During 80's, in our little university town of Santiniketan we had only one Sweet shop, Nabadweep er Mishtir Dokan. A small nondescript mud structure with plenty of wobbly benches to sit and gorge on some kochuri in the morning or to relish the evening tea with piping hot singara in the evening. Apart from Mouchak and Pantua, his mishtis did not have many fanbases. but as beggars are no choosers we always had to buy them every time we had guests at home.
But this sweet shop literally won me over when 15 years later it experimented with cocoa powder in the sondesh. The slight bitterness paired so well with the sugar that we all wished they had done in earlier. Little did I know then that 10 years more down the line one of the most famous chocolate brand of the World will involve all mishti makers in Bengal to experiment and create such sweets.
Bengal is known as the sweetest part of India and the Cadbury Mishti Campaign, " Cadbury Mishti Sera Srishti' since 2011 is an endeavor to being a part of Bengal's thriving dessert scene and tap into Bengal's consumer culture. Over the years they have been able to bring in the best Mishti makers from the state and have enthralled us with innovative chocolate laden creations that we could not imagine before.
This year they have taken this initiative one step further and have blended in another passion of Bengal, which is Music.
The theme for 2021 is Cadbury dairy milk Gaane Mishti. To take this idea forward they had selected 10 classic songs from different genres that Bengalis are very nostalgic about and have created a fresh rendition of the songs by 11 prominent singers of this time, While 10 famous mishti outlets of Bengal have brainstormed to create innovative cadbury mishtis based on themes around the gaane mishti songs. Gaan bhalobese khan is actually a dream come true for us where we can listen to our favourite songs and can transcend them beyond experiential boundary by having it too in the forms of Chocolate mishtis.
The biggest news for Mishti lovers across Bengal is that this campaign is not limited to Kolkata only rather 43 mishti brands with a total of 83 outlets across the state will engage in creating innovative Cadbury Dairy Milk Mishtis based on the themes of the Gaane Mishti songs.
To launch this campaign last week a small event was held at Rajar Haat Mishti Hub where all the creative and business heads behind this campaign , the singers, composers and most importantly all the sweet makers were present.
Personally the high point for me that night were the proud faces of these sweet makers and owners of these mishti outlets when they were called on stage to present their creations along with the singer of that theme song. Thanks to Cadbury's to give the credit where it was due as most of us fondly talk about our favourite sweets but not the creators, who relentlessly work all year around to bring our favourite treats to us.
The chosen songs and their newest renditions are avaiable on Youtube at this LINK.
Please find below the name of the song and singer and the chocolate Mishti that was created on the theme of that song. The songs are selected and arranged by Composer Devjit Bandyopadhyay
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| The very cleverly designed mishti box. The record moves to show one barcode scanning which by your phone you can directly listen to the music. A great experience of enthralling the customer beyond |
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| The customised Gane mishti box |
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| A llightly cooked chocolate sondesh (Narom Pak) with Malai sondesh piping accents |
1. Jabo na jabo na (Atul Prasadi song) Sung by Riddhi Bandyopadhyay
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| Medium cooked caradamom laced base with chocolate sondesh ektara accent |
2. Tomar Majhe Basat Kore (Baul song) sung by Rupam Islam
3. Ek ekke ek (Charar gaan by Prabir Majumdar) sung by Upal and Anindya of Chandrabindoo
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| dark chocolate shell filled with narom pak sondesh, white chocolate accents |
4. Bone Noy (Classical based by Manabendra Mukhopadhyay) Sung by Rupankar
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| Soft paak sondesh with white chocolate and caramel layer |
6. Rum jhum jhum (Najrulgeeti) sung by Iman Chakraborty
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| Chocolate spoon with a soft pranhar like concoction |
7. Pran Chay (Rabindrasangeet) Sung by Anupam Roy
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| Medium pak Milk chocolate sondesh |
8. Ujjal ak jhank Payra (Adhunik by Salil Chowdhury) Sung by Ujjayani Mukherjee
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| A truly fusion mishti of dark chocolate sondesh tart. Buttery pastry and soft pak sondesh covered with dark chocolate |
9. Ami Bonoful go (Bengali film song) sung by Lagnajita Chakrabarty
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| A mixture of Dark and milk chocolate narom paak sondesh |
10. Prithibita naki choto (Band er gaan, Mohiner Ghoraguli) sung by Somlata acharya
If by any Chance you are near any outlet that's serving these sweets try to taste them. But please remember every shop has its own rendition of the theme songs so the sweets might look different in look and texture but Hopefully you would not be disappointed.
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