We came across All Naturals, which introduced us to the secret world of spice oils.
Ever wondered what makes the one dish in your favourite restaurant stand apart from the same dish being served everywhere else? We believe we stumbled upon the secret when we discovered All Naturals.
They stock these 5ml bottles of what they call Holy Lama Masala Drops (or spice oils), which are pure extracts of spices in liquid form, intended to replace whole spices in your kitchen. There are solo flavours such as ginger, garlic, tulsi, cinnamon, rose, vanilla, and lemongrass. And then there are concoctions such as tea masala, plum cake, garam masala, and mulled wine.
While we can’t tell you which restaurants and popular eateries in the city use these spice oils, be rest assured that one drop of one of these oils is probably what is making that dish taste the way it does!
Apart from spice oils, they stock over 50 varieties of essential oils. You can pick from the more commonly available ones such as lavender, tea tree, orange, and geranium (which are in the range of INR 250 to 430), or if you’re really into it you can even pick some of their rare and exotic oils like jasmine, pink lotus, amber, and Harshingar.
Some of the rarer oils are priced higher (around INR 1,500) because their sourcing takes a lot of hard work. Flowers like Raat Ki Rani and Harshingar bloom for a certain duration during the night, which is exactly the right time to pluck them.
Also interestingly, it takes about 150 kgs of mogra to get a litre of mogra oil! We’ve sniffed around a lot of these bottle and can tell you that these smell exactly like the source they’ve been extracted from—pure and amazing.
Price: Starting at INR 65 for spice oils and INR 250 for essential oils