½ teaspoon at a time is what we do. Maybe limit yourself to one tin (1 ounce) per day. Good luck ;)

There are about 20 servings per 1 oz tin.

We partner with two facilities in the Hudson Valley to produce Chikka Chikka. One is a non-profit that employs veterans and people with disabilities. The other is a local bean-to-bar chocolate maker.

These facilities also process milk, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, eggs, soy, and sesame.

Not all ingredients, but the maple syrup, beet powder, cinnamon, mint, and spirulina are organic. We are currently looking for certified organic fennel and coriander seeds. More importantly, we have had everything tested by a third party lab (EMSL), and they show no traces of pesticides or heavy metals. We use whole spices that we grind ourselves, so we know there are no addatives.

The maple syrup is local from New York. The coriander, fennel, and cardamom, are from India. The cinnamon is from Sri Lanka. The mint is from Oregon.

We like bright colors also! But we like them better on the packaging and not in our bodies. Those colorful balls are made from sugar and artificial colors and flavors. We wanted to make something healthier.

We heat up the maple syrup to thicken it, and then slowly roast the fennel with maple syrup to coat and candy the seeds in small batches and then mix the rest of the ingredients.

Sabeen has a fennel seed habit that is a bit out of control. She would roast her own seeds and sweeten and mix them because she couldn’t find a product out there that wasn’t filled with artificial junk.  When we brought some on a hiking trip with our friends Joel and Molly they loved it saying ‘we would totally buy this’, and 'where can we get some?.' That is all we needed to hear to decide to start this venture (because Arif loves doing things he's never considered before). We love building a small business because it allows us to interact with so many other creative and interesting folks doing what they love. It also allows us the freedom to make up things as we go along...which is what we do best.

In early 2024

Like with most foods, especially those with medicinal properties, you don't want to overdo it. There is no clear guidance, but from what we have read, you don't want to eat more than 2 ounces of Chikka Chikka per day.

Most Indian fennel seed mixes are primarily made from refined sugar and wax and other junk. Chikka Chikka is made from high quality fennel seeds blended with other high-quality, organic ingredients. Instead of refined sugar, we use organic maple syrup as a sweetener.

Fennel is an alkaline food and raises the pH in your mouth and the upper part of the digestive system to create a healing microbiome. Fennel also contains anethole which has anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties and thus addresses intestinal inflammation which is tied to a lot of health issues. Google it!

Our product is made in small batches, without the use of added 'stabilizers' - ingredients like emulsifiers and gums. Some variation results from how real maple syrup and other whole food ingredients behave when heated without the use of such additives.