An oatmeal chocolate chip cookie.
Gurugram mother Vandana Mehta remembers this impromptu experiment because the one which sparked her enterprise, ‘Chocolat Nook’, in 2017.
Like each toddler mother, tea time got here with the scramble to seek out a wholesome snack — one that may fulfill her daughter’s starvation whereas additionally being a nutritious wager. However visits to the native grocery store had been usually futile; many of the snack labels left her aghast. “They had been loaded with chemical substances and preservatives.” It was after one such disappointing procuring spree that Vandana headed to her residence kitchen with an concept up her sleeve.
9 years of working within the company sector — throughout actual property and telecom — meant she beloved a superb problem. However a toddler is an unpredictable buyer to fulfill. After her first chunk, when her daughter pronounced the oatmeal cookies essentially the most scrumptious she’d ever tasted, Vandana knew she had cracked the code.
Guilt-free treats that don’t compromise on style
Explaining the journey of establishing the house enterprise, Vandana shares, “Most muffins bought out there are made with pre-mixes. However we avoided this.” Even as we speak, each cake at their store is made recent to order.
There’s a trace of preservatives within the baking powder, Vandana admits, explaining that that is what renders the cake a shelf lifetime of round six months. “The truth that we concentrate on small batches of cookies — a most of two to 4 kg in a batch — and muffins eliminates the necessity for preservatives, that are in any other case utilized in bulk manufacturing.”
Her vary of merchandise consists of brownies, plum muffins, birthday muffins, and tea muffins. Nonetheless, other than serving to her consider in herself, her preliminary years of entrepreneurship additionally helped her gauge the market’s pulse, revealing an untapped area — millet merchandise.
The constructive verdict — not simply from her daughter however neighbours and pals too — inspired her to formalise the enterprise. She shares, “I by no means began baking with the thought that I’d make a enterprise out of it. It occurred naturally; individuals appreciated my muffins and cookies.”
It was solely in February 2023 that Vandana started retailing her merchandise below the model identify ‘Blissfully Yours’, below the umbrella of Chocolat Nook.
A majority of her clientele consists of younger, pragmatic moms who don’t need to commerce vitamin for style. One among them is Surbhi Arora, who has been buying the ragi cookies from Vandana since 2019. “I’m a toddler mother and wished to present my son some wholesome snack choices. The ragi cookies have been his favorite. Youngsters love cookies, and I believe I met Vandana on the proper time as a result of that was once I was on the lookout for snack choices. As a younger mom, I believe the benefit of availability of a product performs an enormous function. I belief Vandana and her cookies.”
What began with a Rs 20,000 funding touched a turnover of Rs 32 lakh final 12 months.
“The cookies bought below Blissfully Yours are made with entire wheat flour that could be a substitute for maida (refined flour) and jaggery that could be a sugar substitute,” she explains. Whereas the initially used jaggery bar didn’t give beneficial outcomes, Vandana says the powdered model added the zing.
Sharing concerning the three ranges obtainable in Blissfully Yours, the entrepreneur factors to the oat cookies, millet cookies — which embrace bajra (pearl millet) cookies, rajgira (amaranth) cookies, jowar (sorghum) cookies and ragi (finger millet) walnut cookies — and granola bars comprised of peanut butter and almond butter.
Nonetheless, the true crowd-pullers are the cranberry cookies and the oatmeal cranberry cookies, Vandana says. “They’ve a crunchy texture and a tanginess of cranberry.” Crediting aware consuming for the rise in gross sales, Vandana says she is glad to have ideated an answer. “It’s all the time a superb feeling while you’re fixing an issue. There are such a lot of wholesome merchandise obtainable out there, however our merchandise style completely different; I believe that’s due to all of the trials and assessments we did to get them proper.”
Presently, their merchandise, all traditional childhood favourites, retail at 25 shops in Gurugram, a couple of cafes, and their flagship retailer. With a rising buyer base of round 200, Vandana is giving Gurugram a motive to indulge whereas making it wholesome.
Edited by Khushi Arora, All photos courtesy Vandana Mehta
