This is the story of an ad executive and engineer – also husband and wife - who’ve been plotting their escape from Bangalore for years now. In what is a first step towards eventually moving out of the city and to a farm where “we can grow our own stuff”, Vinod Lal Heera Eshwer and Seema Narayanan purchased four acres of land in Karnataka’s Western Ghats.

Cardamum’s the Word

But before they started to build their dream house in a town called Sakleshpur, they thought of you. Yes, they’re sweet like that. Here, Vinod and Seema grow cardamom, which they bottle and sell on order under the label From the Rainforest. The spice is organically certified and packed in super cute jars with bright yellow tags that look like postal stamps.  Wish you were here!

Now why would you pay shipping charges to have your elaichi sent all the way from Bangalore? Surely those sunny labels can’t be that sunny! How’s this for a reason: your morning tea will taste better. Seema tells us that the cardamom which comes from this region is different from the usual green version. “It’s brown, more aromatic and in folklore, the actual cardamom that drove the Westerners to India,” she says.

Would you like to take the spice route too?

Getting there: From the Rainforest, call 09845518958/09980013488 or visit http://www.fromtherainforest.in, Rs 245 for 80 gms, shipping anywhere in India, extra charges.