Town Bus

Townbus Thenkulal Murukku is the fine, thread-textured murukku, made from rice flour and seasoned with cumin and pepper. Where a chakli snaps, thenkulal collapses: the strands are thin enough that a piece breaks apart almost as soon as you bite it. That lightness is the whole appeal, and it makes this the gentlest murukku of the range.

Best with

• Filter coffee and tea
• Festival and Diwali snack plates
• An everyday snack, including for children
• Serving alongside a hotter snack for contrast

Pack and storage

170g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. Handle the pack gently, as fine murukku breaks up easily, and keep it airtight so the thin strands do not turn soft.

Townbus Masala Peanut is whole peanuts jacketed in a spiced gram-flour batter and fried, so each one has a crisp shell around a firm nut. It is the standard tea-time and bar snack across India, salty and mildly hot, and it is more filling than a crisp or a sev because of the nut at the centre.

Best with

• Tea, coffee or a cold drink
• A bar snack or party nibble
• Tossed with sliced onion, tomato, lemon and coriander as a quick masala peanut chaat
• Long journeys

Pack and storage

170g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. Keep the pack airtight; the coating softens first and the nuts inside lose their snap soon after.

Townbus Rice Kodubale is the ring-shaped Karnataka snack made from rice flour and roasted gram, spiced with coconut and chilli and fried until hard and crunchy. It is a denser, tougher bite than a murukku, and the coconut gives it a distinct flavour you will not find in the Tamil Nadu snacks beside it on the shelf.

Best with

• Tea and filter coffee
• Festival snack boxes
• An evening snack for people who like a firm crunch
• Travel, since the rings hold their shape well

Pack and storage

170g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. Kodubale keeps better than most fried snacks thanks to its density, but an airtight jar will still hold the crunch longer.

Townbus Garlic Mixture is a South Indian snack mix carrying a strong roasted garlic flavour, with fried lentils, peanuts and crisp rice crackers through it. The garlic is the point rather than a background note, so it is a mixture for people who already know they like garlic. It is savoury and moderately hot.

Best with

• Tea or coffee in the evening
• A snack bowl for a gathering
• Plain curd rice, which balances the garlic
• Something to nibble alongside a drink

Pack and storage

170g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. Keep it in a well-sealed jar and away from other snacks, since the garlic aroma travels and will find its way into anything stored open beside it.

Townbus Banana Chips are raw bananas sliced thin and fried until golden, then salted while still warm. They are firmer and starchier than a potato crisp, with a clean banana flavour underneath the salt and no sweetness to speak of. The slices are thick enough to snap audibly.

Best with

• Tea or coffee
• A South Indian meal, served on the side of the plate
• Sadya-style festival spreads
• Packed lunches and long drives

Pack and storage

170g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. Keep them away from heat and sunlight, which turn fried chips stale faster than anything else, and move them to an airtight jar once the pack has been opened.

Townbus Madras Mixture is the Chennai-style snack medley: sev, fried lentils, peanuts and gram-flour strands tumbled together with curry leaves and spices. What makes a good mixture is the variety of textures in a single handful, and this one runs from fine threads to whole nuts. It is savoury with a steady chilli warmth behind it.

Best with

• Tea and filter coffee
• A snack bowl put out for guests
• Spooned over curd rice or bhel
• Evening snacking and travel

Pack and storage

170g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. Tip it into an airtight jar once the pack is open, as the fine sev in the mix absorbs moisture first and takes the rest of the mixture soft with it.

Townbus Cornflakes Mixture is a namkeen built on crisp cornflakes rather than gram flour, with fried lentils, peanuts and spices mixed through. The flakes stay light and shatter easily, so it eats as a lighter mixture than a sev-heavy one, and the seasoning is salty with a mild chilli edge. Children usually take to this one first.

Best with

• Tea and coffee
• A party or guest snack bowl
• Chaat, as a crunchy topping
• Lunch boxes and after-school snacking

Pack and storage

150g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. Cornflakes go limp faster than fried snacks do, so transfer the mixture to an airtight jar as soon as the pack is opened.

Townbus Aloo Bhujia is the fine, tangled noodle namkeen made from gram flour and potato, fried crisp and seasoned with salt and mild spice. The strands are thin enough to break apart in the hand, which is why it works as well scattered over something as it does eaten by the handful. It is savoury and lightly hot rather than fiery.

