Bombay

Supari is areca nut, cut small and usually flavoured. Across South Asia a pinch is taken after a meal as a mouth freshener, offered to guests from a small bowl and handed round at weddings. Bombay sweet supari is the sweetened style, its pieces coated and flavoured, packed in tiny sachets so each serving stays sealed.

On our shelves Bombay sits in mouth fresheners, within the nuts, dried fruit and seeds department. The jumbo box holds a good number of single sachets, enough for a household or a shop counter. The sachets are small and flat, so a handful fits in a coat pocket without spilling.

Keep a few sachets in a handbag, a desk drawer or the glovebox, or tip a few onto a tray with saunf and mishri when guests come for tea or dinner. Tear one open and take a small pinch at a time, then fold the sachet over if any is left. Some families serve it alongside paan at the end of a festive meal, and others put out a bowl at a mehndi or a sangeet.

Read the box before use, as the sweetener carries its own label warning, and keep the box closed and dry, away from children. For plain roasted saunf, see fennel seeds, and for rock sugar to serve with it, browse mishri and sugar candy.