Pure Berry’s

The Goodness of Life

Panchgani is home to thousands of school kids who study in scores of boarding schools that this touristy hill station is famous for. And what better association can it have than jams and syrups, scones and cheese, goodies that Hussain Mala produces with love and care

Text & Photographs: Farzana Contractor

Hussain Mala quite clearly is a man with multiple passions. Or let’s say he is well-tuned into a rather balanced life. He works just as hard as he follows his heart, doing things that give his life meaning, a direction. When he is not working at some aspect of Pure Berry’s, the jam and honey, and cheese company that he runs very successfully, he is out there with the boys, his friends from his days of youth, going trekking, camping, even hunting – that what can be hunted legally.

He is fortunate his lifestyle gets a leeway because he is stationed in the charming hill station of Panchgani, 260 kms from Bombay. And he can fine-tune his work and leisure with considerable ease.

That he is a Mala and Malas are synonymous with Panchgani and jam-making is an established fact. I have been going to this hill station since the mid ‘60s as a little child, and I can say we as a family have grown up eating Mala’s jams. Mala’s is an extended family business and as it happens with most joint families, a day comes when partings happen. Likewise here. I am not aware of the details but it’s not surprising that I do know all the different Mala families, having gone to school with some of the Mala girls. I know many of those in the hotel business and also those who make all these goodies, now under different labels, such as Mala’s, Manama and Pure Berry’s. What is nice is, though the separation happened over four decades ago, they all are still one large family and meet up socially, and for festivals, and certainly for family occasions.

Hussain Mala wasn’t always in this business. A Hotel Management student of Dadar Catering College, food always played a big role in his life. He had a restaurant in Panchgani called Paradise situated in the heart of the bazaar, serving Chinese and Mughlai cuisines. He ran this very well, but got the craving to do something new about 14 years ago. Honey is his big love, so he got into bee-keeping, bottling and selling honey in its purest form; Pure Gold, he calls it. His hobbies were turned into a business and soon a whole range of jams, preserves, syrups fell into place.

Today the multiple crore business has its own niche and Pure Berry’s products are available from Kashmir to the Nicobar Islands through their own outlets as well as a vast network of distribution and hundreds of agents and marketing personnel.

The head office in Panchgani is a charming set-up. As you drive from Panchgani to Mahabaleshwar it comes up on your right, a vast semi circular structure in laterite, the red stone of the region, pushed away from the road, but on the main road. It houses different products under different roofs making shopping a pleasure.

What’s interesting though is now it’s not just Hussain’s baby, but the entire family is involved. There is the cakes and cream counter which is Farida’s, Hussain’s wife of 30 years. She is the baker in the family and very ably puts out some super confectionery. Biscuits, cakes, desserts. The jeera biscuits, like the Poona Shrewsbury is to die for. She takes home orders as well as orders from hotels in Panchgani and Mahableshwar. “I am most happy doing this job. My children have grown up, got married, so this really has become my baby now!” says Farida who learnt baking 14 years ago.

The cheese factory is the latest addition. But that division is headed by Mustafa, their first-born. Their daughter – for the time-being – is exploring the perfumery space but I suspect it won’t be long before she jumps into the Pure Berry’s jam!

Well Mustafa is quite the driver in the cheese factory. He informs me for now his outfit is fairly small. He buys just 2000 ltrs of milk each day to produce 200 kgs of cheese… That’s small? Apparently. For he aims to really grow big. Well, good luck, and I think he will go places, for the cheese I did taste was excellent. Gouda, Mozzarella, Cheddar. But the runaway success item is the variety of cheese spreads. The whole world and its neighbour seems to be in love with the Pure Berry’s cheese spreads, especially the garlic flavour.

Farida and Hussain, Mustafa and his new bride live in this lovely 40-year-old stone house which adjoins the commercial outlet. In fact Mustafa even got married here a few months ago, and his loving dad, Hussain, with his eye for detail transformed the place into a magical fairy land for one evening. I happened to be in Panchgani at the time and attended the reception. The dinner was sumptuous, but the Kashmiri kahwa left the most lingering taste, even as we sat and listened to live singing of old Hindi film melodies.

Simplicity and warmth make for genuine celebrations.

Rounds of the cheese factory done, we were now in the garden seated on swings, surrounded by avocado, mulberry, jamun and mango trees. The geese were cackling away in their pen nearby and Coco the Golden Retriever was going mad. He did not like it that he was tied up to a tree in his own house just because two snooties (my Lhasas, Inshy and Tasha) were visiting.

However we did manage to chat up a bit in all that happy chaos. Farida who was born in Sri Lanka is a gentle soul who has found her calling. Mustafa, who has studied cheesemaking under artisanal and private cheesemakers in Germany and India, has found his. Hussain, the young patriarch is the restless soul. The kind who will always seek new things to do. He is constantly learning. Goes on international food seminars, travels everywhere in his quest to gain knowledge. He takes one family holiday a year and spends his weekends in Poona, the big city for Panchganians!