Cashew is popularly known as the “King” of all dry fruits. The white king of dry fruits has a full-mouthed heavenly taste as one savors it – in whatever form. Cashew as a dry fruit is loved by all and has multipurpose use. Cuisines from all over the world use cashews in different ways to enhance the flavor of the food.
Cashew being a natural produce is graded as per the size and its appearance. They are classified in a wide variety of grades bringing out their class and quality. It is graded in a compound form – alphabet W and then a number. Cashew grades range from W-180 to W-450 which are full kernel grades that are sold and traded in the domestic as well as international markets.
W-180: Cashew grade for the largest in size and the King of Cashews. They are the most expensive and premium quality nuts.
W-210: Popularly known as the “Jumbo” size cashews.
W-240: The white attractive grade and are also reasonably priced.
W-320: The most widely available kernels around the world with competitive prices.
W-450: The smallest size nuts and the cheapest of all whole kernels.
While the “W’ in the grading refers to White Wholes, there are other grades like the SW – Scorched Whites that are mildly yellow. The W and SW grades are wholes and not broken into pieces.
Other grades are White Split (WS) which are kernels split into half, Large White Pieces (LWP) which are kernels split into four, Small White Pieces (SWP) which are essentially kernels split into six and finally Broken (BB) for very small pieces.