Long before industrial refineries and chemical solvents, Indian households got their cooking oil from a “ghani” — a wooden or stone oil press, traditionally turned by bullocks and later adapted to run on electricity, that crushes seeds slowly at low temperatures to release their natural oil. It’s a method that’s centuries old, and at a time when most oil in the market is refined for speed and shelf life, it’s worth asking why the old way still matters.
What Makes the Ghani Method Different
A ghani doesn’t rush the process. Seeds are crushed gradually under mechanical pressure, generating minimal heat — nothing close to the high temperatures used in industrial refining. There are no solvents, no bleaching agents, no deodorizing steps. What comes out the other end is simply the oil the seed already contained, unlocked mechanically rather than chemically extracted.
This slowness is exactly the point. Lower heat means the oil’s natural nutrients, antioxidants, and flavor compounds stay intact instead of breaking down.
A Method Rooted in Real Kitchens
For generations, families relied on ghani-pressed oil not because it was trendy, but because it was simply how oil was made — pressed locally, used fresh, and trusted because you often knew exactly where the seeds came from.
That direct connection between source and kitchen has mostly disappeared from how most people buy oil today. Modern supply chains prioritize volume and shelf life, and in that shift, a lot of the transparency — and a lot of the nutrition — got lost along the way.
Why We Chose to Go Back to It
At Sunsa Organics, every oil we produce is pressed using this traditional method — slow, mechanical, and free of heat or chemical shortcuts. We source real ingredients — Kadiri groundnuts from Andhra Pradesh, coconuts from coastal groves, sesame, sunflower, safflower, and mustard seeds selected for quality — and press them the way oil has been pressed for generations, with modern hygiene and quality standards layered on top.
More Than a Manufacturing Choice
For us, this isn’t only about a production method. It’s about the idea that the food we eat every day should be as unprocessed and honest as possible — the same belief that shaped kitchens for generations before industrial shortcuts became the norm.
That’s the thinking behind everything we make: oil pressed the traditional way, for the people who still care what’s actually in their food.
Made with love, for the ones we love.