I saw this one several months ago, at the alternate Shop-Rite. From the name and what it looked like, I initially assumed it was from India. But, then I read that it was distributed by an American LLC, out of Georgia. However, looking further, the food was actually made in Australia. Specifically, it was the bhuja cracker mix, from the Majans company.
The Majans official company website was one of those terse ones. So I got only a bare bones history, which lacked much detail. Anyway, the business began in 1960, when an unidentified member, or members of the Raniga family went door to door selling Indian spices and foods, in Brisbane, Australia. In 1984 the company started marketing a bhuja mix. All told, there are five kinds of the bhuja mix. The cracker one that I tried, plus the original mix, the nut mix, the beer mix, and the crunchy seasoned peas. According to LinkedIn, the number of Majans employees is between 51-200, and the current directors are Kam and Rick Raniga, who are presumably descendants of the founding Raniga member or members. (Unless the founding Ranigas are still going strong aged 95 or something.) Moving on, bhuja is a generic name for an Indian snack that was reportedly developed in the Indian city of Kantabanji in 1970. Bhuja consists of puffed rice mixed with items like crackers, dried noodles, dried peas, peanuts, other nuts, and spices. Additionally, the Majans products are free of GMOs, gluten, all meat and animal products, artificial ingredients, and are suitable for vegetarians and vegans. It was also a relief to find no articles detailing the Majans company's mistreatment of its employees, or its products causing any babies to become dangerously ill.
Majans bhuja cracker mix: Present were green peas, yellow crackers, brown peanuts, yellow rods, brown crackers, and raisins. Crunchy. Not spicy, though. Kind of blandish. Okay, but not great. I was a bit surprised that an Indian snack wasn't more spicy. So overall this snack was alright, but the lack of spice bite was definitely disappointing. I've had other mixes of this sort, and those tasted a little better.
As luck would have it, Brisbane is actually a city that I've visited, as a friend of mine (Hi Dan!) lived there for a time back about 20 years ago. I enjoyed it, although the summer heat was fierce. Because of its size (a population of about 2,600,000), Brisbane had had several famous denizens. Bowen Yang is of Chinese ancestry, but he was born in Brisbane. Although he spent almost all of his childhood in Canada and the U.S. Yang has written and acted on "Saturday Night Live" since 2018. The lead singer of the band Savage Garden, Darren Hayes, was also born in Brisbane. As was actress Miranda Otto, who's appeared in such films as "Daydream Believer" (1992), "The Well" (1997), "The Thin Red Line" (1998). "Human Nature" (2001), "War of the Worlds" (2005), and "The Silence" (2019). But she's surely best known for playing Eowyn in the last 2 "Lord of the Rings" movies (2002-03). Tennis player Roy Emerson, was born elsewhere, but spent much of his life in Brisbane. Emerson was a Hall of Famer, amassing a lifetime singles record of 1397-416, 110 career singles titles, 12 Grand Slam singles titles, and 16 Grand Slam doubles titles. Samantha Stosur was also a tennis player, and also was Brisbane-born. She finished with a lifetime singles record of 607-457 and 9 career singles titles, including the Grand Slam U.S Open in 2011. She also won 4 Grand Slam doubles titles (of 28 total doubles titles), and 3 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. She retired earlier this year, and will presumably be elected into the Tennis Hall of Fame sometime in the near future.
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