What you see - Maybe we can start with what you smell! Divine aroma of pure ghee sweets with whiff of snacks tingling your nostrils and taste buds at the same time! Nestling in the shade of a huge tree opposite to Ramakrishna Math, Emerald Sweet Shop in Hyderabad can never miss your eye.
As you enter the shop you can sense that it is not the regular Mithaiwala, whose business is just to sell sweets. Along with mouth watering display of sweets to your left, there is a collection of paper bags, files, folders etc all made with recycled material available free. On the walls you see pictures of kids involved in eco-projects. Surprised? Yes, the owner not only sells sweets but educates people about the depleting water levels and the urgent need to incorporate rain water harvesting throughout the twin cities.
What you get - Emerald offers sweet items prepared with ghee. Savories and snacks are prepared with refined sunflower oil. All items are free from chemical flavors and preservatives. Usage of colors is minimized. Colors, if any present, are of herbal origin only. Silver foil (Varak) is never used.
We see Milk sweets, Dry-fruits sweets, flour sweets, Bengali sweets, Diet sweets, formulated sweets, Beverages, snacks and savories at Emerald. Sweets here are sold by kilo. Some of the interesting ones that caught our eye were Dry Fruit Laddoo (Rs. 650), Anjeer Roll, Milk Mysorepak, Kaju Barfi (Rs. 650), Gulab Jamun (Rs. 300), Rasmalai and Jalebi (Rs. 180). In Diet sweets, worth a try are the low sugar Khajur Sweets (Rs. 200) mixed with sesame and peanut powder and made without ghee or oil. Products are available on bulk order too.
All Eco lovers would be thrilled with what they see here, like the 4% discount if customer carries his or her own jute or cotton bag. A free sapling is also given away for special occasions like birthday, wedding anniversary etc. And if you return plastic covers with Emerald labels you can get bath powders at a discount. Above all you get eco-friendly clay Ganesh Idol free for Ganesh Chaturthi.
Our verdict - We would call Emerald a ‘sweet’ shop with a ‘strong’ message. Every customer pauses and looks at the efforts put by the team to save our planet earth while buying sweets. This time when you buy sweets at Emerald, find out if rain water harvesting can be done at your place too. Make your city truly a green city! Coming back to business, in sweets their specialty is the Kaju Paakam (Rs. 600 a kilo) and in Khara it is Pudina Sev (Rs. 70 for 500 grams) which just melts in your mouth. Parking space is available and Emerald is open on Sundays too.
Anytime between - 10 AM - 9 PM
By Sailaja Kumar
