The Cold Truth About Cornflakes: Why India’s Breakfast is Heating Up Again
The Cold Truth About Cornflakes: Why India’s Breakfast is Heating Up Again
There was a time when the sound of breakfast in an aspirational Indian household was the rustle of a wax-paper bag and the splash of cold milk. Cornflakes. Bread, butter, and jam. Growing up in India, these weren't just groceries; they were status symbols. They were "modern." They were a luxury compared to the daily grind—literally—of making batter.
But the real soundtrack of my childhood wasn't a splash. It was the sputter of mustard seeds hitting hot oil. It was the scrape of a ladle against a cast-iron tawa. It was the smell of curry leaves and green chilies waking up the house before I even opened my eyes. We ate idli, dosa, and upma not because they were trendy, but because that's what sustenance looked like. Leftover rice, seasoned with spices, wasn't "fried rice"—it was a sensible, delicious start to the day.
I always assumed that as the pace of life accelerated, the slow art of Indian breakfast would fade. I was wrong.
The Data: A Return to Roots
It turns out, you can take the Indian out of the tradition, but you can't take the craving for warm, savory breakfasts out of the Indian. According to a recent report by Akshara Srivastava in the Business Standard, the Indian breakfast table is staging a massive counter-revolution.
The numbers tell a fascinating story of rejection. Products like cornflakes have witnessed dwindling volumes—a drop of about 14 percent in the last two years alone. Meanwhile, ready-to-cook (RTC) mixes for staples like idli, dosa, and vada are exploding. The report notes that brands like iD Fresh Food have seen double-digit growth, adding 18 million new households in just two years.
Why the shift? It seems we’ve finally solved the friction problem. We wanted the taste of home without the labor of grinding batter at 5:00 AM. Now that we can buy the batter or the mix, the cold, sugary allure of Western cereal just can't compete.
The Upma Paradox: Love it or Hate it
While idli and dosa are universally adored, this resurgence brings us back to the most controversial dish on the Indian menu: Upma. It is the cilantro of breakfast foods—you either feel wrapped in a warm hug or you feel like you're eating wet concrete.
The "joke" growing up was that upma was easy to make and therefore over-exposed. It was the default setting for every harried mother and every lazy hostel cook. But as we return to regional foods, we have to confront our feelings about it.
The "Love" Camp
For its fans, upma is the ultimate comfort. It’s warm, it’s forgiving. When prepared with minimal oil and plenty of vegetables, it is a nutritional powerhouse—low-calorie, high-fiber, and iron-rich. It offers sustained energy that a bowl of sugary flakes simply cannot match. It’s also a canvas; you can customize it endlessly with oats, millets, vermicelli, or broken wheat.
The "Hate" Camp
I have friends who still shudder at the word. Their trauma stems from texture issues—sticky, lumpy, dry blobs that sit in the stomach like a stone. A poorly made upma is a tragedy. It can be bland, unappetizing, and painfully boring without the right side dishes like a sharp lime pickle or a coconut chutney.
And then there is the overexposure factor. If you ate it every day in a school canteen, usually lukewarm and congealed, you likely developed a lifelong aversion.
Convenience without Compromise
What the Business Standard report highlights is a maturing of the market. We aren't just buying food; we are buying time. But unlike the 1990s, where buying time meant switching to Western foods, in 2025, buying time means buying better versions of our own food.
Companies like MTR and iD Fresh Food haven't just packaged ingredients; they've packaged nostalgia. They’ve managed to scale "handmade" taste. When Anuj Singh, CEO of Spencer's Retail, notes that the Indian breakfast category takes up more shelf space than other items, he's signaling a victory for regional identity.
My Take
There is something deeply satisfying about this data. It suggests that "modernization" doesn't have to mean "westernization." We tried the cold milk and the flakes. We gave it a good run. But in the end, our palates demanded the warmth of ginger, the bite of mustard seeds, and the comfort of steam rising from a plate.
Cornflakes were a luxury of the past. A hot, fresh dosa on a Tuesday morning—that is the luxury of today.
What about you? Are you Team Upma or Team Cornflakes? And be honest—is it the texture that gets you?
Sources:
Srivastava, Akshara. "Regional foods continue to rule breakfast tables." Business Standard, 22 December 2025.
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