Not just sugar

With All Things Sweetish, Varca-based Vidyun Tewari wants people to
experience what sweetness should actually taste like

CHRISTINE MACHADO
NT BUZZ

For Vidyun Tewari, food has always been at the centre of everything she does. A hotel management graduate with a master’s in business, over the years she worked with the Taj Group, Walmart, and also ran her own café in Gurgaon.

After she moved to Goa three years ago, she knew that she wanted to build something of her own again. And there was one aim that rang clear. “I wanted to redefine sweetness. Desserts didn’t need to be sugar bombs,”
she says.

The real turning point came from her seven-year-old niece who enjoyed the cookies and marshmallows that Tewari made at home. “One day, she casually said, ‘This is what I can eat many times a day because it’s not too sweet.’ That was my epiphany moment,” shares Tewari. “If a child could instinctively understand balance, I knew I was onto something. I jumped right in with full belief—and that belief eventually became All Things Sweetish.”

Tewari once again reiterates that through this baking venture she wants people to experience what sweetness should actually taste like. “When sugar is balanced, you can feel every other flavour. Otherwise, it’s just sugar—and that’s not dessert to me,” she says, adding that she currently offers two core categories—marshmallows and cookies—done differently. Her flavoured marshmallows in five–six unexpected flavours like coffee and lemon “are not your typical sugary clouds”. “Our lemon marshmallow is made with real, homegrown lemon juice while our coffee marshmallow is something we proudly call marshmallows for adults,” she says.

The cookies meanwhile are slow-baked, premium, and decadent. “From our OG browned butter single chocolate cookie ‘Monk’, to the double chocolate coffee ‘Chonk’, and the ‘Tippler’ which has a hint of coffee and rum, we never stop experimenting,” she says.

Right now, she retails from Beno in Benaulim and also takes direct orders through social media and WhatsApp. Her e-commerce platform is in the works.

Through her journey so far, she says, there are good and bad days. “There are delivery issues, mostly because of the weather but I’m sure it’s going to get better ahead,” she says. The bigger challenge is staying focused. “There’s a constant internal conversation of ‘Did I really do the right thing by leaving a stable salary and comfort?’ I think every entrepreneur goes through that phase,” she says. Execution also remains a challenge.  “Making a good product is one thing; selling it in an already crowded space is a whole different game,” she says. Simplifying things—processes, products, decisions—has been crucial. And given that she works with perishables, spontaneity and speed matter. “Honestly, we learn something new every day,” she says.

For now, she wants to keep adding more flavours in cookies and marshmallows while keeping inventory tight and controlled. “But we’re open to pivoting if our consumers lead us somewhere unexpected,” she says. Interestingly though she adds that she is not chasing repeat customers. “Although, I would love that,” she says. “But my real dream is for everyone in this country to try All Things Sweetish at
least once.”