About us
Namana
We started because we couldn't buy the masala we grew up eating. So we went back and made it properly.
Drying yard · Karnataka
Where it started
A kitchen problem,
not a business plan
The masala on the shelf had stopped tasting like the masala at home. Brighter red, but flatter. Smoother, but thinner. Somewhere between the field and the packet, something had been taken out — and something else had been put in.
So we went looking. Not for a supplier, but for the step everyone had quietly dropped. We found it fast: washing and sun-drying the raw spice before it's milled. It's slow, it depends on the weather, and it costs more per kilo. It is also the difference between spice that smells like something and spice that just looks the part.
If the colour comes from a bottle, the flavour never came from the field.
Namana started with one mill, a handful of growers who'd sell to us directly, and a rule we've never moved on — nothing goes in that didn't grow. No colour, no anti-caking agent, no preservative, no filler to make the weight up.
It means our chilli powder shifts shade a little between harvests, and our blends need a smaller spoon than you're used to. Both are the point, not the compromise.
Where it comes from
We buy from
the field, not a floor
Every spice has a place that does it better than everywhere else. We go there, and we go back to the same people each season.
Byadgi
Chilli
Deep red, wrinkled, low on heat and high on colour. The reason our chilli powder doesn't need help looking red.
Coorg
Pepper & cardamom
Hill-grown, slow to ripen, picked late. Sharper and more aromatic than anything grown at speed on the plains.
Erode
Turmeric
Dense fingers with high curcumin. Stone-ground rather than heat-milled, so the colour stays earthy instead of turning brassy.
Dakshina Kannada
Coriander & curry leaf
Our own coast. Close enough that the raw material reaches the mill the same week it's harvested.
Our standards
What we
don't do
Everyone lists what they put in. This is the more useful list — the things we've turned down, and what each one costs us.
We don't add colour
Which means our red shifts between harvests. A consistent shade on a shelf is a manufactured one.
We don't use anti-caking agents
So keep the lid shut and use a dry spoon. Free-flowing powder in a humid Indian kitchen is a chemistry result, not a quality one.
We don't bulk out the weight
No bran, no husk, no starch making the pack heavier. It's why a smaller spoon of ours does the same work.
We don't grind fast
High-speed milling generates heat, and heat is where the aroma goes. Slower runs cost us throughput and keep the oils in.
We don't buy blind
No open-market lots of unknown origin, however cheap the season gets. If we can't name where it grew, we don't mill it.
How it's made
From the harvest to your kitchen
Four steps, none of them skipped. The second one is the whole reason the rest works.
Bought direct
Straight from growers we return to each season, so every batch traces back to a known harvest.
Washed & sun dried
Cleaned and dried in open sun before milling — the step most large-scale brands leave out entirely.
Ground slow
Milled in short runs so the natural oils stay in the spice instead of burning off as heat.
Sealed fast
Packed in a food-safe room with minimal handling, within 48 hours of leaving the mill.
A note
Behind every packet is a simple promise: uncompromising quality, authentic flavour, and the confidence that what reaches your kitchen is something we're proud to put on our own table.
Open a pack.
You'll smell the difference.
Start with the chilli powder or the fish masala — they're the two that convert people fastest.
FSSAI Lic. 00000000000000 Mangalore, Karnataka No chemicals · No additives · No preservatives