Why ATE exists.
Born in India. Raised in London. My name is Ansh Vora, and this is my answer to the question: why has nobody done this properly yet?
From the founder
I moved to the UK as an international student and noticed one thing quickly: there was not a single Indian snacking brand on shelf that was actually good. Not "fine for the ethnic aisle" good. Actually good. The kind of thing you pick up because you want it, not because it reminds you of home and there is nothing else there.
India has one of the best snacking cultures in the world, and almost none of it exists on a UK shelf in a form that can compete on taste and craft, not just on nostalgia. The gap was obvious. The question was simple: why has nobody done this properly yet?
Makhana was the obvious place to start. Genuinely one of the healthiest snacks out there, light, low fat, high protein, nothing to explain away. Outside India, almost nobody knows what it is, let alone has tried it done well. That is rare: a real product with a real health case and basically no competition.
Take makhana, something that belongs to India and barely exists anywhere else, and build it out with flavours the whole world already loves, not just flavours that read as "Indian." Instead of hiding where it is from, put that front and centre. Every flavour gets a city, and every city shows up on the packaging as actual art, not a logo stuck on a bag.
— Ansh Vora, founder
Two problems, one door.
In the UK, healthy snacking has mostly meant protein bars, plain nuts and rice cakes. Functional. Fine. Not exciting. Indian snacking barely exists in gourmet retail. When it does, it lives in the ethnic aisle, is priced lower, and is sold as heritage food rather than something a Fortnum & Mason shopper would pick because it is genuinely good.
Makhana is still basically unknown outside India. Most people in the UK have never tried it and cannot pronounce it. That is a real barrier. It is also the opening: nobody else has taken the space yet.
The door we're walking through.
Gourmet UK retail wants snacking that feels premium without feeling generic. Shelf space that used to belong to European deli brands has opened up to bolder, global flavours, as long as the execution is credible. Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason both stock brands with a strong point of view, not just brands with scale. That is the door ATE is walking through.
The city and flavour system is the clearest expression of this. Indian flavours, global moods, with every flavour given the city that matches its vibe, not its origin, and told through art on the pack instead of a paragraph explaining it. That lets ATE sit next to European gourmet snacks while staying rooted in India. And it means the brand can keep growing. The next flavour just needs a mood and a city to match. Nothing more complicated than that.
To make Indian snacking a normal part of the global gourmet shelf. Not a novelty. Not a heritage nod. Just where people reach when they want something good.
To take makhana, an ingredient almost nobody outside India knows, and give it flavours and a form that a London gourmet shopper reaches for on taste alone. One city at a time.