Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Bina Mehta. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Bina, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I was born and raised in an Ayurvedic family in Mumbai, India, and moved to the United States in 1973. I had been practicing several holistic modalities and also taught Contemplative Hinduism at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. As a certified Ayurvedic Lifestyle Consultant and Universal White Time Healing practitioner and teacher, I continue to bring ancient wisdom to people’s lives. This kind of awareness that includes mind, body, and spirit is essential for our well-being in today’s world.

While raising my children, cooking was my passion. I wanted to carry on my culture and offer nourishing and nurturing meals to all of my family and friends. Eventually, they requested that I teach cooking classes so that they too could learn how to make authentic Indian recipes. So starting in 2015, I began h0lding cooking classes twice a month in my home kitchen. Word of mouth spread, and my cooking classes were always sold out. I have continued to teach cooking classes since that time, and they still sell out in record time. I have taught cooking at the Teaching Kitchen at Ginger & Baker and the Cooking Studio in Fort Collins, Colorado, and Sur La Table in Denver, Colorado.

Then my cooking class students asked me to create spice blends to make it easier for them to prepare the Indian recipes that require dozens of spices, some of which are only found in specialty grocery stores. They didn’t want to invest in so many spices that they would only be using occasionally. So as an evolution of my cooking class business, I created my spice blend business, Bina Mehta Spice Blends (binamehta.com). I started with five blends: Aromatic Chai, Bombay Masala, Garam Masala, Maharani Masala, Roasted Cumin, and have since added two more to my collection: Feisty Tiger and Tikka Masala. These custom blends are based on my knowledge of Ayurveda, and they also showcase some of the main regions of India.

My cooking classes required me to create booklets of the recipes that the students would be making, which led to family and friends recommending that I self-publish a cookbook of my authentic Indian recipes. My cookbook Turmeric & Spice: Indian Cuisine for the Mind, Body, and Spirit, published in 2018, guides the home cook in the fundamental step-by-step methods to make Indian food successfully. People who have bought my book say that it is the best Indian cookbook they have encountered. My cookbook is available at binamehta.com or on Amazon.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I got into the spice blend business and became a cookbook author because of my passion for cooking and wanting to share my knowledge of Ayurveda to help people find balance in their lives. The problems I solve for my clients have been profound: their health has been improved because they are able to eat meals that are nourishing and nurturing to mind, body, and spirit.

What sets my business apart is that my custom spice blends are based on the science of Ayurveda, which means that they have medicinal properties. More and more, Western medicine is recognizing the value of spices and how they can help the body in so many ways. My spice blends are also hand roasted locally, which provides optimum freshness in taste, color, and aroma, and gives home cooks an easy and versatile way to enhance and elevate flavor in their meals, whether they are Indian recipes or their own family favorites.

I am most proud of the fact that I took my cultural and educational knowledge and captured the essence of the philosophy and lifestyle to share with others and help them discover how to eat for their unique constitution and have a better overall feeling of well-being. I am also proud that I was able to write and publish Turmeric & Spice, my own cookbook of my authentic Indian recipes, as well as some of my own fusion recipes that incorporate other cuisines.

I created my brand to reflect my passion and interest in beauty, art, and nature, which is a wholistic approach to life in general. My tagline is “to seek a truer you,” and that is what I endeavor to do through my spice blend collection and my cookbook.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My passion is cooking and creating recipes and spice blends, so I had no idea about publishing a cookbook. It was a learning experience that tested my resilience in a myriad of ways. I almost gave up because it was very difficult to navigate the realm of publishing. Writing the cookbook was so much more than writing! It was finding a book designer, finding a cookbook editor, finding a photographer, and finding a publisher.

I ended up self-publishing, which was yet another labyrinth I had to find my way through. I also needed to find consultants to help me through the self-publishing process because I was doing everything myself. I had to meet with printers and get bids and figure out which was the best for my book. This was the hardest process because it was not my expertise and was something I had to learn. It was a momentous undertaking and took a lot of effort and time, but after the book was published and printed, I felt empowered and grateful that I did not give up and saw the journey through to the end.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I send out a monthly newsletter that includes articles on everything from how to eat for your body type and many other tips and tricks for eating well. I also include personal stories that clients can relate to. In addition, my newsletters feature special discounts on my blends and my cookbook.

I foster brand loyalty by simply providing high-quality, delicious, gourmet spice blends that clients return to again and again because they make cooking easy and are a time-saving tool in the kitchen. My clients also discover that my blends are so much more than a way to flavor their recipes; they have improved digestion, metabolism, and all of the underlying health benefits my spice blends bring to the table.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://binamehta.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/binamehtaspices/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BinaMehtaSpices/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bina-mehta-98826a35
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BinaMehtaSpices
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@binamehta4677