Byadgi Chilli Colour Without the Heat

The wrinkled, deep-red Karnataka chilli bought for its colour value rather than its pungency — and the reason a mild masala can still look vivid.

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Deep red dried chillies hung and spread to dry
Karnataka · HS 0904.21

Bought for ASTA, Not SHU

Byadgi is the counterintuitive chilli. It is mild — well below the Guntur varieties on the Scoville scale — yet it commands a premium, because its extractable colour is among the highest of any Indian chilli. For an oleoresin plant, a mild retail masala or any product that needs to look intensely red without becoming hot, that combination is the whole point.

This is the clearest practical illustration of why SHU and ASTA are separate specifications. A buyer who assumes redder means hotter will specify Byadgi and get a product that looks right and tastes flat, or specify Teja and get one that burns but photographs dull.

What It Is Used For

Three applications dominate. Oleoresin and colour extraction is the largest — Byadgi's colour yield per tonne is what makes the extraction economics work. Mild masala and curry powder blends are the second, where it supplies the visual identity while a small proportion of a hotter variety supplies the heat. Retail whole-chilli lines are the third, where the distinctive wrinkled pod is recognisable to consumers in South Indian cooking.

It is also commonly blended with Teja or Sannam to hit an agreed point on both scales at once — which is exactly how our red chilli powder is built to a 60–120 ASTA and 25,000–50,000 SHU specification without anything being added to it.

Whole Dried Red Chillies Red Chilli Powder Guntur Chilli

Sourcing and Testing

Byadgi is grown in the Haveri belt of Karnataka and dried to the same discipline as our Guntur material: 10–11% moisture, turned daily, hand-sorted after stemming. Because colour is the reason the variety is bought, drying is watched more closely here than anywhere else in the range — an over-long dry-down costs exactly the property you are paying for.

Every lot carries batch-level ASTA and SHU figures, plus aflatoxin, ochratoxin A and Sudan dye screening. Quote the ASTA figure you need and we will tell you honestly whether the current crop can meet it.

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