How GI-tagged saffron is graded

Every autumn, the fields around Pampore turn violet for barely three weeks. What happens in the following seventy-two hours decides whether a harvest becomes grade-1 mongra or something far less remarkable.

The three grades

Mongra is the tip of the stigma — deep crimson, cut clean, with no yellow style attached. Lachha keeps the style attached; it's gentler and better suited to daily kahwa. Zarda, the yellow style alone, has little culinary value and is where most adulteration hides.

If a tin smells overwhelming before you open it, be suspicious. Real mongra is quiet until it hits warm milk.

What the GI tag checks

The geographical indication requires the crocus to be grown in the karewa soils of Pampore, hand-picked at dawn, and dried the same day. Labs verify crocin, picrocrocin and safranal against ISO 3632 Category I thresholds.