As Ganesh Chaturthi arrives, kitchens across the city get busy with one particular sweet. Coconut is grated, jaggery is cooked, rice flour is prepared, and families shape batches of modaks for the festival. Sweet shops, meanwhile, begin preparing them by the thousands to meet the demand from households, offices, and Ganpati mandals. However, as the changing times have brought change in manner of celebration of the festival, it has also brought some variations to the traditional sweet for the Bappa. Over the past few years, sweet makers and online dessert businesses have increasingly experimented with the modak. Chocolate, nuts-and-dates, orange, Boondi, gulkand, and other such modak varieties have been introduced in the last decade.

 

This year, the newcomers include blueberry cheesecake, Biscoff cheesecake, brownie, and even matcha-flavoured modaks. The cheesecake versions have been among the more popular additions. Avinash Lakhani, who runs a cloud kitchen, got the idea at home. His wife saw cheesecake modaks on an online cooking show and decided to try making them last year. “It turned out well, and then we researched it and decided to introduce it this year,” he said. “We have received around 30 orders for cheesecake modaks. That is a much smaller number than the thousands of traditional modaks being sold by established sweet chains, but we had not really expected a huge number, as it is also a more expensive product. The cheesecake varieties require more elaborate fillings and preparation, which pushes up their price.” Brownie modaks are simply brownies baked in a modak shape, which is something a few bakeries are doing on a to-order basis. Matcha has taken the experimentation further.

 

One online seller introduced matcha-flavoured modaks this season and received a moderate response, which the seller said was better than expected given that matcha remains an acquired taste for many customers. Despite all this, the traditional varieties continue to dominate these sales. Ukadiche modaks and nariyal modaks remain the most sought-after versions. Sellers say customers continue to look for the familiar taste despite variety entering the market every season. “People want the traditional modak because there is nostalgia associated with it. They have grown up eating it during Ganesh Chaturthi,” said a sweet seller. “The newer varieties have certainly attracted attention, but the regular modaks are selling in much larger numbers.” Sweet sellers across Nagpur estimate more than one lakh modaks being sold almost every day to households and offices during the peak of the festival. One popular sweet chain alone sold around 200 kgs of modaks across its outlets in the city on Ganesh Chaturthi, not including bulk orders placed by Ganpati mandals. For sellers, this explains why the traditional modak continues to anchor the market despite the growing variety. Families that make modaks at home are still following familiar recipes, while those who buy them from shops are often looking for the same traditional flavours.