Our Roasted Chana has two ingredients on the label: chickpeas and salt. That is the entire list, and it is the shortest one we print.

People assume roasted automatically means better. It is more interesting than that.

What roasting does

Roasting drives moisture out with dry heat. The chickpea shrinks, the starch inside sets hard, and the outer skin blisters and separates slightly. What you get is a dense, brittle crunch that breaks cleanly rather than shattering.

Flavour-wise, roasting concentrates what is already there. A roasted chana tastes more like a chickpea than a raw one does. Nothing is added, so nothing is masked.

What frying does that roasting cannot

Frying is faster and it works from the outside in, so it creates a crisp shell around a softer interior. That contrast is the whole appeal of a good bhujiya or a fresh gathiya — the snap, then the give.

Oil also carries flavour in a way water and dry heat do not. Spices bloom in hot oil. This is why a fried mix can taste layered while a roasted one tastes clean and singular.

Anyone who tells you frying is simply worse has not thought about it very hard. They are different tools.

Where it actually matters

The honest difference is not roasted versus fried. It is how often the oil is changed.

Oil breaks down every time it is heated. Reused too long, it turns and takes the snack with it — that stale, slightly bitter edge you get from a packet that has sat too long in the wrong supply chain. Continuous industrial fryers run for hours at a stretch.

We fry in small batches rather than on a continuous line, which means the oil gets changed far more often than it would otherwise. That is the reason our fried packets taste the way they do, and it costs more than the alternative.

So which should you buy?

If you want something you can eat by the handful through an afternoon without it feeling heavy, take the roasted chana. If you want the thing that goes with cha and disappears in one sitting, take a fried mix.

Most cupboards should have one of each.