Mango — Anwar Ratol

Anwar Ratol (Mangifera indica var. Anwar Ratol) is a named cultivar of mango, the medium-sized evergreen tree in the cashew family that is grown across the warm tropics for its fruit.1 It is not a separate botanical species, so the tree behaves like any mango; what sets Anwar Ratol apart is the fruit, a small, premium dessert mango prized for intense sweetness and aroma rather than size.123 Also spelled Anwar Rataul, it traces back to a grower named Anwar-ul-Haq, who developed it in or near the village of Ratol, a place most often placed in Uttar Pradesh in northern India.123 For a homesteader in a frost-free climate, the appeal is straightforward: this is a connoisseur’s mango, a tree you plant for flavour and fragrance and for fruit that sells on its name, not for tonnage.1

The fruit is small to medium, with mature dimensions of roughly 9 by 5 to 7 by 6 to 7 centimetres and a weight of about 200 to 250 grams each, broad-elliptic in cross-section.1 The skin is thin and smooth, turning from green to a lemon or golden yellow as the fruit ripens.14 Inside, the flesh is a deep cadmium or bright orange-yellow, juicy, and essentially fiberless except for a little fibre right under the skin, yet soft and firm enough to give the fruit reasonable keeping quality.1 The stone is relatively large and flat, surrounded by that fiberless flesh, and the seed within is oblong.1 What growers remember, though, is the chemistry of the pulp: total soluble solids run a very high 24 to 26 degrees Brix against a low acidity of about 0.17 to 0.19 percent, giving a fruit that is intensely sweet, strongly aromatic, and citrus-tinged, often described as having “excellent flavour” and an “intoxicating aroma.”1234

Growing Anwar Ratol

Because Anwar Ratol is a cultivar of Mangifera indica, it is propagated vegetatively rather than from seed. The cultivar carries a small, single-embryo (monoembryonic) seed, which means seedlings will not come true to type; to keep the variety, scion wood is grafted onto mango rootstock, as is standard for named mango cultivars.1 A seed-grown tree from an Anwar Ratol stone may grow well, but its fruit will not reliably reproduce the parent’s qualities, so a grafted tree from a known source is the way to get the real thing.1

The cultivar is described as needing a tropical climate with hot summers and mild winters, and it does best where there is a distinct warm, dry season to drive flowering and ripen the fruit.1 Its commercial strongholds bear this out: it is grown widely in the Punjab province of Pakistan, in districts such as Multan, Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan, as well as in Sindh, hot, semi-arid mango belts where the climate and soils are considered ideal for it.13 Like mango generally, it needs frost-free or very nearly frost-free conditions.13 The sources here give no Anwar Ratol-specific USDA hardiness zone; mango as a species is generally placed in roughly USDA zones 10 to 11, but that is an extrapolation from the species rather than a figure from a trial of this cultivar, so treat it as a guide. Soil specifics, spacing, irrigation schedules and a precise time to maturity for this cultivar are not documented in the available sources, so they are left out here rather than stated with false precision; in practice, grow it as you would any quality mango, on deep, well-drained ground in full sun with a dry spell ahead of flowering.

Harvest and uses

Anwar Ratol is first and last a fresh dessert mango. The fiberless, honey-sweet pulp and powerful fragrance make it a fruit eaten out of hand and savoured rather than one grown for bulk pulping or processing.1234 The fruit’s good keeping quality, owing to flesh that is soft yet firm, helps it travel and hold on the stall, which is part of why it has become such a sought-after market variety.1

On yield, the honest picture is modest. The cultivar is described as a “shy bearer,” producing a lower crop per tree than many commercial mango varieties despite high demand for its fruit.1 For a homesteader that is a fair trade-off: you plant Anwar Ratol not to fill crates but for a smaller quantity of exceptional small golden fruit that commands a premium. The sources here give no per-tree or per-hectare yield figures for this cultivar, and none should be invented; what they establish is a high-flavour, lower-volume tree by reputation.1

How to identify it

Within the broad world of mango cultivars, Anwar Ratol is recognised by the combination of a small fruit and outsized sweetness:124

• Fruit size and shape: small to medium, about 200 to 250 grams, roughly 9 by 5 to 7 by 6 to 7 centimetres, broad-elliptic in cross-section.1
• Skin: thin and smooth, ripening from green to lemon or golden yellow.14
• Flesh: bright orange-yellow (cadmium), juicy, and essentially fiberless except just under the skin.1
• Stone and seed: a relatively large, flat stone with an oblong, single-embryo seed.1
• Flavour: very high sugar (24 to 26 Brix) with low acidity, giving an intensely sweet, citrus-tinged, strongly aromatic eating quality.134

Sources

1. Anwar Ratol varietal profile – DHA Multan mango portal
2. Anwar Ratol mangoes – Fresh Mangoes US
3. Anwar Ratol – ZZ Mango
4. Anwar Ratol mango – MMA Farms