Raw forest honey or shop honey: how to read the jar
Colour, crystals, foam and the label. What tells you a honey is raw, and why ours never looks the same twice.
Why we sell wood-pressed oil
How a chekku works, and what changes when oil is pressed slowly.
Before large expellers and refineries, every town in Tamil Nadu had its own chekku, a wooden oil press turned by bullocks. A few still run around Coimbatore, now usually powered by a slow electric motor. Our groundnut oil comes from one of them, near Annur.
The chekku is a large mortar carved from the wood of the vagai tree, with a heavy wooden pestle turning inside it. Groundnuts are fed in a little at a time and crushed slowly, at about 12 to 15 turns a minute. The oil runs out through a small hole at the base. Because the press turns slowly, the oil stays at a low temperature throughout.
The oil is then left to settle in steel drums for several days, and filtered through cloth. That is all. It is not bleached, deodorised or treated with chemicals, which is why it keeps the colour and smell of groundnuts.
Wood-pressed oil costs more than refined oil because the press yields less and runs slowly. It also tastes different: richer and nuttier, which suits South Indian cooking well. Store it in a cool, dark place and use it within six months. Return the glass bottle and we will refill and reuse it.
