Raw Mango Powder (Kairi Powder)

When summer kairi is at its most tangy and tartaric-acid-rich, we do something that our grandmothers did every year — we preserve that peak tartness for the months ahead. Raw mangoes are peeled, sliced, sun-dried on cotton frames on our Varanasi terrace, and then ground to a fine, pale-tan powder that carries the concentrated sourness of peak kairi in every pinch.

Kairi powder differs from the commercially available amchur in one important way — ours is made from the specific UP mango varieties that go into our pickle preparations, sun-dried rather than mechanically dehydrated, and ground fresh. The result is a more fruity, more complex powder than the industrial product.

This powder goes into our stuffed pickle masalas — providing the sour punch in the stuffing of our karela and hari mirch achar — and into certain spice mixes where a natural fruit-based acidity is preferred over synthetic citric acid.

Kairi powder retains the nutritional properties of raw mango in concentrated, shelf-stable form — particularly its Vitamin C and digestive organic acid content.

Kairi powder is used as a natural souring agent in Salteen's stuffed pickle masalas and certain spice mixes — providing concentrated mango tartness as a fruity, natural alternative to synthetic acids.