Best with

• Tea or filter coffee in the afternoon
• Scattered over chaat, bhel or a plate of curd rice
• A bowl put out for guests alongside other namkeens
• Sprinkled on upma or poha for crunch

Pack and storage

150g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. Bhujia loses its crispness quickly once air gets in, so press the air out of the bag and clip it shut, or tip the contents into an airtight jar.

Townbus Avalakki Mixture is the Karnataka-style snack mix built on roasted flattened rice, or avalakki, with fried lentils, peanuts, curry leaves and spices through it. It is lighter than a gram-flour mixture because the poha stays airy rather than dense, and the seasoning is savoury and mildly hot. Every handful comes out slightly different depending on what you pick up.

Best with

• Tea or coffee in the afternoon
• A snack bowl for guests
• Topped over curd rice or a plate of chaat
• Long journeys and desk drawers

Pack and storage

150g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. Flattened rice softens quickly in damp air, so decant the mixture into an airtight jar once the pack is open.

Townbus Soya Sticks are crisp extruded sticks made from soya, light and savoury with a dry, snappy texture closer to a cracker than a fried namkeen. They are mildly seasoned rather than chilli-hot, and the uniform stick shape makes them easy to put in a bowl or a lunch box without crumbs everywhere.

Best with

• Tea, coffee or a cold drink
• A snack bowl alongside dips or chutney
• Lunch boxes and desk snacking
• Children, since the seasoning is mild

Pack and storage

110g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. Extruded sticks soften quickly once exposed to air, so seal the pack tightly or keep them in an airtight jar.

Townbus Chakli Murukku is the familiar spiral cracker of rice and lentil flour, lightly spiced and fried until it snaps cleanly. It is the everyday murukku rather than a hot or specialised one, which makes it the safe choice when you are feeding a mixed table including children. The coils are sturdy enough to survive a snack box without shattering.

Best with

• Tea and filter coffee
• Diwali and festival snack plates
• An evening snack for the whole family
• Lunch boxes and journeys

Pack and storage

170g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. An airtight jar keeps the snap in; a bag left open overnight in a humid kitchen will not.

Townbus Pepper Thattai is the flat, disc-shaped rice cracker of Tamil Nadu, made hot with black pepper rather than chilli. Pepper heat behaves differently: it arrives late and sits at the back of the throat, so the first bite reads milder than the third. The discs are thin and snap sharply.

Best with

• Filter coffee or strong tea
• Diwali and festival snack plates
• An evening snack with something cooling alongside
• Gifting and hampers

Pack and storage

150g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. Thattai are brittle as well as crisp, so keep the pack somewhere it will not be crushed, and move the discs to a rigid airtight container once opened.

Townbus Kai Murukku is the hand-shaped murukku, coiled by hand rather than pressed through a mould, which gives it the uneven, rustic look and the thicker bite that sets it apart from machine-pressed spirals. The flavour is mild and buttery with cumin through it, and the texture is dense and crisp rather than light.

Best with

• Filter coffee or tea
• Festival and wedding snack plates
• An evening snack with something spicy alongside
• Gift boxes and hampers

Pack and storage

150g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. The thicker coils hold their crunch better than fine murukku, but an airtight jar is still the difference between a week and a day.

Townbus Ompudi is the fine gram-flour sev of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, extruded into thin strands and fried, then seasoned with cumin and pepper. It is the lightest thing on the snack shelf: the strands break on the tongue rather than needing to be chewed, and the flavour is gently peppery instead of chilli-hot.

Best with

• Tea or filter coffee
• Sprinkled over curd rice, bhel or chaat
• An everyday snack for a mixed table, since it is mild
• Mixed into a homemade namkeen with peanuts and raisins

Pack and storage

150g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. Fine sev is the first thing in any snack cupboard to go soft, so an airtight jar makes a real difference here.

Townbus Andhra Murukku is a rice-flour spiral fried crisp and seasoned in the Andhra manner, which means the chilli is well forward and stays on the tongue. The coils snap rather than crumble, and the heat builds over a few pieces rather than hitting at once. This is the one to reach for if the usual murukku is too mild.

Best with

• Strong tea or filter coffee
• An evening snack plate with something plain alongside
• Festival and Diwali snack boxes
• Travel and lunch boxes, since it keeps its crunch

Pack and storage

150g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. Keep it in an airtight jar once the pack is open; murukku goes soft in a humid kitchen faster than it goes stale.