YOU know you are reaching the Mapro Garden between Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar long before you actually do, because the twisting mountain road between the two hill-stations has signboards sponsored by the food company announcing its arrival. This is the place where Kishore Vora, a pharmacist who started making jams as a hobby for himself in the 1960s, set up a business that has come to be known for the excellence of its products. It is said his jams were so appreciated by friends, that they encouraged Kishore to go beyond his half-kilo home production.

Mapro has a variety of products now thanks to that initial push. Omprakash Mishra, manager at the Mapro Garden who makes the products, says that Mapro has 21 varieties of squashes, crushes and syrups. �Squashes are made from fruit juice and can be mixed with water. Crushes are whole fruits crushed and made into a pulp, these must be mixed with milk. And syrups are made from both, the juice and the pulp. You can mix a syrup with water, milk, soda,� Mishra explained. Additionally, Mapro has six jams, nine flavours of ice-cream and six flavours of ice-cream toppings.

The Mapro (which means, Mahabaleshwar Products) brand came into prominence in 1988 when the business was taken over by Kishore Vora�s heir, Mayur. While Mayur and his wife Rajvi introduced business-related activities at Mapro, and the promotion of the products professionally, Kishore went into retirement and is now engaged in doing social work. The Mapro Garden on the Panchgani-Mahabaleshwar road has become a popular halt for its snacks and sales counter. Visitors are also invited to visit the strawberry garden and then the Mapro factory on the premises and to see how jams and squashes are processed from the strawberries.

Visitors can also taste all the products before actually buying them at the sales counter. It is a wonderful idea because the Mapro Garden is crawling with children who all want to taste the sweets and gum-drops and the parents then buy them. �The regulars don�t need to taste the products, they just buy them,� said Mishra.