Born in the wilds of Assam.
Between the Brahmaputra river and the tea gardens of Northeast India grows a banana no supermarket will ever stock: the seed-heavy, wild Bhim Kol. Assam has been turning its peel into liquid gold for centuries.
খাৰ খোৱা: the people who eat khar.
In Assam, khar is not a supplement. It is the first course of a traditional meal, a light, earthy dish that prepares the stomach for everything that follows. It is so beloved that Assamese people affectionately call themselves khar khuwa Axomiya: the khar-eating Assamese.
The Bhim Kol itself is one of Assam’s first foods: its pulp traditionally fed to infants, its blossoms and stem cooked into curries, and its peel transformed by fire into the alkaline heart of the cuisine.
Musa balbisiana
Most commercial bananas are seedless clones. The Bhim Kol is the wild original: dense with seeds, impossible to industrialize, and extraordinarily rich in minerals. Its thick peel yields an ash uniquely high in potassium carbonate, which is exactly what makes true kol khar impossible to fake with other varieties.
“In every Assamese home I know, a bottle of khar lives beside the stove. Nobody measures it; your grandmother’s hands just know. When I left Assam, I watched the world drink harsh vinegar for the very things khar has quietly done for us for generations. KHAR is my way of carrying a little of my home to your table: made the old way, shared the new way, with the farmers of Assam in every bottle.”
The Founder অসম · Assam
The journey of the ash
Four steps. No factories. The recipe hasn’t changed in living memory. We’ve only added lab testing and amber glass.
Harvesting the Bhim Kol
Wild and homestead-grown Bhim Kol bananas are gathered across smallholder farms in Assam. The fruit is eaten or sold; we take only the peels that would otherwise be thrown away.
Sun-drying the peels
Peels are laid out under the Assamese sun for days until every trace of moisture is gone. Slow, natural drying concentrates the minerals and prepares the peel for a clean burn.
The slow burning
The dried peels are burned to a fine, pale ash, the way Assamese kitchens have always done it. Nothing is added; fire does all the work.
The natural water filtration
The ash rests in a traditional filter (historically a cone of banana leaf or a perforated vessel) and pure water percolates through it, drop by drop. The amber liquid that emerges is khar: filtered, tested, and bottled.
A product made entirely of waste.
KHAR may be the rare premium product whose main ingredient is something the world throws away.
Zero-waste by design
We use only the peels of a heavily seeded wild banana, a byproduct that would otherwise be discarded. No crop is grown for KHAR; no food is diverted from anyone’s plate.
Farmer-first sourcing
Peels are bought directly from smallholder growers in Assam, turning agricultural waste into a second income stream for the communities who have kept this tradition alive.
Glass, not plastic
Amber glass bottles, aluminium caps, paper labels. Refill pouches are on the roadmap for launch year one.