Immunity boost for bottomlines: Chyawanprash ice-cream is an obvious invention to weather the pandemic

Time was when the hottest marketing words were ‘Sale’ or ‘Discount’; for another demographic, ‘Limited Edition’ or ‘Luxury’ hit the spot.

Now, the one word that is likely to touch a responsive chord across income and regional divides is ‘immunity’ — from germ-resistant clothes to wellness-boosting foods. In the latter category, the recent debut of ice-creams in rather unusual flavours all come with that magic word.

All things cold are seeing a froideur in sales given the coronavirus’ supposed predilection for frigid environs, so it is not surprising to see ice-creams promising immunity-boosting ingredients such as ginger, herbs and turmeric to enhance their chances of getting out of the freezer compartments of stores.


Earlier, despite the success of home-grown flavours like kesar-pista, nolen gur and coconut-cardamom, even Indian companies may not have considered launching a chyawanprash-flavoured ice-cream, or even turmeric one. But, thanks to the pandemic, suddenly there are several.

As the west is now liberally putting turmeric in everything because of its restorative properties, the immunity-boosting credentials of chyawanprash — even in ice-cream form — could make it a hot new international pandemic innovation.

Adding amla sorbet, jamun gelato and karha Popsicles to the repertoire may be lucrative too.