Hello, I’m Aparna

I thought it was going to be a Diwali gift.

Feeding a family of picky eaters with over-evolved palates is no small task. So we made everything we could at home — scaling up, testing new recipes, perfecting them.

Then we hit a wall with pav bhaji. It would come out fine, but never quite right. So we set about making the masala ourselves, from scratch. After months of testing combinations, we landed on a blend that took us straight back to the streets of Bombay.

That Diwali we packed jars of it into hampers for our closest friends. When they started asking for refills on repeat, we knew we had something. That is how Zest Right began — from a love of food, and a determination to feed our family the healthiest ingredients we could find.

Aparna, founder of Zest Right, in her Bangalore kitchen with her organic masalas and podis
The kitchen where all of it happens.

A few numbers I’m quietly proud of

32

Blends, ground in small batches

0

Preservatives, colours or fillers

1

Diwali gift that started all of this

Fresh curry leaves arranged around a brass bowl of Zest Right curry leaf powder
Curry leaves from the garden, on their way to becoming podi.

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 a house that smells of roasted spice for hours afterwards.

Freshly ground spice powder in a brass bowl on curry leaves
Small batches, always.
Turmeric, garlic and lentils laid out on a woven mat before grinding
Laid out before a grind.
Zest Right mint powder with fresh mint leaves
Mint, dried gently for colour.
Brass bowl of spice powder on curry leaves under palm fronds
Straight from the garden.
Zest Right garam masala pouch on a wooden board
Finished, and packed by hand.

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.

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