An oatmeal chocolate chip cookie.
Gurugram mom Vandana Mehta recalls this impromptu experiment as the one that sparked her venture, ‘Chocolat Corner’, in 2017.
Like every toddler mom, tea time came with the scramble to find a healthy snack — one that would satisfy her daughter’s hunger while also being a nutritious bet. But visits to the local supermarket were often futile; most of the snack labels left her aghast. “They were loaded with chemicals and preservatives.” It was after one such disappointing shopping spree that Vandana headed to her home kitchen with an idea up her sleeve.
Nine years of working in the corporate sector — across real estate and telecom — meant she loved a good challenge. But a toddler is an unpredictable customer to satisfy. After her first bite, when her daughter pronounced the oatmeal cookies the most delicious she’d ever tasted, Vandana knew she had cracked the code.
Guilt-free treats that don’t compromise on taste
Explaining the journey of setting up the home business, Vandana shares, “Most cakes sold in the market are made with pre-mixes. But we refrained from this.” Even today, every cake at their shop is made fresh to order.
There is a hint of preservatives in the baking powder, Vandana admits, explaining that this is what renders the cake a shelf life of around six months. “The fact that we focus on small batches of cookies — a maximum of two to four kg in a batch — and cakes eliminates the need for preservatives, which are otherwise used in bulk production.”
Her range of products includes brownies, plum cakes, birthday cakes, and tea cakes. However, aside from helping her believe in herself, her initial years of entrepreneurship also helped her gauge the market’s pulse, revealing an untapped space — millet products.
The positive verdict — not just from her daughter but neighbours and friends too — encouraged her to formalise the venture. She shares, “I never started baking with the idea that I would make a business out of it. It happened naturally; people appreciated my cakes and cookies.”
It was only in February 2023 that Vandana began retailing her products under the brand name ‘Blissfully Yours’, under the umbrella of Chocolat Corner.
A majority of her clientele consists of young, pragmatic mothers who don’t want to trade nutrition for taste. One of them is Surbhi Arora, who has been purchasing the ragi cookies from Vandana since 2019. “I am a toddler mom and wanted to give my son some healthy snack options. The ragi cookies have been his favourite. Kids love cookies, and I think I met Vandana at the right time because that was when I was looking for snack options. As a young mother, I think the ease of availability of a product plays a huge role. I trust Vandana and her cookies.”
What started with a Rs 20,000 investment touched a turnover of Rs 32 lakh last year.
“The cookies sold under Blissfully Yours are made with whole wheat flour that is a substitute for maida (refined flour) and jaggery that is a sugar substitute,” she explains. While the initially used jaggery bar did not give favourable results, Vandana says the powdered version added the zing.
Sharing about the three ranges available in Blissfully Yours, the entrepreneur points to the oat cookies, millet cookies — which include bajra (pearl millet) cookies, rajgira (amaranth) cookies, jowar (sorghum) cookies and ragi (finger millet) walnut cookies — and granola bars made from peanut butter and almond butter.
However, the real crowd-pullers are the cranberry cookies and the oatmeal cranberry cookies, Vandana says. “They have a crunchy texture and a tanginess of cranberry.” Crediting conscious eating for the increase in sales, Vandana says she is glad to have ideated a solution. “It’s always a good feeling when you’re solving a problem. There are so many healthy products available in the market, but our products taste different; I think that is because of all the trials and tests we did to get them right.”
Currently, their products, all classic childhood favourites, retail at 25 stores in Gurugram, a few cafes, and their flagship store. With a growing customer base of around 200, Vandana is giving Gurugram a reason to indulge while making it healthy.
Edited by Khushi Arora, All images courtesy Vandana Mehta
