That Indian Drink: Local ingredients, Indian flavors

By Kristie Snyder, GreenStar Staff

Amrit Singh and Ipshita Pall launched The Indian Milk and Honey Company in 2011, the same month that their son was born. Six years later, both are thriving.

Named for the land of abundance that they hail from — India — as well as the one they currently occupy ­— the Finger Lakes — the company offers a traditional, healthful Indian product: lassi, a smoothie-like blend of fruit and yogurt. Milk sourced from an upstate cooperative is cultured into yogurt and blended with fruit and spices to create five delightful flavors, available in the beverage coolers at all three GreenStar stores.

Ipshita, a professionally trained chef and former Iron Chef competitor, sought to pair familiar fruit flavors with unexpected spice combinations that reflected her Indian heritage. She and Amrit did some farmers market trials, inviting taste testers to throw their empty sample cups into one of two trash cans: one was marked “Like it! Quit your day job,” and the other, “Don’t like it! Don’t quit your day job.” The result was clear. People liked it, and the company was on its way.

After a few years renting a kitchen in Romulus, the couple put their savings into creating a processing plant closer to their home in Ithaca. That facility, in Freeville, opened in 2014, and now employs 14 people. That Indian Drink can now be found across the country, in Whole Foods, but Amrit and Ipshita remain deeply committed to their local community. “GreenStar was our first retail client,” said Amrit. “GreenStar has been very supportive. We love being in GreenStar more than anything else, because that’s where we started.”

Ipshita insists on clean, simple ingredients like whole fruits and spices. After seeing a friend’s child flummoxed by the indecipherable ingredients on a food package, Ipshita and Amrit committed to using only ingredients that a small child could easily identify — milk, spices, fruit, and cane sugar.

“We compete with the biggest food companies in the world,” Amrit says, but “we differentiate ourselves with honest, simple, good food, and food that is delightful, with a chef’s craft. It’s based on who we are — this is our family business.”