Asha G. Nair says the aroma of a dish can tell the quality of the masala that has gone into it. Taste comes only second. For over a year now, Asha and her customers have been enjoying the freshness of the food made of spices and curry powders made by her.
Her recently-launched brand H2A (Health to All), has every thing from chilli powder to coconut oil, all homemade and sans preservatives. At first, when Asha tried making the powders at home, she used it for her family. Slowly she sent samples to friends and relatives and the response she received was overwhelming. That is when she found a business prospect in it.
The idea occurred to her while she was caring for her father, who was in palliative care. At the treatment centre, she got to sample food that was made with unadulterated masalas made by hand. “There was a marked difference in taste and that got me thinking. My father had always wished to see me start an enterprise and though he did not live to see H2A how it is today, I began my business with his blessings,” she says.
“We hear of so much adulteration in food and I thought even if we could bring a small change, it could make a big difference in health,” she says. Asha makes the powders at her home in Thiruvananthapuram, and she often has to make a couple of trips in a month. She procures raw ingredients and washes them thoroughly, then sun-dries them. They are later powdered. As of now, H2A offers chilli, coriander, turmeric, sambar and rasam powders in addition to puttu powder and chutney powder. She has recently added ginger-garlic paste, home-made ghee and butter as well.
A student of business administration, Asha is not new to business. She was helping her husband in his business before she started the venture. Today, she has regular customers who place their orders in advance. She delivers the products herself once every month.
Asha does not go by the organic tag, but says she procures only good quality raw materials from trusted sources. “When the raw materials are properly washed and sun-dried, many of the impurities are eliminated,” she says. Asha does not encourage the use of any product, not just hers, beyond two months. “If it seems fine even after two months, that says something about the stuff that has gone into it.”
Asha is looking for a shop space and she is planning to introduce a marinating masala paste (veg and non-veg). And what is the masala made of? “That is a secret recipe,” she signs off.
