Teja Chilli (S17)

75,000–100,000 SHU — the pungency grade

Teja S17 is bought for heat, and Scoville rating is the number that prices it. Pungency runs 75,000–100,000 SHU, which puts it at the hot end of the Indian export range, with ASTA extractable colour of 35–45, pod length 4–6 cm, moisture ≤ 10%, and delivery stemless or with stem depending on whether the buyer is extracting or cooking. Grown principally around Guntur and Warangal in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, it dominates the Indian chilli export book by volume into China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Vietnam. The specification points that decide acceptance beyond SHU are aflatoxin — chilli is a high-risk crop and the EU limit of 5 ppb B1 and 10 ppb total is where consignments most often fail — plus damaged and broken pods, and residue compliance for the destination.

Buy Teja when pungency is the product: capsaicin and oleoresin extraction, hot sauce and chilli paste manufacture, spice blends and masala where heat is the function, and export markets whose cuisine expects real heat. It is the wrong purchase where colour rather than heat is wanted — Byadgi delivers ASTA colour of 45–90 at a fraction of the pungency and is the correct choice for a colour extraction or a dish that should look red without burning, and Kashmiri sits further along that same axis. The common and expensive mistake is buying on price per tonne across chilli varieties as if they were interchangeable; they are not, and a colour buyer who takes Teja because it was cheaper ends up with an unusable lot. CBIL supplies against SGS or Intertek certification of SHU, ASTA colour, moisture, aflatoxin, pesticide residues and foreign matter, in 25 kg jute or PP bags, container-load, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms.