Diwali boxes for your Tamil Nadu team

What's added at each tier

Prices per box, ex-GST. 5% off 50+ boxes, 10% off 200+. See all tiers.

The hands behind the food

The people and towns that make what's inside, so your team knows where it all comes from.

In the Tamil Nadu Special

Manapparai murukku · Manapparai

10,000 murukku a day, 60 years of one family

In Manapparai, the Murukku Manokar family told Chef Deena they make 10,000 murukku a day in a family trade that is 60 years old. Every one of those spirals is pressed out by hand and fried in batches.

Kovilpatti kadalai mittai · Kovilpatti

Peanuts and jaggery, cut while still hot

In Kovilpatti, roasted peanuts are stirred into bubbling jaggery syrup, then spread and cut into bars by hand while the mixture is still hot, by a method handed down through generations. Kovilpatti kadalai mittai received its GI tag in 2020.

Adhirasam · Tamil Nadu

The sweet that depends on getting the syrup just right

BBC Tamil shows how adhirasam is made: rice flour is mixed into jaggery syrup cooked to exactly the right stage (pakkuvam), then each disc is pressed and fried by hand. Getting that syrup right takes years of practice, so it is usually made by the most experienced hands in the kitchen.

In the Classic Indian box

Kaju katli & besan laddoo (mithai) · Shahdara, Delhi

Cashew paste, a giant kadhai, and a halwai who never stops stirring

At Hiralal Halwai in Shahdara, Delhi, kaju katli is made in huge batches: cashew paste is cooked down in a wide kadhai and worked by hand until it can be rolled thin and cut into diamonds. The same halwai craft, with roasted besan and ghee instead of cashew, gives the besan laddoo in your box.

Almonds (Kashmir) · Newa, Pulwama, Kashmir

The almond harvest still begins with a stick and a tarpaulin

In Newa, Pulwama, almonds are still harvested by hand: families beat the branches with sticks and catch the nuts on tarpaulins spread beneath the trees. Only then do machines strip away the green outer cover, as Kashmir Life's film shows.

Cashews (processing) · Andhra Pradesh / India

Every white cashew passed through a worker's hands

Before a cashew turns white and crunchy it is roasted, shelled and peeled, much of it by hand, and BBC Telugu follows how tonnes of raw nuts are processed every day in Andhra Pradesh. France 24 reports that this work, done largely by women, is often painful, because the shell oil burns the skin.

We buy from makers in these towns in the open market, close to Diwali. We name a specific shop, family or group as a partner only once they've agreed to be featured.