Try a Little Pikkle Shikkle In India, it’s widely believed that there’s no better food than home-cooked food. Famous for feeding into this nation-wide sentiment with their many evolving home-cooked delicacies, are Punjabi moms. Being a product designer, Satbir Singh saw a delicious brand just waiting to be packaged, when his Punjabi Mom - Gurdeep Kaur - began preparing home-made jams and pickles (or pikkle - as the Punjabis like to pronounce it). To add to that, the bigger house in Bangalore that he just moved to with his family, seemed like the perfect place to home-cook this idea. Yet, what mostly motivated this thought into reality - was a child’s passion to treat everyone to the taste of mother’s cooking. So excitedly including his elder sister on the idea, they collectively brainstormed the birth of this new family member with their parents. Receiving a hearty go-ahead from most reliable product testers (friends and neighbours), with eager follow-up orders for jam and pickles, the brand was born.
To symbolise their products being a shared celebration of their mother’s cooking, the brand’s packaging is encircled with celebratory buntings, accompanied by a tagline that encapsulates the essence of the brand – “From Your Punjabi Aunty”. Speaking of aunty – Being particular to deliver quality cooking like a true Punjabi mom, Gurdeep is careful to make only small quantity Jams and pickles in batches. This is to ensure her products are slow cooked with love and perfectly simmered - for flavour. Being only one and a half year old and already selling 7 unique pickles and 2 jams, which appeal to both sweet and spicy palates (FYI - North Indians prefer the former while South Indians the latter), isn’t however - enough. Wanting to cater to all kinds of preferences, auntie’s delightful concoctions include sugar and jaggery based pickles - keeping diabetics in mind, while her ‘All Natural Fenugreek Seed’ pickle - aims to help with knee pains.
Additionally, a strong emphasis is laid upon producing only unadulterated all-natural pickles and jams, made from locally sourced vegetable, simmered in pure oils and vinegar. Only natural preservatives like lemon, mustard oil, vinegar and sugar are used to create products that are made to last for 6 months with refrigeration, 4 months - without. Willing to ship fresh batches of pickles and jams to just about anywhere, the loving Punjabi aunty behind the brand only insists that each bottle packaged, be filled to the brim. Best selling products include - a rare Kiwi Lemon Jam and an unusual Mixed Vegetable Pickle. BTW – Another thing Punjabis have contributed to India, is their way of accentuating a word with an effect (if not affection) by simply rhyming it, case in point – Pikkle Shikkle.