My father would perform pujas at home everyday.
And on special occasions, he would make some prasaad (offerings) as well - home-made, hand-crafted prasaad.
Although meant for the deity worshipped, it was happily consumed by all of us.
His favorite prasaad was what he used to call "Thrimaduram" (literally meaning "three sweets").
It was heavenly (no pun intended!).
As a child, I enjoyed eating it, and later on, in my teens, he taught me to make it myself.
Looking back, it was so simple to make.
Just sliced bananas with crushed jaggery and Kalkandu (big sugar crystals) thrown in.
Sometimes, if the Kalkandu was not available, some honey will replace it.
The idea was to have three kinds of sweetness.
The soft and filling bananas, the sweet jaggery that melts in the mouth and the Kalkandu to give it all a sweet bite.
Three different sources of sweetness, three distinct tastes, textures, flavours and colours.
Probably representing the Holy Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu & Mahesh?
But underlying that simple prasaad lies the diversity of Nature.
Nature has inherent sweetness for humans to enjoy and relish.
Nature is not about homogeneity, it is not bland.
It is about glorious Diversity.
It is colourful, tasteful and accommodating.
Diversity of foods is at the core of Bio Basics.
And we are happy to offer sweeteners in the following 5 forms:
1. Honey - harvested by Last Forest, a partner organization based in the Nilgiri Hills, working with tribal farmers and apiaries.
2. Jaggery available as raw cane sugar (aka jaggery powder), jaggery round blocks - both derived from Sugarcane grown organically, locally and extracted in-farm.
3. Palm Sugar and jaggery, depending on the level of processing, extracted from the State Tree of Tamil Nadu - the Palmyra Tree.
4. Coconut sugar - an exquisite creation extracted from coconut flowers
5. Dates from date palm tree from the more drier regions (Rajasthan)
And all this is what we at Bio Basics offer.
There are so many other sweeteners out there which we have not brought inhouse yet.
Such diversity of sweeteners in Nature tells us a lot.
All this is away from the white crystallized refined sugar that is sold everywhere.
Blamed for diabetes and other health issues. Cheap, Chemicalized, Easily available.
Used in almost all sweets and bakery products that we buy in the market.
Refined sugar is almost ubiquitous. It has taken over all other kinds of sweeteners.
Worse, now even the refined sugar is replaced by HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup), which is cheaper and more harmful than white sugar.
The reality is that white sugar is chemically refined, devoid of fibre and minerals. Not a whole food.
Whereas all traditional and natural sweeteners are minimally processed, retains fibre and all the minerals Nature intended.
Above all, organic versions use no chemicals for processing.
This Diwali, let us remember this distinction.
On one side is refined chemicalized sugar devoid of fibre, vitamins and minerals available as a cheap commodity. Or even the highly processed HFCS.
On the other are diverse sweeteners from various plants adding distinct flavours, textures, colours and tastes to whatever we add those to.
You choose.
Happy Diwali in advance!
