​Masaleydaar® Spices Secures Federal Trademark Registration, Renews Orange County Cottage Food License

Atlanta-based author's small-batch spice line built around a chili allergy is now a registered trademark, sold direct from a licensed home kitchen in Orange County, California.

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ORANGE COUNTY, CALIF., [July 11, 2026] —

Masaleydaar® Spices, the small-batch Indian spice blend line created by cookbook author Nandita Godbole, has received federal trademark registration from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The registration lands the same year Godbole renewed her cottage food operator's license in Orange County (License Number PR133664), a permit that allows her to make and ship every blend directly from her home kitchen.

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Masaleydaar® began as a companion to Godbole's cookbook of the same name, Masaleydaar: Classic Spice Blends (2023), winner of a Gourmand World Cookbook Award. The line now covers a dozen regional blends, including a peppery Puducherry Style Garam Masala, a fragrant Gujarati Daal Masala, and two versions of Kashmiri Garam Masala, Pandit Style and Vaer Style. Each blend is tied to a specific Indian region rather than a single, generalized flavor profile, an approach Godbole built after developing a food sensitivity to green chilies, an ingredient long treated as central to Indian cooking.

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"Every recipe in this line got rebuilt from the chili outward," Godbole said. "Once I couldn't rely on it, I had to figure out what it was actually doing in a dish, the heat, the acid, the way it bridges other flavors, and reconstruct that balance with other ingredients. The trademark makes that method something I can protect and keep building on."

 

Godbole spoke about the broader version of that reasoning in a TEDx talk earlier this year, "Crack the Code to Creativity," delivered at TEDx Johns Creek. The talk frames a hard constraint, examined directly instead of avoided, as a workable method rather than an obstacle, a theme that runs through both her spice blends and her ceramics practice under Mrttika by Nandita.

 

Masaleydaar® blends are made in small batches and shipped within a week of production, in 3 oz and 15 oz sizes. Orders over $100 include a handmade ceramic spice bowl or spoon rest from Mrttika by Nandita. The full line and ordering details are available at currycravingskitchen.com/masaleydaar-spices.

 

About Nandita Godbole

Nandita Godbole is an Atlanta-based cookbook author, food and culture journalist, and ceramicist. She has independently published seven cookbooks under her Turmeric Press imprint, including the Gourmand World Cookbook Award-winning Masaleydaar: Classic Indian Spice Blends. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Eater, Matador Network, Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia, Reader's Digest, and Khabar, among others. She sits on the board of the AAJA Atlanta chapter and is a member of Association of Journalists & Authors, Atlanta Press Club, and Les Dames d'Escoffier.

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Media Contact

Nandita Godbole email: currycravings@gmail.com

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Masaleydaar® is a registered trademark of Nandita Godbole.

 

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