HYDERABAD: Sweet Experience brings authentic sweets of Andhra and Telangana from the region onto an online platform.
Founders Ravi Vaka and actor Chaitanya Krishna B went around Hyderabad in 2014, in search of traditional sweets that retained their authentic taste.
Much to their disappointment, they couldn’t.
“Chaitanya and I are fond of traditional food and we realised that all the traditional sweets available in Hyderabad didn’t taste authentic. That’s how we conceptualised this idea. We went scouting through the districts of Andhra and Telangana, the villages where they originated from to located the best vendors and individuals who make these traditional sweets,” explains Ravi.
They launched Sweet Experience in June, 2015 and sold close to 1,500 units of six varieties of traditional sweets in about three months. “After this stupendous success, we took this idea to Padma and Kalyan who eventually became part of our team. We invited them to be part of our quest to bring regional sweets (foods) to a common online platform,” he adds.
What they offer
Their uniqueness is authencity. “Sweet Experience brings authentic sweets from Andhra and Telangana from the region they are actually originated from. Moving forward, we will platform more regional favourites, likes pickles, savouries etc, “ he claims. All their traditional sweets – Kakinada Kaja, Tappeswaram Kaja, Mysorepak, Basin Laddu, Bobbatlu, Pootarekulu Ariselu are very popular. Pickles from Bhimavaram are most preferred too. So do they think there’s been a shift towards traditional sweets rather than cakes and bakes? He says, “There was never such thing. Sweets were always on demand in India and abroad. Two things Sweet Experience is trying to achieve is to organise the entire sweets market of India (estimated at $8 billion) and to fill the gap for finding authentic regional sweets.”
Details:
swtexp.comwww.facebook.com/SweetExperienceInd
Challenges
Finding authentic traditional sweets from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana was a challenge in Hyderabad. “It’s like finding Nizam-styled biryani anywhere else other than Hyderabad. The most challenging aspect was logistically connecting the dots. We had to talk to vendors who are very good at making sweets and then bring those sweets to the market overnight. They had to be delivered fresh. So, finding the right vendors and delivering fresh sweets to customers in Hyderabad/ Secunderabad were our two important factors. We take pride that in a short span of five months, we are now able to deliver anywhere in Twin Cities,” says Ravi.