Buy Kashmiri saffron and you will meet two words almost immediately: Mongra and Lachha. They are the closest thing the trade has to grades, they explain most of the price difference between two jars that look similar, and no authority anywhere enforces what either of them means.

That combination is worth understanding before you spend money on the strength of one.

What is actually in the flower

A crocus flower gives up three red stigmas, joined at the base to a pale yellow-white stalk called the style. The red part carries essentially all of the colour, aroma and flavour. The style carries almost none — it is filler, and it is where the weight is.

Every grade name in the trade describes one thing: how much of that pale style is still attached.

Mongra

Mongra is the stigma alone, cut above the style, deep red along its whole length. It is sometimes called Lacha Mongra or Shahi, and in the Spanish system the equivalent is Coupé.

Producing it means cutting each stigma cluster by hand, above the junction, and discarding the pale part. That is slow and it throws away weight the grower could otherwise have sold — which is essentially the entire explanation for what Mongra costs.

Lachha

Lachha is the stigmas left joined, with a length of the pale style still attached. It is sold as whole threads with visible yellow-white ends.

It is not a fake, and it is not a fault. It is a less processed product that costs less, and for some uses the difference genuinely does not matter. What it is not is equivalent by weight: if roughly a fifth of what you are holding is style, then a fifth of what you paid for contributes nothing.

Why the naming cannot be trusted on its own

Neither term is defined in law or enforced by any body. A seller can print Mongra on a jar of Lachha and face no consequence for it. In practice the names are used loosely, and "Grade A1 Mongra" on a label is a marketing decision rather than a certification.

This is why the reliable check is not the word on the jar but the threads in it. Tip some onto a white plate and look at the ends. Mongra is red end to end. If you can see pale stalk, you are holding Lachha whatever the label says.

The grading that does mean something

The measurable standard is ISO 3632, which grades saffron on three laboratory values rather than on appearance:

Crocin — colouring strength, reported as absorbance. Category I saffron measures above 190; strong Kashmiri lots run well above that.

Picrocrocin — the bitter compound responsible for taste. Category I is above 70.

Safranal — aroma, with a defined acceptable range.

These numbers are the only claim about quality that can be checked by someone who was not in the room. A lot with a report is describable; a lot without one is just a word on a label.

Which to buy

If you are cooking with saffron regularly, Mongra is usually the better purchase despite the higher price per gram, because you are paying for red thread rather than for stalk. Work it out per gram of actual stigma and the gap narrows considerably.

If saffron is an occasional indulgence and the visible difference matters less to you than the cost of the jar, Lachha is an honest product sold honestly — provided it is sold as Lachha.

The thing to avoid is not Lachha. It is paying the Mongra price for it.