Terms of service

1. About us

This website, thehouseofmalabar.com, is run by The House of Malabar, based in Switzerland (“we”, “us”, “our”). You can contact us at hello@thehouseofmalabar.com.

These terms apply to every order you place on our website. Please read them before ordering. By placing an order, you confirm that you accept them. If you are buying as a consumer, nothing in these terms affects the rights you have under the law of the country where you live.

2. Our products

We sell premixed Indian spice blends. Each packet contains the spices for one recipe for two people. Product photos are for illustration, and the colour and texture of natural spices can vary slightly from batch to batch.

Recipes on our website are suggestions for using our spice mixes. Cooking times, ingredients and quantities are guides, and you are responsible for cooking food safely, including making sure meat, fish and eggs are cooked through.

3. Ingredients, allergens and storage

Every product page lists the spices in the blend and its allergens. Please read this information, and the label on the packet, before use. Our spice mixes are packed in an environment that also handles nuts, sesame and gluten, so they may contain traces of these. If you have an allergy or intolerance, please contact us before ordering if you are unsure about any product.

Keep packets in a cool, dry place away from sunlight, and use each packet in one go once opened.

4. Prices and currencies

Prices are shown per packet, in the currency you choose on our website (Swiss francs, euros, pounds or US dollars), and include VAT where it applies. Shipping costs are shown in your cart before you pay and on the checkout page.

Your card provider may charge a currency conversion fee if you pay in a currency different from your card’s currency. We are not responsible for these charges.

We work hard to make sure our prices are correct. If we discover an obvious pricing error after you order, we will contact you and you can either confirm the order at the correct price or cancel it for a full refund.

5. Placing an order

When you complete checkout, you make an offer to buy the products in your cart. We will send you an email confirming that we have received your order and payment. A contract between you and us is formed when we dispatch your order.

We may decline an order, for example if a product is unavailable, we cannot deliver to your address, or we suspect fraud. If we do, we will tell you and refund any payment in full.

You must be at least 18 years old, or have the consent of a parent or guardian, to place an order.

6. Payment

Payments are processed securely by Stripe. We accept the payment methods shown at checkout, which may include cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and local payment methods. We never see or store your full card details. Payment is taken when you complete checkout.

7. Delivery

We ship to the countries listed in our cart. Orders are usually packed within one to two working days and sent untracked by first class letter post. Delivery usually takes 3 to 7 working days within Europe and the UK, and 5 to 12 working days elsewhere. These times are estimates and are not guaranteed, as delivery depends on postal services in each country.

Please make sure your delivery address is correct and complete. If an order is returned to us because of an incorrect address, we will contact you to arrange resending, and may ask you to pay the postage again.

If your order has not arrived within the delivery window for your country, please email us with your order reference. We will send a replacement or give you a full refund.

The products become your responsibility once they are delivered to the address you gave us.

8. Customs, duties and taxes

Depending on your country, import VAT, customs duties or a handling fee may be charged when your order arrives. Where we collect these taxes at checkout, we will show this before you pay. Otherwise, any charges made by your country’s customs or postal service are your responsibility.

It is also your responsibility to check that food products such as spices can be imported into your country. If a parcel is refused or destroyed by customs because of local import rules, we cannot offer a refund.

9. Cancelling your order and returns

Before dispatch. You can cancel your order free of charge at any time before we dispatch it. Email us as soon as possible, ideally within two hours of ordering, and we will refund you in full.

After delivery. If you live in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you have a legal right to cancel your purchase within 14 days of receiving it, without giving a reason. To do so, email us within those 14 days. You must then return the products within a further 14 days, at your own cost. This right does not apply to packets that have been opened after delivery, as sealed food cannot be resold once opened for health and hygiene reasons. We offer the same 14 day cancellation for unopened packets to customers in every other country.

Damaged, incorrect or missing items. If anything arrives damaged, incorrect or missing, email us within 14 days of delivery with your order reference and a photo where possible. We will send a replacement or give you a full refund, including postage, and you will not need to return anything.

10. Refunds

We refund to your original payment method. For cancellations before dispatch and for damaged, incorrect or missing items, we refund within 14 days of agreeing the refund. For returns of unopened packets, we refund the product price and the original standard shipping cost within 14 days of receiving the returned packets. Your bank may take a few extra days to show the refund.

11. Our website and content

All text, recipes, photographs, designs and logos on this website belong to The House of Malabar or are used with permission. You may use them for your own personal, non commercial cooking, but you may not copy, sell or republish them without our written permission.

Links to other websites, such as recipes by other chefs, are provided for your interest. We are not responsible for the content of those websites.

12. Our responsibility to you

If we fail to meet these terms, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our failure, up to the value of your order. We are not responsible for loss or damage that is not foreseeable, or for business losses.

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability where this is not allowed by law, including for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for your legal rights as a consumer in relation to faulty products.

13. Events outside our control

We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control, such as postal strikes, natural disasters, pandemics or restrictions by public authorities. If this happens, we will contact you and you may cancel your order for a full refund of any products not yet sent.

14. Your personal data

We use your personal data only as described in our privacy policy.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The terms that apply to your order are the ones shown on our website when you placed it.

16. Law and disputes

These terms are governed by Swiss law. If you are a consumer living in another country, you also keep the protection of the mandatory consumer laws of that country, and you may bring a claim in the courts of your country of residence.

If you have a complaint, please contact us first at hello@thehouseofmalabar.com. We will do our best to resolve it quickly and fairly.