How new-age, homegrown condiment brands are introducing regional Indian cuisines to our pantries

Fostered by a digital boom and the new-age customer’s willingness to experiment, small-scale condiment brands are infusing India’s retail space with regional flavour and fervour

Ten years ago, Sentinaro Yanger delved into Nagaland’s rich array of medicinal herbs while researching for an environmental magazine. It was during this exploration that she careened into the flavourful world of Naga condiments. By 2021, that endeavour had taken the shape of Roots Agro, a women-run collective based in Dimapur, specialising in pickles and sauces made from indigenous produce such as Naga mountain pepper and chillies. 

A seven-hour drive away from Yanger’s kitchen in Manipur’s Sirarakhong village, Boombay’s founder, Niharika Goenka, discovered the Hatei chilli. The unique spice (which has a Geographical Index tag) has found expression in their sweet and spicy dressing called the Smoked Chilli + Jaggery—one among the Mumbai-based brand’s many experimental relishes. Goenka and Yanger are both part of a new cohort of food entrepreneurs looking to harness India’s provenance and food culture in the bustling FMCG and retail space. And they’re playing a vital role in bringing regional Indian flavours to the doorsteps of customers both young and old across the country.

A farmer-first approach 

After working in Delhi for several years, Yanger returned to Dimapur to kickstart her mission of making Naga food accessible to a larger set of time-strapped customers. “A lot of my consumers are here in the Northeast, but if my products could reach the Lajpat Nagar [in Delhi] aunty’s kitchen, then that’s something,” she quips. All of her 10 signature products highlight Northeastern produce with preparations like Hot Bamboo Pickle, Kaboom Axone Chutney—sporting Nagaland’s indigenous fermented soybean paste—and a fiery Mountain Pepper Sauce. As a result, Yanger and her team are frequently working with the community of farmers, to stay abreast with crop health and yield. 

“We have some very progressive farmers in Dimapur. They’re educated, they’ve worked in corporates, and they’ve come back and started farms,” she reveals, adding that they source their Raja Mirchi—a chilli cultivar native to Nagaland and the base for a lot of their products—from a small district called Peren in the state. Meanwhile, Goenka liaises with farms around the country, gathering timur pepper from Haldwani, Uttarakhand and kokum from the West coast, alongside chillies from Manipur and Kashmir.

The consumers’ curiosity 

In 2021, Sayli Walke established Mother O’ Malvan with the “desire of creating a business that could take Malvani cuisine to a broader platform.” The company specialises in a panoply of regional spices, condiments, snacks, and even flours, including ready-to-cook instant watans (a classic Maharashtrian curry base) and their popular Sunkissed Kokum Nectar, a syrup fashioned from the kokum fruit, predominant in the region. 

Walke, too, is heavily reliant on farms in Sindhudurg, and regularly collaborates with local communities in the rural district of Maharashtra. Speaking about the origins of her brand she says, “We recognised the changing preferences during the lockdown, where there was a willingness to explore new cuisines and try cross-regional recipes. This shift in consumer behaviour, coupled with the booming online business environment, presented an opportune moment.”

Chef Velton Saldanha—who moved on from his role at the popular Mumbai restaurant O Pedro, to start Chutney Collective, a small-scale sauce and relish company, in 2020—echoes this. He says, “Instagram was a definite game-changer because during the pandemic, outings were limited and people were heavily consuming food content and figuring out dishes they could make at home easily. Our ready-to-eat chutneys were convenient, delicious and preservative-free.” 

Provenance matters

Having said that, focussing on conscionable practices poses its own set of challenges. For Saldanha, who is sourcing tamarind, bay leaf, and cassia bark from Mangaluru and watermelon and kokum come from Goa, year-round availability is a problem. “We use selective ingredients. For example, our tamarind takes up to a year to process, which is why we use the previous year’s supply in the current one. Our Prawn Chutney is on sale for only six months of the year because the shelf life is short.” 

In Goenka’s case, the trick lies in balancing ethics with profit margins. “We originally sourced an heirloom, regenerative Kashmiri mirchi for ₹ 360 per kilogram. That price has now increased to ₹ 1,000 per kilogram since the region received unpredictable rainfall. We’re paying the price for now, but need a solution soon in order to protect our margins, while still protecting the integrity of the brand,” she opines. Yanger and Walke, on the other hand, are bogged down by packaging woes—from finding the right materials to receptacles that travel well.  

The predicaments though, haven’t deterred a volley of artisanal and regional-inspired brands from mushrooming across the country. Like Roots Agro, Boombay, Mother O’Malvan, and Chutney Collective, there are several others, such as Native Tongue, Nomad Food Project, Hill Wild, Aazol, The Spice Culture, and Chutnefy that curiously produces “five-minute” instant chutney powders, which come together in seconds when mixed with hot water. 

Even agricultural brands like the Kerala-based Ishka Farms—that is pioneering the production of capers in India—have forayed into a line of condiments and sauces as a way of “making the taste of capers available to people in an easy to understand format.” Founder of the farm, Fiona Arakal, explains how they’ve utilised the familiarity of a hot sauce, spice rub, and sofrito to popularise capers via condiments like their Kerala Hot Sauce, Smoke Caper Sofrito, and Caper Berbere. 

Going beyond the basics

It isn’t uncommon for brands to use a familiar base and reimagine it. For instance, at Boombay, the oriental chilli crisp or oil, is infused with kokum and Indian spices for a Kokum Green Chilli dressing. Agro Roots does their version with Naga chilli and peanuts instead. Saldanha has crafted interesting flavours like Ananas and Aam Kashundi, fusing Bengal’s popular mustard relish with local pineapples. He aptly decodes the trend as “focussing on regional ingredients with the backing of modern techniques.” It’s a clever way of making indigenous produce and hyper-regional cuisines palatable for a modern audience and it’s helping a whole new generation swiftly swap the ketchup in their kitchens with kachumber. 

A long-standing supporting actor in the multiple-act play on Indian food, condiments have always been indispensable to our daily meals. Now, it’s entered a piquant new era, and we’re ready to get lost in the sauce. 

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