Who Is Chennamma Ajji? The Story Behind Our Cold Pressed Oils

September 16, 2026

Chennamma Ajji is a small Karnataka company that makes cold pressed (wood pressed) cooking oils. It began with a simple frustration: the oil on supermarket shelves no longer tasted like the oil we grew up with. This is our story, what we make, how we make it, and how you can check what we tell you.

Why we started

Many of us remember a grandmother's kitchen where the groundnut oil smelled of groundnut and the ellenne was dark and strong. The bottles in the modern aisle were paler and thinner, and they smelled of nothing at all.

That isn't nostalgia. Somewhere along the way, cooking oil stopped being treated as food and became a commodity. Most of it is now chemically extracted, bleached and deodorised, and it's made to last on a shelf rather than to taste of the seed it came from. So we went back to the slow way our grandmothers' generation knew.

What we make

We press seed that Karnataka kitchens actually cook with:

Groundnut oil (kadalekai enne), the everyday frying oil
Sesame oil (ellenne) for ogarane, pickles and the oil bath
Coconut oil (kobbari enne) for coastal cooking
Niger oil (huchchellu enne), a North Karnataka staple
Sunflower, safflower (kusube), mustard and castor oil, plus deepam oil for pooja lamps

Our niger oil is a good example of how we decide what to make. Most national brands don't press it, because it isn't a mass-market oil. North Karnataka households still need it for ennegayi and jolada rotti, so we make it. You can see the full range in our oils collection.

How we make it

Every bottle is cold pressed. We don't apply heat, and nothing is added or taken away after pressing. In short:

We buy seed directly from Karnataka farmers, not through commodity traders. That way we know the grade and the season, and we can turn down a lot that isn't good enough.
We clean and sort the seed to remove stones, husk and damaged kernels. Damaged seed makes bitter oil that spoils faster.
We press it slowly. A slow press creates little friction, so the oil stays below roughly 50°C. No hexane or other solvent is used.
We let the oil settle naturally, then pass it through a simple filter.
We bottle in small batches so the oil reaches you fresh and hasn't sat in a warehouse.

This way of making oil is slower and costs more, and it gets less oil from each kilogram of seed than solvent extraction does. We accept that trade-off. Our process page explains each step in more detail.

What we won't do

No chemical or solvent extraction
No bleaching or deodorising
No preservatives, additives or artificial colour
No blending with cheaper oils

That's why our oil looks darker than refined oil, smells strongly of its seed and may leave a little sediment at the bottom. That is what unrefined oil is supposed to look like.

Check us, don't just trust us

We would rather you check our claims than take our word for them.

FSSAI licence 1122632300006. We print it on every label. Type it into the FSSAI FoSCoS portal to confirm it's valid.
Customer reviews. More than 8,600 customers have reviewed our oils, with an average rating of 4.65 out of 5.
Home tests. Our guide on how to check if cooking oil is pure works on any brand, including ours.

Made in Karnataka, shipped across India

Our seed comes from Karnataka and most of our customers cook Karnataka food, so that's who we make our oil for. We also ship across India. Orders are packed in 2–3 business days. At checkout you can choose free delivery (7–14 days), standard delivery for ₹49 (3–7 days) or express delivery for ₹99 (1–3 days). We have delivery pages for Mysuru, Bengaluru and other Karnataka cities.

We're a small team, and we answer our own messages. You can reach us at contact@chennammaajji.com or on WhatsApp at +91 99009 93370.