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For the past 20 years, Masala Chakki has been a family business with pounding spices in the B2B zone run by Urmila Samant. She is also a culinary expert who studied spices for 2 years in spice processing technology and started creating her own concoctions of Indian spices inspired by diverse food cultures in India.

It was in late 2018, Urmila’s daughter, Aarti Samant, noticed that her mother’s homegrown spices were becoming the talking point within the women community. Also, Urmila’s passion for spices drove her to create her own network of women on WhatsApp via which she started selling her hand-pounded spices.

All her customers loved her products so much that, eventually, the network grew globally. Women from Dubai and London used to come and pack her spices to sell further because of the sheer quality and authenticity of blends sourced from the heartland India.

In Feb 2019, Aarti Samant launched Masala Tokri, positioning under premium gourmet spice brands, which are hand-crafted and inspired by blends from local regions of India. The mother-daughter-founded business is also empowered by 10 other ladies (and growing) who understand the essence of the brand and contribute it in their way.

Aarti has shared the excitement of a team of housewives working together.

“I have always felt that women are desperate for an opportunity to showcase their potential and we exceed exponentially when we find one. Masala Tokri is a brand that my mother has created with her hands and now, we are an all-woman team empowered to go big,” said Aarti.

Being an artisanal spice-mix brand, crafting blends from best-in-class natural ingredients from heart-land India, they truly believe that food in India is diverse and culturally nuanced. Hence they explore these artisanal flavors to give you that authentic local taste that is hard to find otherwise.

Don’t forget to order and try some of these Masala Tokri products that stand out, like Maharashtrian Goda masala, Malvani Meat Curry Masala, Goan Fish masala, Mumbai Pav Bhaji, Awadhi Biryani, and Pindi Chole.

Explore and order from Masala Tokri

When it comes to sourcing ingredients, they get it from the natural farms of Maharashtra: Sangli & Satara. Apart from the raw material, a fair amount of expense is incurred on the packaging which is highly premium/zip-lock pouch technology to keep the life-cycle of the product intact and help keep our masalas fresh.

“We dark roast our spices in the roasting machine, and then we hand-pound them in masala chakkies – a unique stone-pounding technique we have created by ourselves. This leaves a much better coarser texture and also helps you enhance the oil, color, and aroma of the spices,” explains Aarti, and doing so, as you open the packet of spices, you will notice the whole room filled with the Aroma.

Motivation Behind Masala Tokri

“My mother has been a hustler all her life, right from managing a general store from when she was pregnant with me or running a printing press, I have never seen her idle or unproductive with her time”, said Aarti, which enabled her to prioritize work and know the importance of being financially independent.

To bring popularity to the brand, her mother, the lifetime learner decided to pursue a course in Spice Processing Technology and found a keen interest in curating homemade, organic spices and blends. As soon as the brand evolved along with Urmila’s passion, this motivated Aarti to implement her marketing experience in growing her brand.

“When I started working on my first job, I was passionately motivated to become a co-founder someday and I know this passionate drive comes from watching my mother do the same all her life”, added Aarti.

On one side, she works with her digital marketing, while on the other side, she handles branding, packaging, and marketing of the products, while her mother manages the production, delivery, and fulfillment of backend operations of Masala Tokri.

As and when Aarti noticed the scaling of the business, she decided to scale the offline as well. “I decided to get out of my comfort zone and work on horizontal growth of Masala Tokri that entailed finding distributors and selling the product to companies and partners that would help in the expansion”, Aarti asserted.

Although being in a male-dominated industry, which was a primary challenge, Masala Tokri made their label as a premium brand, stepping into this world along with bigwigs of the same industry such as Everest, MDH, etc.

Despite having big players in the same industry, they decided to rewrite the impossible by catering to an eclectic, experimental, and exclusive clientele who believed in the potential of organic, chemical-free, handmade ingredients. Plus, they also believe in the potential of staying close to the consumer and being true to the authenticity of the brand.

“The bigger the brand, the further one gets from the actual users of the product. We did not want that. Thankfully, we now work with the right distributors and marketers who know the difference and help us grow. Every little achievement is another victory from what we started,” says Aarti in regards to the market competition.

Funding And Brand USP

Most of all, the products of Masala Tokri are freshly prepared every week and they also have FDA approval of being 100% natural, & chemical/MSG (Monosodium glutamate) free. Masala Tokri was self-funded by Aarti and her mom by pulling it out from their savings and reinvesting in the business. Today, the brand is self-sustaining.

Aarti has shared some of the variations of their product that make them conspicuous in the market.

“The ingredients we source are of A-grade export quality ingredients. We maintain extreme global standards when it comes to sourcing and hence we are a premium spice brand. Keeping diversity into the picture, we explore these artisanal flavors to give you that authentic local taste which is hard to find otherwise” claims Aarti.

Best of all, their products are 100% natural with zero added preservatives and a guaranteed product shelf-life of one year.

What’s Forthcoming?

While online is their strong point, they realized that spices run out of shelves quickly in the offline world. With Masala Tokri still in the nascent stage of scaling up, they decided to fill the gap in the market with quality products that make the food taste yummy.

“We constantly strive for that experience. Well, pricing being premium, we are catering to a certain middle class/upper-middle class audience who love indulging in good quality products especially when it comes to food”, notes Aarti.

This year, they decided to highly focus on expanding their reach in Mumbai and Pune, and simultaneously enter the Gujarat and Chennai market. They now also have great strategies for exports next year.