-Tanisha Saxena (cbedit@imaws.org)
They are scrumptious, warm & crunchy— we are talking about Waffles. They are made with the classic combination of maple syrup and whipped cream. While in other countries waffles have always been favourite dessert, In India, the scenario is catching up lately. This is precisely because Baked food items have not been part of Indian breakfast menu, Indians prefer savoury food items.
Waffles have taken the Indian Dessert Industry by storm and have created a niche for itself. As per reports, the Waffle segment makes up 6-8% of Indian dessert industry and is growing in number with each passing day. A waffle restaurant sells an average of more than 200 waffles every day.
The PanCake Story, a name that is becoming more and more popular in Mumbai, the chef’s love and passion for the Holland-born dessert comes in triangles, circles and squares, and is prepared live, much to the delight of the brand new breed of social foodies – the dessert-crawlers.
Chef Sajida Lakdawala one of the franchise owners of the dessert brand ‘The Pancake Story‘ and also running my her brand ‘The Perfect Plate’. “Speaking on the current trends in the waffle category its more seasonal currently, since winter is going on we have 2 segment of customers – one who want to try the strawberry flavoured waffles with toppings of strawberry pieces wherelese the others are sticking around with nutella and other formats of chocolate waffles. Once Summer enters the entire focus will be on mango flavoured waffles.
Apart from this, stroop waffles have also been picked up as a new format in the waffle category because of its low price point with the same taste and flavours. Few cafes are also including savory waffles in their menu however there has been limited likes towards it because waffles have always been a dessert food item. Apart from that flavours like belgium chocolate, hazelnut and nutella have been the top prioritized flavours.”
The story of the world’s most famous bakery begins in 1996 on a quaint, cobblestone corner in the West Village where Magnolia Bakery opened its doors for the first time. The sweet smell of cakes and cookies and pies and pudding tumbled out, wafting down the streets, beckoning all in.
Avinash, who heads the operations at Mangolia Bakery “I think in general Indian pallet loves any combination of Chocolate which sells the most is what I have generally felt. Chocolate Hazelnut, Chocolate, White Chocolate as such. Yes, it depends as again not everyone would feel it’s right for there taste pallet but I do think it might be something trending and also drop down slowly after a certain period of time. But I think the trend would stay for quite sometime.
Pasteleria Basque was created to bridge that gap. From his home kitchen in Vasant Vihar, Yuvraj Singh Solanki—who has also co-founded delivery enterprises. Solanki comments, “As compared to West, here in India the waffles consumers love it anytime of the day. With increasing popularity we are moving towards a more competitive market of waffles where the bakeries are trying their best to innovate and create unique waffles.Investing in a waffle franchise is highly lucrative in today’s time.”
From an online cake ordering service run by a father-son trio in 2011, to India’s largest live kitchen bakery chain in 2022, 7th Heaven’s business trajectory has been nothing short of exceptional. Composed of founders Arjun Chugh and Sanjay Chugh, Arjun’s partner Swati Chugh, and brother Karan Chugh, the core team at 7th Heaven has successfully used the franchise model to expand their bakery venture across 200+ stores in 75 different Indian cities.
The founders shares, “Waffles are mostly becoming one of the most popular gourmet dessert items and the big role has been the exposure to American television shows & movies. If we talk about some of the top waffle flavors then they are butter, strawberry, banana – all which are expected.”