Signing you in

Why were toffees so popular in India, especially around the time Parle launched Melody toffees? Because, unlike today, chocolates weren’t as easily available. Melody cost just Rs 1 and had a soft caramel exterior, a liquid chocolate centre, and, in a marvel of engineering, the chocolate interior was visible through the translucent candy.

Not being contrarian, but Melody Toffees never made it to my list of favourite toffees in India. I was more of a Cadbury’s Eclairs person. Of the local toffees, the ones my clearly miserly parents mostly handed us were the round, orange candy toffees, wrapped in transparent cellophane and kept in massive orange jars at roadside stores. They had a strong orange flavour, and you had to bite into them to make them break into little shards in your mouth, which you then crunched and savoured along with the sugar high they provided. More importantly, they cost just 5 paise a piece in the eighties.

Calcutta, of course, had the best toffees of them all, and still does. Thanks to the Jewish bakery Nahoums and Sons in New Market. I still pick up the coin-shaped, ½-inch-thick mint toffees, wrapped in butter paper. Sweetened just right, very minty, very good. If you were a little more adventurous, you could buy the stick-jaw toffees, which were a traditional toffee shape with a caramelly chocolate flavour that stuck to your teeth as you tried to eat them.

One of my favourite toffees now is the truly Indian flavoured green “Kachcha Aam” (raw mango) made by Pulse. It’s small, has a fabulously tangy raw mango flavour, and, if you bite into it, you get a masala centre. Parle has a similar Kaccha Mango Bite, with a sour, raw-mango flavour and a sweet edge.

There was, of course, Poppins. But it never really moved my taste buds. Although, as children, we never turned our noses up at it. The other slightly elevated toffee, much like Nahoum’s mint toffee and the stick jaws, were the Bullseye toffees, which I don’t remember being as easily available.

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What I do remember, and which we loved as children in pre-liberalisation India, was when my very well-travelled grandmother or aunts would visit or return from England, carrying with them boxes of Quality Street chocolates. These were the toffees we dreamt of. The first 10 minutes were spent going through the box, removing the coconut toffees and chocolates, and then divvying up the rest with my brother.

The trouble with hearing about all the ills of sugar is that now I think twice even about biting into a green mango candy, despite it giving me great joy to feel it burst in my mouth and reveal its spicy centre. The simple joys and pleasures of life mustn’t be forgotten, because Melody is indeed chocolatey, and we must eat swadesi even if it kicks our glucose into high gear.

Next week, I’ll be writing on one of Eastern India’s most nuanced regional cuisines using the simplest of ingredients. From Pakhala to Dalma to Macha Besara – there’s so much to love about Oriya cuisine.