Spices becoming an intrinsic part of chocolates, cosmetics!

Next time when you get bored eating your regular chocolate having the same cliched flavour, how about spicing it up with a dash of chilly or cinnamon!!

Yes, chocolates spiced up with chilly, cinnamon and cardamom are here to provide a new kick to your taste buds.

People these days have started using various spice value products such as spice chocolates, spice teas and even cosmetic products like spice creams, shampoos, face washes etc, Spices Board of India Chairman Dr A Jayathilak told PTI.

‘Flavourit’, an initiative of the Spices Board to share and sustain the passion of spices, has come up with a variety of spice chocolates for food lovers and spice cosmetics for beauty conscious people.

It has experimented with bringing out chocolates in six unique flavours of cardamom, chilly, cumin, cinnamon, clove and nutmeg.

The response to chocolates with chilly flavour has been really good and when it is put up at exhibitions in foreign countries, food enthusiasts even want to know how it is prepared, Jayathilak said.

Even in non-culinary segment, spice creams with tulsi, turmeric, saffron, etc and soaps and facewashes with clove, cardamom, pepper, cinnamon, green coffee bean and vanilla are being experimented, he said.

Even turmeric-dyed garments, like kurtas and bedsheets are in the trial process.

“It would be surprising to know that the ‘health conscious’ people are increasing the use of spices in their daily cuisine and have adopted it as part of their lifestyle,” Jayathilak said.

India commands a formidable position in the world spice trade with spice exports expected to touch US$3 billion by 2016-17.

“In the past few years, the demand for value-added spice products has increased. The spice oils and oleoresin, spice tea, spice chocolates, cosmetics from spices such as spice creams, spice shampoos, spice face washes, etc, are becoming extremely popular with Indian,” said the IAS officer who heads the Kochi-based Spices Board.

To a question, he said spices have definitely not lost sheen to exotic herbs among the urban food lovers.

“In fact both spices and herbs go hand in hand, add excellent flavour to food, and contain more disease fighting antioxidants than fruits and vegetables. They transform dull, bland food into a delicious dish and also come with some unexpected health benefits,” he said.