Yesterday, C came back from India. His face has tanned! On the airplane, on the way back from Delhi, he got SAUNF SUPARI (it says AFTER MINT on the back side of the sachet) after the meal. SAUNF is fennel seeds, and SUPARI is betel nuts, the seed of the betel palm. Apparently fennel and betel nuts are good for digestion, not only fresh breath. I've never heard of betel nuts before, but betel nuts are chewed by over 200 million people world wide! Even kids chew nuts and it sounds like the habit has several damaging effects on oral and general health.

This mint is a mixture of fennel seeds, betel nuts, crystal sugar, coriander seeds, melon seeds etc. I guess the little red balls are betel nuts. They look the most tasty in this sachet, but they are the most dangerous one! I kind of want to try this mint, but I keep it till next time we eat Indian curry at home.

BTW this mint package is a little bit similar to a silica gel (desiccant) sachet. When I heard that some non-Japanese person ate the silica gel which was in a Japanese rice cracker bag, I thought that it can't be true! But maybe he or she thought that it was this kind of after mint... The bright orange colour on the background of the picture is a Pashmina scarf which C bought in Delhi. Great colour. Thanks!