Baanar in December

Fellow Baanars!

Here we are. One year in. From Bandar Chhaap to Baanar.com

When we first started talking about building a product line in January 2025, there were a lot of ideas on the table. Most of them came from a very simple place: frustration. Frustration with the things we were buying, and a desire to put out products that we genuinely felt were missing from our own lives.

For a long time, I’d felt uneasy about packaged grains and spices from the market. They often felt over-processed, over-handled, and disconnected from the people who grew them. Over the years, I slowly started sourcing ingredients for my own kitchen through people I trusted; friends, family, friends of friends. Quiet networks, built on word of mouth and familiarity. Looking back now, that habit laid the foundation for what would eventually become our first set of products.

That’s how Bandar Chhaap began to take shape. We decided to start with spices.

At the beginning of the year, I honestly had no idea how packaging, distribution, or marketing really worked. I’m still figuring a lot of that out. What I did know was food. Cooking has been a constant in my life for nearly twenty years, and it felt natural to begin there — with ingredients I used every day and believed in.

We started with almost nothing. No systems, no playbook. Today, we’ve reached five products that I genuinely feel proud of. That alone feels like a year well spent.

Selling, however, is a very different problem. Early on, I set myself an ambitious goal of selling 100 products this year. In hindsight, that was beginner optimism more than strategy. This year wasn’t about volume. It was about building the first layer: understanding the products, figuring out packaging, learning backend logistics, and making sure the ideas themselves were solid.

In that sense, 2025 was about groundwork. There was a lot of trial and error this year, but we wrapped it up feeling hopeful. The responses to the products have been warm and thoughtful, and that’s been a quiet confirmation that we’re on the right path.

Next year needs to be different. With the products we have now; and the ones already in the pipeline; the focus shifts to reach. To communication. To finding the people who care about these products and would choose them deliberately, not accidentally. Marketing is its own craft, and it will take time and patience to get right.

There’s still heavy lifting ahead, but I feel clearer about the direction now. 2026 will be about putting this work in front of the right audience and growing slowly, without losing the values we started with.

Over the last month, we’ve added new products to the store and published our first set – Lakadong Turmeric, Meghalayan pepper, Tirphal pepper, Gouti Red Rice & Assamese Black Rice.

We’ve also begun sharing more consistently on social media, and the website finally feels closer to what it should have been from the start. With the updated products in place, it feels more alive, more complete.

This year was about learning how to build.
Next year is about learning how to share.
And I’m looking forward to it.