5 Women Led Gourmet Brands We Love

Posted by The Gourmet Box on March 6, 2020

5 Women led Gourmet Brands we Love

As women entrepreneurs ourselves, we love supporting women led gourmet food brands at The Gourmet Box. Working for 6 years at The Gourmet Box we have come across some amazing gourmet food brands run by women. We find working with women entrepreneurs an absolute delight. It is always a collaborative effort that helps in developing a long-standing professional relationship with them.

"When Women support each other, incredible things happen"

Although we love working with each and every one of our women partners, here is an insight into a few fabulous women and their journey on starting and growing their brands:

Oh Cha - Pallavi Kanoi

Pallavi's family has a 100 year old association with tea and their own tea estates in Assam have been passed down through 5 generations. When she graduated and came to work, she realised that they had not changed the format of their business since the British era. She knew that she needed to dive in and make a change. In the USA, Yogi tea would be her daily staple and she realised a similar brand did not exist in India. With Oh Cha - her idea was to have a brand that was fresh & 100% natural with relatable flavours that make you want to pick up and try a cup. Her concept was that the way people are drinking tea is changing and until recently Chinese and Sri Lankan green teas used to be the go-tos for this. Now with so many boutique brands coming up, Indian tea companies should be showcased and promoted with the trend. Tea is also what India runs on so keeping it as affordable as possible along with providing good quality is important to her and that's what she has inculcated in her brand, Oh Cha.

Arugula & Co - Niharika Goenka

Niharika launched Arugula&Co. in August 2018, although she had been working on it for a year prior to that. The idea was seeded when she was completing her masters in nutrition in New York, and her 87 year old professor schooled them on sustainability and food systems. So, how is all of this related to a salad dressing? It’s simple really. Her vision with Arugula&Co. was always to use ingredients and packaging methods that are in tune with sustainable food systems. Paying farmers the right price before they even deliver and sourcing organic and pesticide free products is something that they follow as a regular practice. 90% of their supply chain is organic and locally sourced. At Arugula&Co. they truly believe that what is good for you, cannot possibly be bad for the planet. Her vision is a world where every purchase helps make the world a more sustainable, healthy place.

Urban Moms - Ananya Mehta

Urban Mom is a mother-daughter (Monika & Ananya Mehta) run health food company that believes that great taste does not have to be compromised for good health. Growing up, Ananys's mum, Monika would constantly worry about her nutrition. Being vegetarians the ingredients were limited and she would get bored easily. Monika would create substitutes for unhealthy packaged food with everyday ingredients. Through this journey she stumbled upon nut butters and how easily they can replace a variety of common junk food. From thereon, Ananya quit her styling job at a fashion magazine and decided to join her mum to make nuts and seeds fun, convenient and appetizing for everyone, especially growing children. They have grown their brand to 15 SKUs ranging from Nut Butters, Nut, seed trail mixes and Seed Crackers. All their products are handmade in small batches and are a great source of plant-based nutrition and free of refined sugar and preservatives.

Black Baza Coffee - Arshiya Bose

Arshiya Bose is a National Geographic Explorer, Acumen Fellow and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, U.K. She started Black Baza Coffee Co. in 2016 with the aim to strengthen biodiversity-friendly farming practices and secure the livelihoods of smallholder coffee producers along the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot. It was her PhD research on the political ecology of markets for biodiversity conservation that first brought her to coffee farming regions in the Western Ghats. Here, she spent quite some time working directly with local farmers and producers across Kodagu, Biligirirangana Hills, and Wayanad. It opened her eyes to the grim conditions of growers, in addition to the gradual ecological shift in the way coffee was being grown in India. And thus, Black Baza Coffee came into being. The company’s motto centered upon fostering a coffee-growing and drinking culture accountable to all stakeholders—producers as well as the ecosystem. Named after the rare prey bird species, Black Baza has been working with a community of about 400 producers with small land holdings. Their vision: to create a local, participatory and meaningful movement for coffee.

The Gourmet Jar - Apeksha Jain

Apeksha's endeavor was to create not just a product, but a lifestyle. She started The Gourmet Jar from her home kitchen 7 years back, making preserves in tiny batches. And now they have a production unit employing over 40 women that makes their products with a lot of love & care, churning out thousands of jars every month. They believe in using real ingredients to make real food, real good.

This is how these 5 women led to gourmet food brands. Are there any key learnings that you have picked up while working or building your own business we would love to hear from you because we strongly believe that Learning should never stop. Post them in the comments section below.