Ground cardamom loses most of its volatile oil within weeks of milling. Buy it ready ground and what reaches the dough is a flat, faintly soapy note that reads as perfume rather than spice. So we stopped.
Whole pods, graded by hand
We buy grade one green pods from growers in Idukki, Kerala, and they arrive sealed and unopened. Our team grades them again on arrival, because the difference between a bold pod and a light one shows up clearly in a rusk that carries almost nothing else.
Milled on the morning
Pods are cracked and milled in our own mill on bake day, never earlier. It adds a step to the morning and it is the reason Royal Elaichi tastes the way it does on the fortieth day of shelf life, not just the first.
- Grade one Idukki green cardamom, bought whole
- Milled in house on the morning of the bake
- Nothing added to bulk out the spice
- Costed at roughly four times ready ground powder
It is the single most expensive ingredient decision in the rusk range. It is also the one customers write to us about most.