Guntur Sannam

Guntur Sannam, also frequently sold under spelling variants such as “Gunter” or “Gunter Sannam”, is the well-known long-fruited Sannam chilli from the Guntur region of Andhra Pradesh, India. In the geographical indication documentation, the trade term “Sannam” is explicitly linked to the Telugu meaning of thin or long, matching the pepper’s narrow form.

The GI filing describes pods as approximately 5–15 cm long with a diameter of about 5–15 mm, with relatively thick skin. It characterises the pepper as hot and pungent and gives an average pungency range of about 35 000–40 000 Scoville Heat Units, making 37 500 SHU a reasonable midpoint for a single-number database entry.

The same GI material notes the pepper’s importance for both pungency and capsaicin extraction, recording capsaicin content at roughly 0.226% and also documenting red colour standards in ASTA terms. Harvest season is described as running from December to May, with fruit hand-picked in multiple rounds. After harvest, pods may be briefly heaped to help achieve more uniform red colour before drying and packing.

Culturally and economically, Guntur Sannam is a major chilli of Andhra cuisine and a key commercial chilli of the Guntur trading region. References to Guntur chillies commonly describe them as a group of cultivars from the Guntur and Prakasam districts, with Guntur Sannam often identified as the most famous S4 type. Trade and export forms include whole dried pods, seed, powder, crushed chilli, and oleoresin.

One point of inconsistency online is heat. The GI filing and established pepper references cluster around 35 000–40 000 SHU, while some commercial seed listings claim much higher values, sometimes over 100 000 SHU. Those higher figures do not align well with the GI specification and are likely due to inaccurate listing data or confusion with other hotter regional chilli types.