Mongra, Lachha or Zarda? Kashmiri Saffron Grades in Plain Words
Kashmir sorts its saffron by how much of the flower stays on the thread. Here is what each name means, what the ISO categories add, and which one belongs in your kitchen.
NutsAndCrafts
2 October 20264 min read
Ask a saffron seller in Pampore what grade a jar is and you will hear one of three words: Mongra, Lachha or Zarda. They are not marketing labels. Each one describes how much of the flower ended up on the thread, and that single fact decides most of what you pay for.
Start with the flower
Every saffron crocus has one thread that splits into three. The top part, the stigma, is the deep red bit that carries nearly all the colour, taste and smell. Below it runs the style, which is pale yellow to white and carries very little of anything. Where the two meet, the red fades into orange.
Once you picture that, the grades make sense.
The three Kashmiri grades
Grade | What is in the jar | How it looks | What it is good for |
|---|---|---|---|
Mongra | Only the red stigma, cut away from the style | Short, dark red, flared tips, no yellow anywhere | Anything where saffron is the point: kesar doodh, phirni, kahwa |
Lachha | Stigma with a little of the style still attached | Longer threads, red with orange-yellow ends | Everyday cooking where you use more of it, like biryani or pulav |
Zarda | The yellow style on its own | Pale, thin, yellow-white | Very little. It adds bulk, not flavour |
Mongra costs the most because cutting the red away from every thread by hand is slow, and the jar ends up lighter for the same number of flowers. Lachha is not a lesser product so much as a less trimmed one. You are paying a little less and getting a little yellow along with the red.
Zarda is worth knowing about mainly so you can spot it. A jar with a lot of pale yellow threads mixed into the red has been padded out.
Where the ISO categories fit in
The Kashmiri names describe the cut. ISO 3632 describes what a laboratory finds when it tests a sample. It measures three things:
- Colouring strength, from crocin. This is the golden colour you see in milk.
- Bitterness, from picrocrocin. This is the slightly bitter, honey-like taste.
- Aroma, from safranal. This is the smell.
Each sample is placed in a category, with Category I the highest. A well-cut Mongra will usually test well, because the red stigma is where crocin lives, but the two systems answer different questions. One tells you how the saffron was sorted. The other tells you how strong it actually is. A good seller can answer both.
If a jar carries a grade like "A++" or "Super Premium" and nothing else, it has told you neither. Those words are not part of either system.
Which one should you buy?
Think about how much saffron the dish needs and how much it shows.
- For milk, sweets and tea, buy Mongra. You use only a few threads, the colour is the whole point, and there is nowhere for yellow bits to hide.
- For rice dishes and curries, Lachha is perfectly sensible. You use more, it gets cooked longer, and the small price difference adds up.
- Avoid anything that is mostly yellow, whatever it is called.
Our [Kashmiri Mongra saffron](/products/pampore-saffron) is the all-red cut. If you are not sure what you already have at home, drop three threads into warm water and look at them after ten minutes. Red threads with a golden halo are stigma. Pale threads that never change colour are style. Our longer guide on [telling real saffron from fake](/blog/how-to-identify-real-kashmiri-saffron) goes further.
A short version to remember
Red only: Mongra. Red with yellow ends: Lachha. Yellow only: Zarda. Then ask whether it has been tested, and by whom.