Ratlami sev is the reason Jalaram Sweets exists. Pressed by hand from a chickpea-flour dough that has been spiced with our family’s blend of clove, fennel and pepper, fried in pure oil, then drained and dried until each strand snaps cleanly between your fingers.

This is the original recipe Dhirajlal Thakkar perfected in 1976 — fragrant from a foot away, crisp at every bite, and warming from clove rather than from raw chilli heat. Nothing in it has changed in three generations.

Eat it on its own with a cup of cutting chai, scatter it over poha or chaat, or pack it into a tiffin for the office. Pan-India shipping in moisture-sealed pouches.