Read the original article in The Hindu by R Krithika
When the brand was launched in 2015, Umeshwari and her husband Srivardhan Sethuraman introduced millet-based muesli, which won the Great Taste Awards earlier in the year, and animal-shaped cookies. Now the range is expanding. Breakfast cereals for kids and buttermilk-millet crackers are already out. The first has a mix of oat clusters and ragi flakes with freeze-dried fruit. The crackers showcase the smaller millets like samai, varagu and kudhiraivali. “We use buttermilk to soften it as butter would have made it very heavy” explains Umeshwari.
Most of their products come in resealable packets that can be reused. That came about, she says, because “once you open a packet, what’s inside invariably gets soggy soon if you don’t put it away carefully. We’ve also realised that the Indian consumers want to see what they’re buying so we’re introducing little windows so that they can see what they’re getting.”
While Monsoon Harvest can be found easily online, the main issue is getting into retail stores, she says. But she doesn’t want to get into the hassle of opening their own store. “We ship across India, not just to big cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai but also to smaller centres like Ranchi, Guntur and Kurnool. Punjab is actually becoming a big centre for us. We’re looking to move into the eastern India as well.”
