Scoring some brownie points

One can never say when an opportunity that can turn one’s life around will come up.
 For Tanisha Christo, Nitin Kamath and Atul Saraff, the opportunity came knocking when they were just students of architecture at M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology.

   For a little over two years, the trio has been running a cute little establishment called ‘Brownie Points’. Selling the most delicious chocolates and walnut brownies — simply through word-of-mouth — they managed to capture the attention of many dessert lovers in the City. This clearly wasn’t what they had imagined they would be doing as architecture students — but once they launched their business, there’s been no stopping them.

While Nitin and Atul are working as architects, Tanisha is currently taking a break — but they still manage to find time to come together and keep ‘Brownie Points’ running. Though they don’t have an eatery per se, they largely bake out of their homes and get their orders online. “The one thing that we all share is a passion for food.

Food is something everyone loves and since I enjoy baking, both Nitin and Atul thought that it would be a great idea to start something small of our own. At first it was a nice change from college work. Satisfying our customers was also quite thrilling. And it was great that we were doing something that we all love,” says Tanisha.

The families of the trio have been supportive of their decision. In fact, the name itself was the idea of one of their parents. Ask Tanisha how difficult it was for three college-goers to set up something like this and she replies, “It was quite easy as setting up the kitchen, acquiring ingredients, deciding a menu, etc didn’t take much effort or time.

What was difficult was establishing the business — making a name for ourselves, finding customers. But we focussed on perfecting the quality of our products and events like ‘santhes’ helped us a lot. Ultimately, it has brought us to where we are now.”

‘Brownie Points’ doesn’t boast of a huge menu but as and when the business grows, the trio decides to add more items.

“As of now, we have four items — brownies (chocolate and walnut), banana cake, lemon cupcakes and the most recent addition — cinnamon chocolate-chip cookies. We chose these particular items because each one is so different, in taste and appearance, and most people will find a favourite in at least one of them,” Tanisha adds. The prices too are reasonable. While most of the items are within Rs 50 per piece, a tray of 15 brownies would cost one Rs 300.

Once the order is placed, the trio get to work immediately but they say that it is always better when they have at least two days to prepare. “It’s about serving good-quality food. And we always prefer taking orders that are placed two days before as we don’t have the kind of equipment to take huge orders,” she adds.

Though initially most of the baking was done by Tanisha alone, over the past few months, Atul and Nitin have also learnt how to bake. It’s been quite a learning experience for all of them. “When word started spreading about us, we started getting more orders and that’s why I taught both of them as well. We also started showcasing at santhes, which gave us the boost,” she says.

As for the future, Tanisha says that they do plan to expand their menu. “But we are taking one step at a time,” she sums up.To place orders, mail [e-mail] or visit ‘Brownie Points’ on Facebook. For details, call 9986790885.