In this guide
Quick answer
Anjeer gets asked about in Kolkata more than in most cities, and usually in the same breath as a complaint about the rate. It is one of the dearer things on a dried fruit shelf, the gap between grades is enormous, and almost nobody is told which grade they are being quoted for.
What does anjeer cost today?
At our counter anjeer works out to at today's shop rate across the grades we keep, read off the shop as this page loads. The large whole grade, which is the one people picture, is at today's shop rate a pack.
We ship one rate across India, so that is the figure in Kolkata as much as anywhere. The variation you see between shops in the city is grade, not geography.
Why is anjeer so much dearer than other dried fruit?
| What happens to it | What it costs |
|---|---|
| Picked ripe, by hand | A fig bruises, so machines cannot do it |
| Dried slowly | Weeks, not days, and losses along the way |
| Loses most of its weight | Several kilos of fresh fruit give one kilo dried |
| Graded by size | Only part of a crop reaches the top grade |
That third row is the one people underestimate. A fig is mostly water, and drying it takes out four fifths of what was picked. You are paying for the fruit that evaporated as much as for the fruit in the packet.
How do you tell a good anjeer from a poor one?
- Press it. A good anjeer gives under the thumb. One that is hard all the way through has been dried too far or stored too long.
- Look at the colour. A pale golden-brown is right. Very dark figs are old; bright uniform ones have usually been treated.
- Check the shape. It should be a flattened disc that still looks like a fruit, not a shrivelled lump.
- Look for white bloom. A light dusting is natural sugar and is a good sign. A thick white coating is not.
- Smell it. Sweet and faintly caramel is right. Sour or winey means it has started to ferment.
Kolkata’s humidity makes that last check matter more here than in a dry city. Anjeer absorbs moisture readily, and a packet that has sat open through a monsoon week can go off faster than anyone expects. The guide to buying anjeer goes through this in more detail.
There is a second reason the rate holds up, and it is specific to this fruit. Figs cannot be stored for a year the way almonds can — they darken and harden — so a trader cannot buy cheap in season and hold stock for the festival. Whatever is on the shelf in October was bought close to October, at October rates, and that gets passed on rather than absorbed.
Is the large grade worth the money?
For eating, often not. The smaller figs taste the same, soak the same and cost considerably less per kilo, and a household that eats two a day is buying size it does not use. For a gift tray it is a different question entirely — a fat whole anjeer is the single most impressive thing you can put in a box, and nothing smaller does that job.
So the sensible pattern is the same one that works for almonds: the smaller grade for the jar, the large one only for what is being given away. A box of the large grade for Pujo and a jar of the smaller for the house costs less over a season than buying the big one for both.
How should it be kept in this climate?
In a sealed glass jar, and in Kolkata that means the fridge for most of the year. Anjeer softens, sweats and eventually ferments in humidity, and the pouch it arrived in is not a storage container. Take out a week at a time.
Bought well and kept cold it will hold for two to three months without hardening. Our orders start at ₹1,000 and every order ships free, so a month of anjeer usually travels with the rest of the order. Today’s figures are on the anjeer price page, and what else reaches the city is on the Kolkata page.
Questions people ask
What is the price of 1 kg anjeer in Kolkata?
It depends on the size grade, and the gap between the smallest and the largest is wide. The live range is printed above and is the same figure across India.
Why are some anjeer so much bigger?
Only part of any crop grows to the top size, so the large grade is the scarce part of the same harvest rather than a different fruit.
Should anjeer be soaked before eating?
Most households here soak two overnight in water or milk and eat them in the morning. It is not required, but it softens a fig that has dried firm.
What is the white powder on my anjeer?
Natural sugar drawn to the surface as the fruit dries, and a sign of a properly dried fig rather than a fault. The rest of the shelf is on the dry fruits page.
We deliver across India See 87 city pages
Written at our counter, where these questions get asked every week.
