Amla is the Indian gooseberry. In Marathi we call it aavla, in Hindi it is amla, and its botanical name is Phyllanthus emblica. If you came here to find what amla is called in English, that is the whole answer. It is worth adding that it has no relation to the small green gooseberry sold in Europe. Different plant, different family, completely different taste.
We grow amla at our farm in Kasarpimpalgaon, Ahmednagar district. It is one of the few things here that arrives all at once and then vanishes for eight months. This guide covers what the fruit is, when it comes, what is in it, and what Maharashtrian kitchens actually do with it.
What the fruit looks like
A good amla is round, about the size of a small lime, and pale green turning translucent yellow as it matures. Six faint ridges run from the stem down to the base. That is the quickest way to identify a real amla in a basket of unfamiliar fruit.
The skin is smooth and thin. Unlike a mango there is no separate flesh and stone. The whole fruit is one dense piece around a small hard seed, and it breaks into six natural segments along those ridges once cooked.
Brown speckles on the skin are ordinary on tree ripened fruit and say nothing about what is inside. Fruit that looks perfectly uniform has usually been waxed, and waxed amla has usually been in cold storage.
When amla is in season
Amla comes in from October and runs through to February. That is the entire window. The fruit sets after the monsoon, hardens through the cool months, and by March the trees are bare.
Anything sold as fresh amla in June left the tree months earlier and sat in a chiller. You can see it. The skin turns leathery, the cut end dries inward, and the sourness goes flat with a bitter edge behind it. Of everything we grow, this is the fruit where buying out of season is least worth doing.
What is in it
Amla is among the richest natural sources of vitamin C of any fruit grown in India, carrying considerably more than an orange of the same weight. It also contains tannins, which is what dries your mouth slightly, along with a useful amount of fibre.
That is a statement about what the fruit contains, not about what it will do for anyone. Amla has a long reputation in Indian households and we are not going to add to it here. What we can tell you is what it tastes like and how to cook it.
Why it tastes the way it does
Raw amla hits sour first, bitter underneath, then astringent at the finish. Bite into one and your jaw tightens involuntarily. Drink a mouthful of plain water straight afterwards and the water tastes sweet. Every child who grew up near an amla tree knows that trick.
This is not a fruit you eat like an apple, and nobody in a village pretends otherwise. It is a fruit you preserve, salt, sweeten or grate into something else.
How Maharashtrian kitchens use amla
Murabba. The most common use by far. Amla is pricked all over, boiled soft, then simmered in syrup made with jaggery until the fruit turns dark and glossy. Made properly it keeps for months in a jar and one piece with a meal is plenty.
Amla supari. Grated or slivered amla, salted, then dried on the terrace over three or four afternoons of good sun. Some homes add a little haldi or jeera powder. It shrinks to a fraction of its size and goes into a small steel dabba for after meals.
Chutney. Grate raw amla and grind it with green chilli, coriander, garlic and salt. Sharp, and very good with plain dal and rice. This one is made fresh and finished the same day.
Pickle. Chopped into segments with mustard, methi and oil in the usual way. A pungent oil suits it better than a neutral one.
Juice. Boil the fruit briefly, press it, strain, and cut it with water. Most people add a little salt or jaggery because undiluted amla juice is punishing.
Hair oil. Dried amla steeped in warm sesame oil is an old preparation in Maharashtrian homes. Whether it does anything for your hair is a question we will leave alone, but the practice is genuinely traditional and the oil smells wonderful.
The trick for getting the segments apart
Cutting raw amla with a knife is awkward. The fruit is hard, it rolls, and the seed sits right where you want the blade to go.
Steam it instead. Four or five minutes over boiling water is enough. The fruit softens slightly and the six segments come away cleanly along their natural lines, leaving the seed behind on its own. This works for murabba, for supari and for anything else that needs the fruit opened.
For chutney, skip the steaming and grate the fruit raw straight down to the seed.
Choosing and storing amla
Pick fruit that feels heavy and firm with tight skin. A light amla has begun to dry out. Softness anywhere on the fruit means it is going over, and once one starts, the ones touching it follow quickly.
Kept in a closed box in the fridge, fresh amla holds around two weeks. Left out on a counter in Pune it will not last half that.
If you have more than you can use, grate it and freeze it. Grated amla freezes better than almost any other fruit and comes out of the freezer ready for chutney. Salted supari is the other route, and once dried it sits on a shelf for the rest of the year.
How we grow it
Our amla trees are fed with vermicompost made at our own plant from our cowshed waste, not chemical fertilizer. The fruit is picked when it is ready rather than early, and it is not waxed, not polished, and never put into cold storage.
That is why our amla arrives uneven in size with the odd speckled skin. Uniformity in fruit is almost always the product of grading and treatment rather than good growing.
The harvest goes out across Pune the day after picking. You can order it from our fresh amla page when the season opens in October, and the rest of what is ripe at any time sits under fresh fruits.
Frequently asked questions
What is amla called in English
Indian gooseberry. Its botanical name is Phyllanthus emblica. It is unrelated to the European gooseberry despite sharing part of the name, and the two taste nothing alike.
When is amla season in Maharashtra
October to February. The fruit sets after the monsoon and finishes by early March. Fresh amla offered outside that window has been in cold storage.
Can you eat amla raw
You can, and some people do it every morning with a pinch of salt. Most find it too sour and astringent on its own, which is why murabba, supari and chutney exist.
How long does fresh amla keep
About two weeks in a closed box in the fridge. Grated amla freezes well and salted dried supari keeps for months at room temperature.
Why does my amla have brown spots
Speckling is normal on fruit that ripened on the tree and was not waxed. It affects appearance only. Reject fruit that has gone soft or smells fermented, which is a different thing entirely.
