Sangeetha Ashwin offers me a bottle of unsalted peanut butter at her office in Peelamedu. A layer of oil floating on the light brown butter is visible through the glass jar. “It is the natural oil that oozes out of the nuts while it is roasted. The oil also acts as a natural preservative. Mix it well before you taste it,” she instructs. The butter is thick and creamy and sticks in my mouth. “The stickiness is due to the reaction between the proteins in the nuts and your saliva. Only butters that contain high quantity of nuts gives you the stickiness,” explains this 44-year-old who has recently introduced a nut butter brand called Nuteva.
She says she has always dreamt of doing something in the food processing industry. “Last year I shared this thought with a friend who is a chef. She gave me the confidence to try it and this is how my journey started.” Sangeetha researched and experimented with nut butters for an year before she started the company. “I spend long hours in my kitchen trying out different flavours. I bought a machine to roast and grind the nuts. I made my first batch with two kilograms of peanuts. I had to grind them for more than 10 hours to get the right consistency. I gave sample bottles to my neighbours and many of them came back for more.” She now offers peanut, cashew and almond butters in a variety of flavours (see box).
Sangeetha launched her products at the recently concluded Gourmet Bazaar. “I was ready with 2000 bottles. I was a little sceptical and nervous about how it will be accepted. I had even made an alternate plan in my mind to gift the unsold bottles to my friends and relatives if things did not go as I had in my mind. But by the last day of it, we were sold out. I came back home with a list of phone numbers of people who placed orders for my next batch.” she laughs. She has her manufacturing plant at Peelamedu with a capacity to produce 10000 bottles in a day.
Sangeetha sources the nuts locally and roasts them at a particular temperature for a fixed time before grinding them. “The right time and temperature are the key to lock in the flavour of the nuts in the butter.” She uses no chemicals or preservatives. “Nut butter is healthy. It is an alternative for people who are lactose intolerant. The nut butters are rich in protein, iron and calcium. To make them healthier I use palm sugar or honey for the sweetness and pink salt instead of white salt.”
She says that these nut butters can be used in many ways. “Plain cashew butter can be used to thicken your gravy, marinate chicken, or can be added to chutneys. Hot and Spicy Garlic peanut butter can be used as a dip with carrots or apples. It can also be added to fried-rice and noodles. All the butters can be used as a spread over your toast or pancakes.” She claims a shelf life of eight months for her products if refrigerated and two months if not.
Her favourite flavour? “Natural Almond butter with cocoa nibs.” She now plans to add more flavours into her menu. “I will launch hazelnut butter in September,” she says.
Info you can use
Nuteva is available in bottles of 100gm and 200 gm
Price ranging from ₹100 to ₹ 450 based on the flavour
Her products are available at Nilgiris in Race Course and R.S Puram
Orders can be placed online through her website nuteva.in or through Whatsapp to the number 9943399080
Customised gift hampers are available from ₹125
Door delivery is available in Coimbatore
From the menu
PEANUT BUTTER
Sweetened
Unsweetened
Honey
Chocolate
Spicy
Spicy with Garlic
ALMOND BUTTER
Roasted with pink salt
Roasted with Choco nibs
CASHEW BUTTER
Honey
Roasted with Pink Salt
