Alphonso, Totapuri or Kesar: choosing a mango variety for powder
2026-10-05
An enquiry for mango powder that does not name a variety will get quoted on whatever the processing partner has in tank. That is not necessarily wrong, but it means the buyer has delegated a decision that changes colour, flavour, acidity and price by a wide margin.
India grows several hundred mango varieties and a handful matter commercially for pulp and powder. Three come up repeatedly in export enquiries.
Alphonso is the premium name. Grown principally in the Konkan belt of Maharashtra, it carries intense aroma, deep saffron colour and high sweetness. It is also the most expensive and the most seasonal, and supply is genuinely constrained in a poor year. If your product is sold on mango character and carries a price that can absorb it, Alphonso is the one buyers recognise by name.
Totapuri is the industrial workhorse, grown mainly in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It is more acidic, less aromatic, paler in colour and available in far greater volume at substantially lower cost. The majority of exported Indian mango pulp is Totapuri, and for a beverage base, a bakery filling or a seasoning where mango is one note among several, it is usually the sensible default.
Kesar sits between the two. Gujarat-grown, strongly coloured, aromatic, and less expensive than Alphonso. It is a reasonable compromise where colour matters but the Alphonso premium cannot be justified.
Blends exist and are legitimate. A Totapuri base with an Alphonso fraction is common where a processor wants recognisable aroma at a controlled cost. The important thing is that the blend is stated rather than discovered.
Seasonality is real and worth planning around. Indian mango harvest runs roughly March to July depending on variety and region, pulp is produced in that window, and powder is made from aseptically stored pulp through the year. Prices and lead times move with the harvest and with how the previous season closed. A supplier who quotes a flat price in any month without mentioning the cycle is either carrying old stock or has not checked.
One more distinction that causes confusion in enquiries. Mango powder and amchur are not the same product. Amchur is dried unripe green mango, sour rather than sweet, used as a souring agent in savoury cooking. If your application needs acidity rather than mango flavour, amchur is what you want and it is quoted differently.
Put the variety, the colour you need, the mesh, the maximum moisture and the carrier limit on the enquiry. We will confirm in writing what is achievable in the current season before anything is produced.