Saugaat by Bikanervala Is Changing The World Of Gifting, One Mithai Box At A Time

Sweets and celebrations always go hand in hand. These richly flavoured delicacies add to the overall joyousness of any event, whether as desserts on the menu or as gifts to your loved ones. Renuka Aggarwal has had a first-hand experience with how important traditional Indian sweets can be in people’s lives, and thus Saugaat was born.

A subsidiary of the iconic Bikanervala, the brand's vision is to bring forth a delectable collection of traditional sweets and savouries by implementing sustainable cooking methods and incorporating homegrown organic ingredients in their recipes.

Ahead of the FDCI Manifest Wedding Weekend, co-founder Renuka Aggarwal chats with Manifest about her unending love for food, the extinction of the traditional art of sweet making and how sweet making business has evolved with time.

In Conversation with Saugaat by Bikanervala's Cofounder Renuka Aggarwal

Manifest: Gifting sweets in India is a tradition that has been going on forever. How have you made this age-old practice into a luxury gifting brand?

Renuka Aggarwal: I am a big-time food lover, and so is my husband. We used to enjoy and dissect the flavour of everything we tasted. But with time, we wanted to infuse a fresh idea into the existing Bikanervala brand. We started during a time when traditional sweet-making techniques were becoming extinct. So, we decided to imbibe a feeling of freshness into the already existing idea of Bikanervala, and that’s how the idea of Saugaat was born.

M: What are some challenges and rewarding milestones in your journey so far?

RA: Thankfully, our clients keep coming back to us once they have decided to work with us primarily due to our product standards. The most major setback we received was during the pandemic when the idea of an Indian wedding boiled down to minimalism, and we suffered in our business, but we are happy that the phase is over. Even when we started, we had to focus on achieving perfection from the very first day because there was already a pre-existing image of Bikanervala, and people’s expectations were high. Today, after years of having started Saugaat, we still adhere to the quality standards of Bikanervala, but we try to infuse our creativity so that we don’t imitate them.

M: How is Saugaat different from Bikanervala?

RA: Saugaat is very different from Bikanervala. Bikanervala presents traditional recipes just as they are Saugaat focuses on adding a modernised twist to the pre-existing version. While they may be making Ghewars, we focus on playing with flavours and our versions like Berry Blast Ghewar, Paan Ghewar, Tiramisu Ghewar, Mango Ghewar and Rose Malai Ghewar. We comply with the standards and purity of Bikanervala. The ingredients used are 100 per cent organic. We use a limited quantity of refined sugar in our recipes. We use Palm Sugar, Dates and Honey as sweeteners. Moreover, most of our recipes are vegan, and we only opt for sustainable methods of packaging to comply with the norms of environmental conservation.

M: What are some shifts in trends you have observed when it comes to desserts and festivities, like weddings, in India over the past few years?

RA: I fail to understand why our mithais are being demonised and blamed for causing problems like diabetes and healthcare concerns. Alcohol, baked goods, refined wheat flour and palm oil are far more health deteriorating than our mithais. People fail to understand that too much of anything is bad. Be it Mithai or Medicine. However, in our case, we educate the clients about our ingredients, our standards of hygiene and the methods of preparation so that they are aware of where and how their money is being spent.

M: Can you give us a glimpse of what we can expect at the FDCI Manifest Wedding Weekend?

RA: You will get to witness a lip-smacking collection of sweets both customised and non-customised, you will also get to see a collection of savouries, new kinds of kachoris and Ghevars. You will also see the latest packaging and gifting trends we have opted for while delivering our goods.