Nalla Mittai - Tasty Journey

 

A few days back, JD ‘Grab’bed a pack out of nowhere.

The pack contained several packets of sweets and snacks. I called up JD to thank for the sudden largesse. He did the usual ‘No problems, Sir! It is my pleasure!’ and then uttered those words, ‘அப்படியே கொஞ்சம் ரெவியூ பண்ணிட்டீங்கன்னா நல்லா இருக்கும்!’ :-0

Well, he can’t be blamed. One’s paunch makes people feel that way, perhaps.

Anyways, here it goes, Joel! You asked for it!

{TL;DR. Amazing sweets and tasty savouries. Created with care and natural/organic/rare ingredients. Many hits among the 9 items that we sampled. New tastes. I loved Palm Jaggery Kaju Kathli and Rose Halwa; and would keep munching Little Millet Kara Boondhi & Ragi Mixture, the bomb! Nalla Mittai is here to stay. Caution: Can be addictive 😉 So eat in moderation.}

@Nallamittai (Facebook & Instagram) promises you the unpromisable – healthy Indian sweets and snacks! 😎

Originating from Hosur, India, Nallamittai’s paradigm seems to be:

• Use Organic ingredients
• Shunning white sugar,
• Think native (palm jaggery, cane jaggery, கருப்பட்டி, வெல்லம், cold-pressed groundnut oil etc.)
• Think rare ones (foxtail millet: தினை, ragi: கேழ்வரகு, little millet: சாமை etc.)

After going through the various items presented, I must say that they have #succeeded in sticking and delivering to that paradigm. 😊

Items

Savouries (salted snacks): Foxtail Millet Murukku, Ragi Mixture, Little Millet Kara Boondhi (individual packs of 100g each)

Sweets: One box containing a few pieces of: Wheat Badhusha, Palm Jaggery Kaju Kathli, Coconut Barfi, Palm Jaggery Mysore Pak, Fried Gram Flour Laddu, Rose Halwa

Packaging

The savouries (salted snacks) were nicely packed, with bold lettering and clear text about the contents, manufacturing and expiry date. Personally, I kind of liked the maroon background away from the usual blue ones.

The sweets came in a small plastic box with a latch to open the sheer plastic lid. We struggled bit to open the lid until we figured it out eventually. This box did not contain any literals except for a sticker tape of Nalla Mittai to hold the lid together with the bottom. 😝⌧ Perhaps it was for the sample box only.

Colour & Presentation

All the sweets and savouries were darker than your usual run-off-the-mill A2B, Krishna Sweets stuff – mainly because of the use of jaggery – palm or cane variety. For the ‘Fair and Lovely’ generation this might be a bit of a dampener, but then we are Tamils: Land of the dark-skinned & even the ever-loved Superstar Rajinikanth is dark-skinned! 🖤

Taste & After-taste

I started with the sweets.

#WheatBadhusha was sufficiently flaky; less sweet as Badhusha’s must be. Could feel the taste of jaggery and at times I could taste my mom’s Krishna Jayanthi Vella Seedai (வெல்ல சீடை). #six

#PalmJaggeryMysorePak reminded one of the Krishna Sweets’ Mysore Pak albeit made of jaggery and with less ghee than the SKS variety. It broke in slabs instead of into some congealed mass and that was welcome. It was a bit raw for my taste where I could feel both the besan and jaggery. #five

#PottuKadalaiLaddu (Fried Gram Flour Laddu) had so much good going for it. It was the quintessential பொருள் விளங்கா உருண்டை that your mum and grandmums make. With the flavours of the flour, cardamom powder, ghee and the right amount of sweet additions, it took me back to many decades ago. Sure winner. #four

#CoconutBarfi – With the fine and crunchy shavings of copra (?) this sweet was divine. Maybe me being a coconut buff made me rank this feller above PKL! #three

#PalmJaggeryKajuKathli – You have been there and done that. Peeling one KK after another and devouring them. The overwhelming sugar rush after eating each one of them was overpowered only by the desire to have one more. What is your sugar level, again? 😊

But this PJKK is a different powerhouse. With the right amount of sweet induced by palm jaggery, this KK wins over one important aspect. 

In the usual sugar-based-KK, the taste (and after-taste) of raw cashews would always be there. While I love munching cashews, this used to annoy me a bit. But Nalla Mittai’s Palm Jaggery Kaju Kathli has cracked it quite nicely. The taste of cashew is just about right and that is quite key in my opinion. A sure winner. #two

And to top the sweet list is #RoseHalwa. Mind you I did not know what type of halwa it was until I found out later from Joel. So, when I was sampling it for the first time, two things knocked me out: 

1) texture – right amount of gooeyness; right amount of stickiness and 

2) splash of rose on the palate! 

Yes, Tirunelveli Iruttu Kadai is THE benchmark for halwas. But, no, I am not comparing Nalla Mittai’s Rose Halwa to it. But this guy here can stand on his legs. If only the Rose Halwa had a few tiny cashew pieces in them… #ONE

Then we moved onto the fried snacks.

#FoxtailMilletMurukku tasted like normal besan murukku; the pieces were a bit thicker than usual for my liking. Tasted nice though. #three

#LittleMilletKaraBoondhi had the pepper powder flavour and had the right amount of oomph to go with both both curd-rice and sambar-rice. #two

#RagiMixture – the class topper. Complete with the ragi ompodis and a special home-made masala mix and organic peanuts, this fellow was a real bomb! This mixture is a must if you are to spend an evening with friends mixing a few ‘beverages’! 😂🍻 #ONE

The best thing about the savouries was that the usual suspects will have a bitter after-taste – perhaps due to the oil that was used for the frying – palm oil, sunflower/canola etc. But the groundnut oil, cold-pressed one at that, leaves a fantastic flavour which I have not experienced in ages, not since my Vellore days. 💗

Verdict

The sweets are not cloyingly sweet. There are different varieties to suit different tastes. For the health-conscious (which we must all be), the ingredients are natural, organic and not run of the mill.

The salted snacks are regular with the novelty of newer grains which will gain some traction among people as there the fad for the exotic grains is definitely on; but here again the natural and healthier ingredients such as the type of oil used, the home-made touch etc. are what is going to differentiate their offering.

It will take some time for people to wean away from the normal stuff and taste. But wean, they must, as Nalla Mittai has a sure set of winners here.

நல்ல மிட்டாய் – நல்லதொரு சுவைப் பயணம்.

#NallaMittai #Reviews #sriGINthoughts #IndianSnacks #unpaid