Mohanlal Verhomal Spices (MV Spices)

MV Spices began as a small cart run by Mohanlal Verhomal and his wife Bhagwanti, who set out to sell spice blends to the foreign tourists passing through Jodhpur's old city. From that start — dated variously to the late 1970s and 1982 — the business grew into a fixture of Sardar Market's Girdikot bazaar, blending its own masala mixes for tea, curries and fruit rather than stocking pre-packed generic spice tins. After Mohanlal died in 2004, his wife and their seven daughters took over the shop, making it, by the family's own account, the only spice business in Jodhpur run entirely by women. That continuity, along with the shop's habit of writing out recipes in English, French and German so travelers can recreate the blends at home, built a reputation almost entirely through word of mouth rather than advertising — travelers carried the name back with them, and mentions in Lonely Planet India, Lonely Planet Nepal and Le Guide Routard followed the shop's existing trade rather than creating it. The shop still sells its named masala chai spice mix alongside curry blends, saffron tea spice, and other ready-made mixtures, and now ships internationally to customers who first found it in person.