Two numbers decide the variety
Every chilli specification comes down to pungency and colour. Pungency is measured in Scoville Heat Units (SHU), today calculated from capsaicinoid content by HPLC rather than tasted. Colour is measured as ASTA colour value, the extractable red pigment read by spectrophotometer under ASTA method 20.1. Moisture, mesh, ash and microbiology matter for shelf life and safety, but SHU and ASTA are what make one variety right and another wrong for a product.
Indian varieties cover an unusually wide range of both: from the fiercely hot, moderately coloured Teja to the mild, deeply red Byadgi. That range is why India supplies roughly a third of the world's dried chilli exports and why an importer can usually find the target within one origin.
The five commercial varieties side by side
Typical values on the current crop. Guaranteed values are confirmed per lot on the certificate of analysis.
| Variety | Heat, SHU | Colour, ASTA | Skin and pod | Grown in | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teja S17 | 75,000 to 100,000 | 50 to 70 | Thin skin, 6 to 9 cm, bright red | Guntur, Prakasam (AP); Khammam (Telangana) | Oleoresin and capsaicin extraction, hot sauces, instant-noodle seasonings, hot masala blends |
| Sannam S4 (334) | 25,000 to 40,000 | 30 to 50 | Thick glossy skin, 7 to 10 cm | Guntur belt (GI: Guntur Sannam) | All-purpose retail powder, spice packers, food service, whole pods for pickling |
| 341 | 25,000 to 50,000 | 90 to 120 | Medium skin, deep red | Guntur belt | Blends that must look as good as they taste, tandoori and tikka bases, sauces |
| Byadgi (Kaddi, Dabbi) | 8,000 to 15,000 | 150 to 200 | Wrinkled, thin, dark crimson | Haveri, Dharwad, Gadag (Karnataka; GI: Byadagi) | Natural colour extraction, paprika-style seasonings, mild rich curries |
| Kashmiri-type | 1,500 to 5,000 | 120 to 180 | Low-heat pods selected for colour | Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh low-heat pods | Colour where heat is unwanted: ready meals, marinades, retail "Kashmiri chilli" packs |
Which one for your product
- Hot sauce, chilli oil, extraction. Teja S17. It gave the highest oleoresin yield among nineteen Indian cultivars in a published comparison and delivers clean heat per rupee.
- Retail chilli powder, curry bases, food service. Sannam S4. Balanced heat and colour, thick skin that mills into a stable powder, the benchmark against which Indian chilli is priced.
- Seasonings that must be red and warm. 341, or a Sannam and Byadgi blend. 341 gives 90 to 120 ASTA with medium heat from a single variety.
- Natural colour, paprika-style applications, mild dishes. Byadgi. Its ASTA rivals paprika at a fraction of the pungency.
- Colour with almost no heat. Kashmiri-type, typically under 5,000 SHU.
- A fixed specification year after year. A blend. Single varieties drift with the season; a two- or three-variety blend can be re-balanced each lot to hold, say, 45,000 SHU at 90 ASTA.
Whole pods and flakes
The same varieties are exported as whole dried pods (HS 0904.21) for buyers who grind at destination or need visible chillies for pickling and retail, and as flakes or crushed chilli (HS 0904.22) cut 2 to 6 mm with, reduced or without seeds. Teja flakes are the pizzeria standard for heat; Sannam gives a balanced flake; Byadgi and 341 give a red, mild flake for toppings.
Whole pods are graded by length, colour and percentage of broken pods, supplied with stem or de-stemmed. Moisture is held below 12 percent for pods and below 10 percent for powder and flakes at packing.
How the varieties are priced
Prices move with the Guntur auction, the size of the crop and Chinese demand for Teja, so no guide can quote a number that survives a season. What holds is the order. Byadgi and high-colour grades sit at the top of the price band because colour is scarcer than heat. Teja follows, driven by extraction demand. Sannam is the benchmark in the middle. Blends are priced by their ingredients.
Price per tonne is only half the calculation. A powder with higher ASTA colours a sauce at a lower dosage; a hotter powder heats it at a lower dosage. Buyers who cost their recipe by colour units or heat units delivered per kilogram often find the more expensive variety cheaper in use.
Questions on this topic
Which Indian chilli powder is best for export?
It depends on the target specification. Teja S17 is best for heat (75,000 to 100,000 SHU), Sannam S4 for a balanced all-purpose powder (25,000 to 40,000 SHU), 341 for colour with medium heat (90 to 120 ASTA), Byadgi for deep colour with gentle heat (150 to 200 ASTA) and Kashmiri-type for vivid colour and very mild heat. Richvane supplies all five from Guntur and Karnataka and blends them to a stated SHU and ASTA.
What is the hottest chilli exported from India?
Among commercial export varieties, Teja S17 from Guntur and Prakasam is the hottest at 75,000 to 100,000 SHU. Bhut Jolokia from the north-east is far hotter but is a niche crop, not a container commodity.
What is the difference between Byadgi and Kashmiri chilli?
Byadgi is a named variety from Karnataka with a geographical indication, 150 to 200 ASTA and 8,000 to 15,000 SHU. Kashmiri chilli, as sold commercially, is a low-heat high-colour grade produced mainly from Byadgi-type and other mild pods rather than a variety grown in Kashmir. Byadgi is usually the higher-colour and higher-priced of the two.
What is Sannam S4 or 334 chilli?
Sannam, also traded as S4 or 334 after the LCA-334 variety bred at Lam, Guntur, is the highest-volume chilli grown in the Guntur belt and carries the Guntur Sannam geographical indication. It has thick glossy skin, 25,000 to 40,000 SHU and 30 to 50 ASTA, and is the benchmark Indian chilli powder worldwide.
Can I get a chilli powder with exactly 50,000 SHU and 100 ASTA?
Yes, as a fixed-ratio blend. No single variety sits reliably at that point, so Richvane blends, for example, Teja for heat with 341 or Byadgi for colour, verifies the blend by HPLC and ASTA 20.1 at an accredited laboratory, and holds the ratio batch to batch.
Sources
- ASTA Method 20.1, extractable colour in Capsicums, and Method 21.3, pungency by HPLC, American Spice Trade Association analytical methods
- Geographical Indications Registry, India: Guntur Sannam chilli (application 143) and Byadagi chilli (application 129)
- Spices Board of India, chilli varieties and export statistics
- Richvane product specifications