Hello, I’m Aparna
I teach Carnatic music. I also make rather good masala.
Both, it turns out, are the same job. You are balancing things that each want to be heard, and you keep adjusting until nothing sticks out and the whole thing simply works.
My husband and I are unrepentant foodies. We eat something wonderful, come home, and immediately try to make it ourselves. Most dishes we cracked in a few attempts. Pav Bhaji took us years.
But we got it. And once friends started asking for jars of it, Zest Right more or less started itself.
A few numbers I’m quietly proud of
32
Blends, ground in small batches
0
Preservatives, colours or fillers
7
Years chasing one Pav Bhaji recipe
Why bother doing it this way
The complicated blends are the ones worth fixing.
Anyone can sell clean turmeric. The hard ones — pav bhaji, chole, biryani, garam masala — are almost always the ones stuffed with colour and filler. So those are the ones I wanted to get right.
- Organic ingredients, including in the complex blends
- Genuinely fresh sourcing, never cheap substitutes
- No preservatives, colours, fillers or anti-caking agents
- Ground in small batches, so nothing sits around losing its aroma
- Every ingredient listed, on the pack and on the website
Sneak Peek
The bit nobody usually sees — leaves drying, brass bowls, the grinder going, and almost always a raga playing in the background.
Three words I actually mean
Transparency. Every blend tells you exactly what is in it. No vague “spices and condiments”.
Purity. Nothing goes in that I would not put in my own children’s food.
Integrity. No shortcuts in the sourcing, and none in the grinding either.
Come and taste the difference.
My long-term hope is simple: help a few more people switch to organic, and let them work out for themselves why it was worth it.