CHOCK, PLEASE: A cookie store clerk helps out a customer in Mayestik market, South Jakarta. Preparing for the Idul Fitri holidays, many cookie stores have seen higher sales. (JP/Nani Afrida)

Just like clothing, Lebaran cookie styles go in and out of fashion.

Parading the runways of the cookie world this holiday season, plain kastengel, cheese sticks, and nastar, made with pineapple jam, are classic items.

Gaudy newcomers, called new-style cookies, are made with colorful sugar icing or chocolate chips.

Toko Dewi in Jatinegara Market, East Jakarta, is one of many cookie stores offering these trendy cookies.

Two weeks before Idul Fitri, or Lebaran, Toko Dewi was packed with customers, mostly women, buying cookies in bulk.

"The orders start to double in early Ramadan. And some favorites have already sold out," said one sales clerk to The Jakarta Post.

The store sells cookies with prices ranging from Rp 20,000 (US$2.2) to Rp 70,000 per kilogram.

The store gets its cookie supply from the owner's relatives, who operate a homemade confectionery business, as well as from cookie suppliers all around Jakarta.

Usually people buy cookies in Toko Dewi to resell them to other consumers.

Cookie stores ranged with large cookie jars in Mayestik market in South Jakarta also saw higher sales ahead of Idul Fitri.

"Orders have been coming in since early Ramadhan. We sell more than 50 kilos of cookies every day," said Burhan, an attendant.

He added the demand had increased by more than 30 percent compared with last Idul Fitri. The highest demand is for the new trendsetters.

"Most customers look for the latest kinds, usually the ones with chocolate and sugar icing," Burhan said.

He also mentioned the perennial favorites kastengel, chocolate chip, and nastar still enjoyed good sales.

"My children go crazy for the chocolate cookies with dark chocolate on top, so I bought those," Sulatri, a 34-year-old mother told the Post.

Sulastri said it was easier to buy those kinds of cookies than to make them herself because the recipes were quite difficult.

"These pretty cookies will look so much nicer in jars than the classic ones," said Yulidar, another customer who preferred the newfangled treats. (naf)

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