Sesame seeds grow in rain fed areas and the quality of the crop depends on rain. It is very important not only for the right amount of rain but also the timing of the rain. Rains during the harvesting process spells disaster to the crop as it then gets “rain damaged. The crop takes 90-120 days to harvest. Sesame seed farmers harvest the crop and bring it to local agricultural markets called ‘mandis’ in India. Manufacturers such as ourselves are then allowed to bid at these ‘mandis’ for lots that interest them. The highest bidder at the auction gets allotted the lots that they have won. From these markets the seeds are transported by road to the factories.

Sesame seeds come in various hues and colors – black, white, red, honey colored and many shades between these. What is interesting to note is that the quality of the seed is not dependent on the color of the seed. The quality of the seed is dependent on the soil conditions it was grown on and the maturity level that the seed has attained. Also, some of the seed gets damaged during the harvesting process. The various hues and colors of the seed result in the various hues and shades we see in the Sesame Oil. It could be from white to golden yellow, from reddish to dark amber in color.

The aroma is known to be nutty and tantalizing, even seductive in the hands of a connoisseur.

Sesame seeds are grown all over India and seeds from different places have different hues, aroma and taste. It takes experience and a master blender to perfectly decide the ratio in which the seed should be blended to derive a quality that satisfies the customer throughout the year. It has got to be in one’s blood to get this blend right. We at Anandham Sesame Oil pride ourselves for perfecting this blend over 70 years.

After the perfect blend has been prepared, the seeds go through a rigorous cleaning process using size separation, pneumatic separation and gravity separation. After this process, only the mature, right sized, undamaged seeds make their way to the production unit. The pneumatic separation process removes dust, mud and sand and immature lightweight seeds. Damaged seeds are the same size as the good seed and is hence removed by gravity separators and finally stones are removed by de-stoners.

The best sesame seeds that pass through all of the cleaning processes then finally make it to the expellers where virgin sesame oil is extracted. This oil then goes through a double filtration process and is bottled immediately after and is sent to millions of our consumers around the globe.