Provenance · Eight Ingredients

Every ingredient is
an address.
Here are ours.

We trace eight key ingredients across the Novra range — from the salt flats of Brittany to the pepper vines of Kerala, the thyme fields of the Levant to the olive groves of the Mediterranean. Nothing is generic. Everything has a source.

48°N · 2°W · France

Brittany
Sea Salt

Guérande · Atlantic Coast · France

The salt marshes of Guérande have been harvested by hand since the ninth century. Paludiers — salt farmers — rake the fleur de sel from the surface of shallow clay pans each summer morning, before the wind disturbs the crystals. The result is a salt with a natural mineral complexity — calcium, magnesium, trace iodine — that no industrial salt can replicate.

We chose Brittany sea salt for Sea Salt & Black Pepper because the flavour of the product is built almost entirely on two ingredients. Both had to be exceptional. The Guérande salt carries a faint oceanic mineral note that elevates the corn without competing with it.

Used in: 01 · Sea Salt & Black Pepper

11°N · 76°E · India

Malabar
Black Pepper

Kerala Coast · Southwest India

Malabar pepper is the oldest traded spice in the world. The pepper vines of Kerala's Malabar coast have supplied spice routes from the Romans to the Portuguese, and the flavour profile of Malabar black pepper — resinous, woody, with a slow-building heat — is meaningfully different from generic black pepper.

In our Sea Salt & Black Pepper SKU, the pepper is the entire second half of the flavour experience. It arrives after the salt, lingers longer, and gives the product a finish that keeps you reaching back. This only happens with Malabar. It does not happen with commodity pepper.

Used in: 01 · Sea Salt & Black Pepper

33°N · 36°E · Levant

Wild Thyme
& Za'atar Blend

Levantine Highlands · Syria, Lebanon, Jordan

Za'atar is not a recipe. It is a tradition. The blend of wild thyme, oregano, sumac, and sesame has been prepared in the Levant for centuries, and every family, every region, carries its own proportions. Ours were developed through multiple rounds of sourcing, testing, and adjustment — not to approximate the flavour, but to find the combination that felt essential rather than composed.

Wild thyme from the Levantine highlands carries a mineral depth that cultivated thyme does not. The sumac brings tartness without acidity. Together they create the flavour that belongs to this region more than almost any other. We handle it accordingly.

Used in: 03 · Za'atar, 04 · Za'atar & Lime

29°N · 51°E · Persian Gulf

Persian
Lime

Fars Province · Southern Iran

Persian lime — Citrus latifolia — is a hybrid, seedless, and more aromatic than common lime. Its zest carries a floral complexity that cuts through fat and herbaceous notes with precision. It is the lime of the Gulf's culinary tradition: less aggressive than Mexican lime, more fragrant, better suited to spiced preparations.

In Za'atar & Lime, Persian lime does something unexpected — it opens the herb blend. The tartness of sumac and the brightness of lime appear to amplify each other, creating a citrus-forward profile that reads as simultaneously ancient and entirely new. This is the SKU that surprised us most in formulation. The lime was the last addition and the one that made the product.

Used in: 04 · Za'atar & Lime

39°N · 6°W · Spain

Spanish Smoked
Paprika

La Vera · Extremadura · Spain

Pimentón de La Vera carries a Protected Designation of Origin for one reason: the smoking method. Peppers grown in the Vera valley are dried over oak wood fires in stone smokehouses — a process that takes fifteen days and produces a depth of flavour that is impossible to replicate with liquid smoke or artificial flavouring. The result is earthy, warm, and complex in a way that reads as both savoury and slightly sweet.

Smoked paprika is the foundation of our Smoky Paprika & Chilli SKU — the flavour that arrives first and stays longest. Its quality is the quality of the product.

Used in: 02 · Smoky Paprika & Chilli, 06 · Harissa & Pomegranate

36°N · 37°E · Levant

Aleppo
Pepper

Northern Syria · Sourced via Turkey

Aleppo pepper — pul biber in Turkish kitchens — is a semi-dried chilli with a moderate heat and a distinctive fruity, slightly oily character. Unlike standard chilli flakes, Aleppo has a built-in complexity: the heat arrives slowly, the fruitiness softens it, and the finish carries a subtle cumin-like depth. It is the chilli that behaves like a spice rather than a condiment.

In our Smoky Paprika & Chilli formulation, Aleppo is the layer that arrives after the paprika. It builds heat gradually, then holds. This is the "stays long" in "warmth that arrives late and stays long." We tried six alternatives. None behaved the same way.

Used in: 02 · Smoky Paprika & Chilli

37°N · 22°E · Mediterranean

Extra Virgin
Olive Oil

Mediterranean Basin — Greece & Spain

Extra virgin olive oil is the binding ingredient across five of our six SKUs. It is also the most scrutinised choice we made. Corn cakes are a dry, pressed format — oil is not visible, not poured, not tasted in isolation. But it carries the flavour of everything applied to it, and it determines the mouthfeel of the finished product in ways that are subtle and cumulative.

We use cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil. Not a refined olive oil, not a blended oil, not the category-default sunflower oil. EVOO costs more and performs differently under heat — we designed the production process around its characteristics rather than substituting it for convenience.

Used in: 01, 02, 05, 06 · across the corn cake range

38°N · 34°E · Turkey

Sun-Dried
Pomegranate

Turkey — Anatolian Pomegranate Belt

Sun-dried pomegranate from the Anatolian plateau — Turkey produces some of the world's finest pomegranate, and the drying process concentrates both the sweetness and the tartness into a flavour that raw pomegranate cannot match. The arils are dried slowly, without heat treatment, to preserve the anthocyanins that give pomegranate its characteristic ruby colour and antioxidant profile. The result is intense: a brief, jewel-like burst that arrives at the peak of the harissa heat and resets the palate entirely.

The decision to use whole sun-dried arils rather than pomegranate powder or concentrate was deliberate. Powder homogenises the flavour. The whole aril preserves the burst — the moment of tartness that interrupts and resets. We source from a single cooperative in the Gaziantep region, where pomegranate cultivation has been continuous for over two thousand years. The address matters.

Used in: 06 · Harissa & Pomegranate

“Every ingredient has an address.
We know every one of ours.”

Novra Foods · European Provenance · Arabian Gulf Standard