A gourmet’s guide to Diwali gifting

There is no escaping it. Diwali is that annual cheat week that kicks off the hedonistic final two months of the year. We’re eating and drinking, being fed and entertaining, and sometimes just treating ourselves with a box or bottle of something we’ve been craving. For those who love to cook or eat, here’s a fun little list of the coolest gifts we found in food and drink this year. Take them to that sprawling taash party or bring them home to simply sprawl on your couch. 

Mokai x Indu Ice Cream collab, Mumbai

Kesar pista kulfi matcha… Now say that faster. There is this and other mouthfuls at the Mokai x Indu collab, such as a cold kaapi French toast with house miso caramel and hazelnuts, and a strawberry slurp matcha sago float.

Käse’s cheese and chocolate gifting box, Chennai

Here’s one more reason why we think Käse is one of the finest and funnest cheese makers in the country: Diwali to them means a nerdy cheese-and-chocolate pairing. In their gifting box this year, they have five premium Indian craft chocolate bars matched with five of their unique cheese varieties and a sheet for tasting notes and pairing suggestions. Here’s how they justify it: “Both are delicious, complex, and fermented; cheese and chocolate share more similarities than you might imagine. The process of creating both involves intricate enzymatic reactions, producing flavours that can be either complementary or contrasting.” It’s a gift for your favourite food geek—you. 

Glenmorangie’s festive pack for Diwali

Glenmorangie, that highly awarded Highland single malt, has come up with a Diwali festive pack only for India. The marigold-orange pack contains a bottle of the whisky as well as two Glenmorangie glasses designed to bring out the creamy citrusy character of the tipple. Available across the country. Priced at ₹3,400 in Delhi and ₹6,166 in Mumbai. 

Pistabarfi festive box, pan India

Slinky aam papad that’s individually wrapped in strips like chewing gum, a mini made-for-one tin can of creamy, crumbly Mysore pak to pop open and scoop out with a little spoon, katli designed like a chocolate bar, and an assorted bobble box of three bite-sized classics—gur laddoo, 24-carat-gilded badam barfi, and, of course, pista barfi. Pistabarfi’s signature assorted-treats Diwali box shows us that good design makes food taste better. 

Camellia Panjabi’s new recipe book

Thirty years after publishing her book on the great curries of India, restaurateur, author and MBE Camellia Panjabi has come up with Vegetables: The Indian Way. The book has 120 recipes across 30 vegetables and over 100 pages of full-colour illustrations and photographs.

Varak’s festive flavours, pan India

Kolkata’s fancypants sweetmeats brand takes desi mithai and gives it a passport. We’re looking at their Petite mithais this Diwali. Bubblegum Raspberry Exotica is a ring of raspberry- and bubblegum-flavoured almond dough with raspberry crisps. Lavender Celeste Petite has lavender-flavoured almond dough topped with silver leaves and dried lavender flowers. Also cool are their lightly salted dry-fruit and nut sandwiches and the Varak Slabs, chocolate bars with muri, makhana, gond, and nuts

Le Pure’s Gold Noor Hamper, pan India

With gold at an all-time high (a whopping ₹1,31,800 per 10 grams), Le Pure’s Tola Gold Bars either feel like a tremendous prank or a way to show your favourite chocolate lover that you really value them. They’re part of the brand’s Gold Noor Hamper and come in the form of six gianduja bars shaped like gold bars, each weighing 11.6gms—the exact weight of a real tola of gold. Also in this treasure box of mithai are chocolate praline ‘gold coins’, a diya, and a greeting card. At ₹999, it’s about 140th the price of the real deal, and infinitely more edible. 

Dej Kewkacha does Masque’s festive boxes

This year, Masque’s festive collection is called Rangoli. And 2025’s Best Pastry Chef, Dej Kewkacha, has collaborated with the multi-awarded restaurant to create brightly dusted mithais in flavours such as tamarind chilli, raspberry rose, passionfruit dark chocolate, and more, in colourful boxes inspired by the traditional Indian art form. 

MochiCo’s desi mochi, Mumbai

Vegan coconut barfi, maghai paan, rose raspberry, and gulab jamun—each one as and in mochi dumplings. There is nothing more we can add here that would explain MochiCo’s festive edit further. (Incidentally, mochiko is what the sweet rice flour used for making mochi is called in Japanese.)

Bhawan, Gurugram

Bhawan’s laddoo box is, in fact, a board game designed by 2626 Design Studio. The game involves drawing, acting, guesswork and dares, and “brings to the fore a most personal activity of guzzling a laddoo without breaking it down into decorous bites”. Each Pop A Laddoo box has six pieces each of motichoor laddoo, pistachio kala jamun, saffron barfi, and balushahi, four pieces each of besan barfi and coconut malai peda, and a discounted recharge card for a “laddoo top-up” from Bhawan. It goes without saying that game rewards include popping laddoos.