Pestle & Pods
A traditional chai is made by crushing cardamom pods with a mortar and pestle, which is how my mom makes her Turmeric Milk(Latte). The name follows the same tradition creating all of our blends crushing whole spices without compromising on the authenticity.
From Incredible India to Lovely Ottawa!
My name is Prem and this is my wife Delphine and our little bundle of mischief Eian we are the founders of Pestle & Pods Inc.
We moved from Incredible India to the beautiful little city of Ottawa where we started our lives together. Among many things a good authentic tasting homemade curry was something that we missed a lot in the west and the store bought curry powders/paste where just not the same and many were just filled with fillers like onion, ginger and garlic powders or additives or it was just too westernized. Traditionally in India we never use curry powder(filler powders + some spices) and every family makes their own curry masalas(slow roasted and ground whole spices) for their curry which gives that authentic taste. So we always ended up buying whole spices roasting and grinding them fresh and used it for our curries like how our family used to do it back in India.
Whenever we had friends over for dinner we got a lot of interest over our masala This led us sharing our masala and recipes with them which eventually gave birth to the idea of simplifying the curry making process by coming with a one stop traditional curry masala blend and recipes so anyone can make different authentic tasting curries at home from the scratch without having to worry about having all the necessary spices.
After months of bugging the old family members for recipes, crafting and tasting with love and care we created the 'THE ONE CURRY' and recipes so anyone can now make an healthy authentic tasting curry at home with just regular pantry items.
Curry has been around for thousands of years, though packed with exploding flavors and healthy spices it is one of the most underrated dishes. This is partly because of the stigma associated with curry being spicy or some having a lingering smell or just the complexity of making it. We wanted to break all these stigma by creating a spice blend that had the right amount of heat, pleasant aroma and steps for making a delicious curry and bring it to the world so everyone can easily learn and enjoy the awesomeness of this wonderful dish. And we believe we have made justification to the above statement with ‘THE ONE CURRY’ Spice blend.
Thus our journey started to encourage home cooking and live a healthy life by creating 100% Natural, Vegan, Additives/Filler free Spice and Latte blends. Since the beginning of this journey we started concentrating more on home cooked meals everyday trying out different cuisines and dishes. By doing so we we started noticing that we were not only spending less but also started feeling wonderful and even lost a couple of pounds in the process. And wanted to share the same with the world so everyone can enjoy home cooking. We believe just by knowing what exactly goes into your plate can go a long way health-wise.
Expanding into Superfoods
Coming from the same ethos is our Turmeric Latte mix. As some one working in the IT I used to drink 4-5 cups of coffee a day. Coffee in the morning, another while working, another after lunch… I never really thought much about it.
Then I got COVID.
It hit me pretty hard and for a while I just didn't feel like myself. I lost my taste and smell, my energy was terrible, and even coffee didn't feel the same anymore. During that time, my mom started making me something I grew up drinking - turmeric milk.
Nothing fancy. Just warm milk with turmeric and spices. It's something our families have been making back home in India forever, especially when someone isn't feeling well. And I don't know if it was the warmth, the spices, or simply the fact that it reminded me of home, but I loved having that cup every day as it helped me with the cold and fever.
That's when I started thinking: why can't I drink something like this instead of reaching for coffee all the time? So I started playing around with it.
Turmeric and ginger. Cacao and chai spices. Matcha and moringa. Mushrooms. Maca. Ashwagandha. Some combinations were great. Some definitely weren't.
But slowly we started creating drinks that I genuinely wanted to drink every day. They still had that warm, creamy, comforting feeling I loved about coffee, just without needing cup after cup of caffeine.
And that's really how our coffee-alternative lattes came to life.
There wasn't some big business plan behind it.
It started with me getting sick, my mom making me turmeric milk, and me wondering if there was a better way to get through my day than drinking five cups of coffee.
Turns out, there was.
