Sales of Vegan sweets have gone up in Bangalore during the festive season.
Bakeries and online sweet shops across Bangalore have seen an increase in the sales of vegan sweets this Diwali. These shops offer diverse options like Almond peda, coconut bounty, brownies, seed bar and almond truffles as sweets.
“In the last four years, this year has been the best Diwali, the best in sales. We got non-stop orders for vegan sweets. People want to explore and we see an immense growth in business,” said Nidhi Nahata, the founder of Justbe Vegan Cafe.V. Aravindan, proprietor of Vijay sweets has a similar story to tell. He says there was a huge demand for vegan sweets this year. “We also got lots of corporate orders from Bangalore this year. Lot of corporate companies wanted to give vegan sweets to their employees this Diwali,” he added.
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from using all animal products, including leather and dairy products. It is popularized as a sustainable and healthy lifestyle globally. With its growing popularity in India, it is now easy to be a vegan in metropolitan cities like Bengaluru.
Milesh, who has been vegan for more than a decade, says it is quite easy to be a vegan in Bengaluru now. “Say more than a decade ago there used to be one brand of soy milk or something in the market. Now there are many alternatives. There are milk powders available, plant-based curds you can buy, plant-based cheese, butter and even vegan ice creams.” He said that social media platforms and online stores have made it easier to know about veganism and to buy vegan products.
Bangalore is at the sixth spot globally in the number of people who have signed up to be vegans according to the Global Veganuary Rankings 2021. The ranking was done by Veganuary, an international organization that encourages people to be vegans.
Geetha Ghaliyavar, a practicing dietician, said that it is not about veganism. “It depends upon what are the ingredients that have gone into making a sweet. Anything plant based is far healthier. They are whole foods. Now you can’t call it vegan sweet and add heaps and heaps of sugar and call it healthier sweet, which is actually overrated.”
While the debate of whether veganism can save the planet or not continues, there definitely is an increase in the number of people who have chosen to be vegans around the world and Bangalore is no different.
