7 days, 6 brands and lots of delicious Mishti Doi down, Epigamia Artisanal Mishti Doi emerged as the tastiest Mishti Doi in our review. It was not only the creamiest amongst all brands we reviewed, taste-wise too this was the closest to what traditional Mishti Doi is meant to taste like.
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Table of Contents
Watch Video: 4 Factors That Make Your Mishti Doi Experience Better | Buying Guide
Tastiest Mishti Doi To Buy
1. Epigamia Artisanal Mishti Doi (Top Pick)
Caramel-colored with a delightfully fresh aroma, Epigamia Artisanal Mishti Doi is our top pick for the Tastiest Packaged Misthi Doi To Buy. It has a creamy consistency, is delicately flavored and comes closest in taste to what authentic Bengali mishti doi should taste like.
2. Mother Dairy Mishti Doi (Also Recommended)
Mother Dairy Misthi Doi has a balanced, sweet flavor and is a good dessert by itself. We only wish it tasted a bit more of the ‘khejur gur’ to make it closer to the authentic taste. Other than that, Mother Dairy scores well on all counts of aroma, texture and color and we would recommend this as well.
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Our Review Process
1. What Does Mishti Doi Taste Like
Mishti Doi is a refreshing dessert that is meant to have a creamy texture. The use of ‘malai’ at the top usually gives the final dish a thick covering on top. Below this thick layer, is rich and caramel-coloured dahi which tastes of khejur gud.
Jaggery from the date palm tree is unlike gud/jaggery made with sugar, and has a distinct flavor. Homemade misthi doi also has a little acidity, that sharp flavor that you taste towards the end of the bite. And, its not supposed to be too-sweet.
2. Who Is This Review For?
This review is for people who enjoy mishti doi as a dessert or even a snack! It is also for those are new to this Bengali classic. Regional flavors are getting more and more popular beyond their own geographies, and brands are trying to package these flavors and make them available to a larger audience.
This review is for people who love the taste of the dish but do not have access to the neighborhood mishti dokans to buy their weekly quota of mishti doi. The review will help them find the brand of mishti doi that is closest to the authentic version.
This review is also for people who are new to the flavors of mishti doi. The list here will serve as a good starting point and you could begin with our top picks.
3. How We Picked Brands
Mishti Doi is popular across the eastern part of India and is a classic Bengali dessert. In fact, most neighborhood halwais in West Bengal make small batches of mishti doi almost on a daily basis for consumption by the local population. Talk to anyone in Kolkata and they will have their favorite local store they buy regularly from.
We picked brands that are packaged and available across the country. Because mishti doi is a newer product, and does not have enough variety across multiple price-categories, we clubbed all available brands together.
We believe that being a niche product for a regional delicacy, taste would be paramount, and price may not be the only deciding factor. We went with well-known brands, easily available across most grocery stores and super markets.
4. The Brands We Picked
- Milky Mist Mishti Doi
- Nestle a+ Mishti Doi
- Gowardhan Mishti Doi
- Mother Dairy Mishti Doi
- Epigamia Artisanal Mishti Doi
5. How Did We Pick A Flavor Benchmark?
We asked two extremely knowledgeable food experts to tell us their top picks from across Kolkata’s many mishti doi shops.
Kalyan Karmakar, arguably India’s most popular Food Blogger, needs no introduction to anyone who loves food and enjoys flavors as much as he does. Kalyan shared with us that mishti doi from Putiram at College Street, Kolkata is amongst the ones he likes most. (We love FinelyChopped’s flavor tales; his passion for exploring new eateries, discovering new dishes and flavor-havens is unparalleled. Read more about him here.)
Anindya Basu runs a successful food and travel blog called Pikturenama along with his wife and fellow-foodie Madhushree. Together, they chronicle their love for food through photographs that literally speak a thousand words. Anindya suggested 3 places: Putiram at College Street, Suresh Mishtaan Bhandaar at Dhakuria and Jadab Chandra Das for the purpose of flavor-benchmarking. (Read more from Pikturenama’s recent food-trips here.)
And so, with these very credible expert views, we decided to go with Putiram from Kolkata as one of our flavor benchmarks for the review. For variety, we also picked a handi from Kamala Sweets in New Delhi’s CR Park for the blind taste-test.
6. How We Tested?
Traditional mishti doi has a signature flavor thanks to the use of date palm jaggery, or khejur gur. The dessert gets its deep, caramel-like flavor from the use of this jaggery. In our review, we were looking for the best packaged version of the regional classic dish. And so, flavor-wise we used a pack each from Kolkata’s Putiram and CR Park, New Delhi’s Kamala Sweets as a benchmark for authentic flavors.
We did multiple rounds of blind-tastings at our review lab. We also invited Bengali friends and colleagues to participate in these sessions. Mishti doi is an acquired taste, with complex flavors. So it was imperative to get a few ‘trained’ palletes to taste all brands. For this reason, we invited a Bengali family to come participate in one of the sessions. Ankita Bose is a home chef and runs a catering service called Sapphire Oven. She specializes in providing authentic Bengali meals. Ankita was part of one our tasting sessions to help find the most authentic tasting misthi doi brand. Click here for more on Sapphire Oven.
7. Parameters We Considered:
1. Color
Mishti doi using khejur gud has a light-brown, caramel-coffee like color. We were looking for misthi doi that would come closest to the original appearance.
2. Aroma
Mishti doi smells like a sweet, fresh milk-based dessert and is best enjoyed cold. The aroma is important here, because being a milk-based dessert, the aroma also tells you how fresh, or not, the pack is.
3. Texture
Traditional mishti doi, made in mitti handis has a smooth, rich texture. It has a thick consistency and is not supposed to be grainy or watery.
4. Taste
A well-made batch of mishti doi will have very-well balanced sweet and mildly-acidic flavors. The sweet comes from the use of khejur gud, while the mild tartness comes right towards the end. Also, khejur gur mishti doi is not supposed to be over-sweet or bland, for that matter.
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Final Conclusion
Caramel-colored with a delightfully fresh aroma, Epigamia Artisanal Mishti Doi is our top pick for the Tastiest Packaged Misthi Doi To Buy. It has a creamy consistency, is delicately flavored and comes closest in taste to what authentic Bengali mishti doi should taste like.
If you do agree with our review, please give it a thumbs up! If you don’t, please tell us why! And, which one is your favorite from this list.
Food & Beverage is a constantly evolving segment with new categories of products being launched daily. Our endeavor here is to help shoppers buy better. Our reviews are unbiased and all samples used during the reviews were paid for by us. Read our entire ethics statement here.