Sweet Karam Coffee Brings South India’s Tastes, Tales & Traditions to Bengaluru With ‘The Big South Indian Festival’

Bengaluru: Sweet Karam Coffee, a clean-label South Indian food brand on a mission to take the ‘Taste and Tales of South India to the world’, hosted the second edition of its cultural IP, ‘The Big South Indian Festival’, in Bangalore on 27 September 2026.

The brand brought together the region’s food, rituals, stories and traditions in a contemporary celebration designed to keep South India’s rich cultural heritage alive and accessible to new generations.

Building on the Chennai edition, the Bengaluru chapter brought together the flavours, traditions, music, games and stories of South India through an immersive festive experience for consumers and creators. The festival celebrated the rituals and memories that make South Indian celebrations special, while presenting them through a contemporary lens.

Janaki Paati, the heart and soul of Sweet Karam Coffee, and Rakesh Raghunathan, food historian, MasterChef India judge and the brand’s Culinary & Cultural Ambassador, brought alive the stories, traditions and food memories at the heart of the experience.

The festival also brought the brand’s signature 4 PM Ritual, one sweet, one karam and a sip of coffee to life through food, art and shared experiences.

Speaking about the Bengaluru edition, Anand Bharadwaj, Co-founder and Chief Culture Officer, Sweet Karam Coffee, said,

“The Big South Indian Festival was created to celebrate the food, rituals, stories and memories that make South Indian celebrations so special. After our Chennai edition, we were excited to bring this experience to Bengaluru and open it up to a wider audience. We wanted to create a space where people could discover, participate and experience the richness and diversity of South India.

Bengaluru showed us how much further this idea can go. With the festival bringing together homegrown brands, creators and cultural experiences, we are beginning to see it evolve into a larger platform for South Indian culture and contemporary creativity. There is still much to learn and build, but we are excited about taking this experience to many more cities and communities.”

The Bengaluru edition marks the next chapter in Sweet Karam Coffee’s ambition to build The Big South Indian Festival into a multi-city cultural property, with future editions planned across Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi.

Designed as an immersive celebration of South Indian food, culture and community, this edition featured interactive experiences such as a laddu-making challenge, a live Kodubale-making station where guests can work with the dough, a creator challenge around the quintessential davara-tumbler to see who can pour their coffee the highest, and the event’s highlight - a Yakshagana performance that had the crowd captivated.

The experience also included an Instagram-worthy photobooth, fun festival merchandise, games and more.

Further strengthening its community-first approach, Sweet Karam Coffee also collaborated with like-minded brands to bring together a wider community around the IP and create a festival that goes beyond food to celebrate the shared rituals, stories and experiences of South India.

About Sweet Karam Coffee

Founded in 2015 based out of Chennai, Sweet Karam Coffee is building India's most loved South Indian food brand inspired by the region’s cherished 4 p.m. snacking ritual—something sweet, followed by karam (savoury snacks), and finished with a piping hot cup of filter coffee.

This simple ritual of Sweet, Karam and Coffee captures the comfort, connection and everyday joy at the heart of the brand.

With the ambition of becoming a global South Indian FMCG brand, Sweet Karam Coffee brings together the diverse culinary traditions of the region, taking its tastes and tales to consumers across India and the world.

Rooted in homestyle recipes inspired by the goodness of Grandmother's love, rituals and food wisdom passed down through generations, the brand combines traditional flavours with contemporary formats to create experiences that feel both nostalgic and relevant.

Best known for favourites such as Murukku and Mysore Pak, the brand’s emotional heart lies in the recipes and memories of Janaki Paati, the north star of the brand.

Her legacy embodies the warmth, goodness and feeling of home that Sweet Karam Coffee seeks to carry forward.

Its growing portfolio spans sweets, savouries, filter coffee, beverages, condiments and pantry essentials, inspired by the breadth of South Indian kitchens and food rituals.

With an expanding omnichannel presence across D2C, quick commerce and offline retail, supported by its strong manufacturing capabilities and a customer base of over five lakh families, Sweet Karam Coffee is building towards a larger ambition: to be a modern custodian of South Indian food traditions while making the region’s flavours more accessible to consumers in India and across the world.