Spicy Chili (Karnataka)

It is milled to order. Whole spice is kept in store and ground when you buy it or when your order is packed, not months earlier in a factory.

No. No colour, no starch or husk bulking, no anti-caking agent and no preservative. Single ingredient, nothing else.

Because there is no anti-caking agent in it. Freshly ground spice carries its own oil and absorbs humidity. Break it up with a dry spoon - it is a sign of what is absent.

Three to four months in an airtight, opaque container kept cool and dark. It stays safe longer but the aroma fades well before the colour does.

Yes. Bring it to the counter and we will mill it for you on the same machine, to whatever grind you want.

It does not become unsafe so much as it goes flat. Rub a pinch between your fingers and smell it: fresh powder releases aroma at once. If you have to work at it, the volatile oils have gone and it is time to replace it, however good the colour still looks.

Either, as long as it is airtight and opaque. Light does more damage than the container material. A steel dabba or a tinted jar in a cupboard beats a clear glass jar on the shelf above the hob every time.

Better not. Taking a cold jar in and out of a warm kitchen condenses moisture inside it, and damp powder cakes and can grow mould. A cool, dark cupboard is the right place.

Timing, mostly. A packet was ground in a factory months earlier and has been sitting since. Ours is milled to order from whole spice you can look at first, so the aromatic oils are still in the powder, and nothing is added at any point - no colour, no starch, no anti-caking agent.

Milled to order. Whole spice is kept in store and ground when you buy it or when your order is packed. We do not hold ground stock, which is the whole reason the shop has a mill in the customer area.