Owing to the seizure of spurious khoya ahead of Diwali, the city gave a thumbs up to unconventional products such as aloe vera, neem and karela juices and amla and carrot murabbas as gift items.

The shopowners said while the demand for traditional sweets remained lukewarm this festive season, “off beat” delicacies like murabbas did brisk business.

“For the last few years, the demand for khoya products has declined even though Diwali does see some dedicated purchases mostly for performing puja. For exchanging purposes, people either prefer dry fruits or other alternatives like cakes, biscuits or juices,” said a worker at Guru Nanak Sweets in Mohali.

The Highway Sweets in Sector 32 said in comparison to the khoya products, coconut-based and gram flour based (besan) products remained more in demand. “There has been a lot of negative publicity of khoya and milk products which are used in the preparation of sweets. This is the reason why no one prefers sweets. It’s better to pick up health juices and chocolates,” said R S Sohal, a resident of Sector 40.

While popular chocolates packs, biscuits, dry fruits and chips presented an array of options, products like Rs 100 to 150 per pack carrot and amla murabbas, or the three tetrapacks of aloe vera juice too dotted grocery shops.

“People picked up unconventional items this festive season, especially murabbas. Dry fruits are expensive but in many cases, people combined dry fruit packs with a pack of murraba especially while gifting to old-age couples,” said a shopowner in the Sector-22 market.

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