Ingredients · Fruit

Mango

Mangifera indica · Anacardiaceae (cashew family)

Mango
Dried mango pieces — eight products carry them. Mango is the sweetest and most perfumed of the tropical fruits in this catalogue, and it is soft rather than sharp: where pineapple brings acid, mango brings body and a heavy floral sweetness. It also colours a cup a deep gold. Botanically it is in the cashew family, with the pistachio and the pink peppercorn.

What it’s like, and how to use it

The partFruit
KindFruit
CaffeineCaffeine-free
Where it is fromSouth Asia
TasteHeavy, perfumed sweetness with a soft body and very little acidity; colours the cup gold

How to use it

In tropical infusions, hot and iced. It sweetens a blend enough that nothing else needs to. Good with green tea and matcha. Rehydrates into a soft, very sweet piece.

With food

Coconut. Lime. Chile. Mint. Yogurt. Ginger. Black pepper. Sticky rice. Cardamom.

With spices

Cardamom. Chile. Ginger. Lime peel. Saffron, in the Indian direction.

With tea

Green tea and matcha. Rooibos. Black tea, iced. White tea.

Its story

Where it comes from

Originated in the northeastern part of South Asia — what is now Bangladesh, northeastern India and Myanmar — and has been cultivated across South and Southeast Asia since ancient times, producing two distinct lineages, Indian and Southeast Asian. India grew 43 per cent of the world's mangoes in 2023, some 26.2 million tonnes. No lot origin is named.

What happened

No fruit is woven further into a culture than the mango is into India's. The medieval poet Amir Khusrau called it the fairest fruit of Hindustan. The Mughal emperor Akbar is said to have planted a mango orchard of a hundred thousand trees near Darbhanga in Bihar. Mango flowers and leaves are used in Hindu worship, particularly at Vasant Panchami, the festival of Saraswati. The Portuguese spread it from their colony at Goa to East and West Africa, which is how a South Asian fruit became a global one.

On the shelf with it

Every product it goes into.

Every ingredient in the shop

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