Indian tea time has three essential features – A piping hot cup of chai (obviously), masaledaar gossip, and snacks! Apart from the regular rusk, biscuits, and namkeen, chai puri is a hot favorite in most homes. Some people call them mini-matthis, while some call them mathri. We took two readily available brands that produce tea time puris – Haldiram’s Chai Puri and Garden Tea Time Puri. A heated chai-puri session at the Mishry office left us all divided. Finally, after multiple tasting sessions, we chose Garden Tea Time Puri as our winner based purely on ONE thing – How well do they taste as it is. No pickle, no accompaniments.
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Mishry Top Pick: Garden Tea Time Puri
Garden Tea Time Puri
Our winner, Garden Tea Time Puri is packed with desi flavors that go beautifully well with your evening chai.
MRP – Rs 44/-
*Price at the time of review
Why is Garden Tea Time Puri our Top Pick?
Garden Tea Time Puri comes in a normal namkeen style bag packaging. They are priced at Rs 44/- for a 160 gram pack.
The taste – This is the biggest positive point about this tea-time snack. The puris are crunchy, and have a good bite. The zeera and sesame flavors are dominant. The seasoning is well-balanced. These are delicious with out without any accompaniment, but a hot cup of tea along makes the experience even better.
This is the better, tastier product to enjoy at home. If you want to go for a plain puri/mathri which you don’t intend to have with a pickle, then Garden Tea Time Puri is a good option.
The texture – Though bigger than its competetor, Garden Tea Time Puri are tad on the crumbly side. However, the flavor department makes up for that easily.
Haldiram’s Chai Puri Was Not Far Behind.
Priced at Rs 45/- for a 200 grams pack, Haldiram’s Chai Puri comes with small serving of mixed-veg achaar with it, which has a shelf life of 9 months. The product comes in a plastic tray/case and there were no broken puris in the packets we bought. 100 grams of Haldiram’s Chai Puri provides 528 kcal of energy.
The size of the puris is slightly smaller than the Garden Tea Time Puri.
The achaar is a standard mixed veg pickle that you get in all Haldiram stores. This would be better majorly because of the packaging.
You can have it plain with chai or have it with the pickle given in the pack. It’s a multi-utility snack and for that convenience, these are a slightly better option for travel times, short road trips, or overnight train journeys.
Haldiram’s Chai Puri are seasoned keeping the achaar in mind. Individually, these puris are not as flavorful, but with achaar, they come out really well.
Price, Features & Calorific Value Comparison | Haldiram’s Chai Puri Vs Garden Tea Time Puri
Both the puris are very similar to look at. The price is almost the same and so are the calorific values.
| Parameters | Haldiram’s Chai Puri | Garden Tea Time Puri |
| Price | Rs 45/- | Rs 44/- |
| Net Weight | 200 grams | 160 grams |
| Add-ons | Comes with a mixed vegetable pickle | No accompaniments |
| Packaging | In a tray | Like a regular namkeen bag |
The Review Process – Contenders, Parameters and How We Reviewed
The contenders – We picked two brands that produce tea time puris and are easily available at big supermarkets as well as your corner grocery store.
- Haldiram’s Chai Puri
- Garden Tea Time Puri
The Parameters – We considered only ONE prime factor – taste. More importantly, we considered how well do the puris taste individually without any pickles and accompaniments.
How we reviewed – To review these puris, we set out our masala chais and began our gossip session (Just kidding! But you know, this is how it should have been done). On a serious note, our review session DID include cups of tea because that’s how they are supposed to be enjoyed. We tasted them side-by-side. There was such a slight difference in their appearance and texture that it could have easily confused anyone. After a lot of contemplation and arguments amongst the review team, we chose our winner. The Garden Tea Time Puri tasted really good as it is with the tea while the Haldiram’s Chai Puri tasted better with the pickle.
Nutritionally, both contain trans-fats. So, obviously, these should be eaten as occasional snacks. Even though they are both meant as tea time snacks, having these daily will definitely lead to a shift in your waist size.
Puri, mathi, mathri – whatever you may call them, eating some with your evening tea is soul satisfying. Tell us about your favorite tea-time snack in the comment box below!
Results Of The Face-Off
We had a really hard time choosing the Top Pick in this Face-Off. But after putting a lot of thought into it, we chose Garden Tea Time Puri as our winner.
Garden Tea Time Puri is a standalone tea-time snack. It is tasty and has the right kind of desi flavors that we all love with our evening chai. Tea Time Puri by Garden is indeed a great way to make your evening tea time more flavourful.
* If you do agree with our review, please give it a thumbs up! And, tell us which one is your favorite from this list. If you don’t, please tell us why!
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* No part of this review is sponsored by any brand. All expenses were borne by us.