From Ratnagiri's Alphonso to Malihabad's Dasheri: where India's best-loved mangoes grow, when they ripen, how they look and taste, and how far each one travels before it reaches Delhi NCR.
India grows more than a thousand kinds of mango. These are the ones you are most likely to meet in a Delhi market between April and August, in the order the season brings them.
Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh
Sold in the north as Safeda, it is usually the first mango of the year in Delhi markets — and one of the best at surviving a long journey.
About 1,750 km by road. Picked firm and mature-green, it ripens in cartons on the way.
Ratnagiri & Devgad, Konkan coast, Maharashtra
Named after the Portuguese general Afonso de Albuquerque, it is India's best-known mango abroad and among its most expensive at home.
About 1,600 km by road. Usually ripened in cartons or ripening rooms before sale.
Junagadh & Gir, Saurashtra, Gujarat
Named for the colour of its pulp — kesar is saffron. A favourite for aamras and mango shrikhand.
About 1,150 km by road.
Murshidabad, Nadia & Malda, West Bengal
Bengal's pride, with one of the shortest seasons of any mango — a few weeks and it is gone.
About 1,400 km by road. Soft and short-lived, so it is rarely seen far from home.
Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh & Tamil Nadu
Tota means parrot. Much of India's mango pulp, juice and pickle starts as Totapuri.
About 2,150 km by road. Most of it reaches Delhi already turned into pulp.
Malihabad, near Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
Every Dasheri tree descends from one mother tree in Dasheri village, near Kakori, said to be over two hundred years old and still fruiting.
About 520 km from Malihabad. Aamr Vaatika is two hours from India Gate by national highway, so ours are picked in the morning and at the door by evening.
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh — and across Bihar
The story goes that the first tree grew in the garden of a farmer in Banaras who walked with a limp — langda — and the name stuck. Don't judge it by its green skin.
About 820 km from Varanasi. Aamr Vaatika is two hours from India Gate by national highway.
Bhagalpur, Bihar
Its name comes from zardalu, Persian for apricot — a nod to its pale golden colour. Bihar sends Jardalu each season as a gift to the country's leaders in Delhi.
About 1,200 km by road.
Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh — also grown in the north
A cross of Neelam and Dasheri, bred at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi in 1972.
About 2,000 km from the southern orchards that grow most of it.
Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh & Karnataka
A late variety that keeps well, so it often stays in shops after the early mangoes have gone.
About 2,250 km by road.
Uttar Pradesh (Hardoi, Saharanpur, Meerut) & Bihar
Named after Chausa in Bihar, where Sher Shah Suri won a battle in 1539 and, the story goes, celebrated with this mango.
About 200–450 km from the Uttar Pradesh orchards.
Malda, West Bengal & Bhagalpur, Bihar
One of the last mangoes of the year, it carries the season into August.
About 1,350 km by road.
Journey times are typical for road freight from each variety's main growing region to Azadpur Mandi, Delhi's wholesale fruit market; reaching a shop or doorstep usually takes another day or more. Distances are approximate.
Southern and western mangoes open the season in April; the north takes over in June, and the last fruit of the year arrives in August.
Seasons shift by a week or two with each year's weather. Highlighted rows are the varieties grown at Aamr Vaatika.
A mango keeps softening and sweetening after it is picked, but its flavour develops best on the branch. Fruit that has to travel for days is picked while still firm and green so it survives the trip, then ripened in cartons or ripening rooms near the market.
Fruit grown close to the city can stay on the tree until it is nearly ready. That is why a Dasheri eaten in an orchard tastes different from one that has spent a week on the road.
Our own Dasheri and Langra grow two hours from India Gate, along the national highway — close enough to be picked in the morning and reach homes across Delhi NCR by evening, without cold storage along the way.
A long-distance mango's week, typically
Dasheri and Langra: Aamr Vaatika. Other photographs are from Wikimedia Commons, used under their licences:
Photographs were resized for this page.