured chutney is also added.” Do people enjoy eating the different paans? He says, “Yes, they like it, that’s the reason why we make so many varieties!”

The Cream Centre paanwala reveals, “The Gundi paan in my shop can only be found in Kolkata; it’s special indeed!”