Grameen Hat Black Rice, Quinoa and Kaun Rice in Bangladesh

Grameen Hat packs the grains a Bangladeshi kitchen buys by the ingredient rather than by the label on the bag. Rice is the deepest part of the range, and the two rices at either end of it — a dark unpolished one and a tiny golden millet — are nothing like each other on the plate.

Around them sit a wholemeal atta, an unrefined sugar, chia seed and quinoa. Bag sizes run from a quarter-kilo trial pack up to two kilos, so you can taste a grain before committing a shelf to it. The wider shelf for all of this is Arogga’s Cooking & Baking section.

Black Rice, in a Kilo Bag and a Two-Kilo Bag

Black rice is a whole grain with its bran left on, which is where the deep purple-black colour sits. Polish that bran away and you get ordinary white rice, so the colour is a sign of what has not been removed rather than of anything added.

It cooks slower than white rice, drinks more water and stains the pot water a dark violet. Both bag sizes hold the same grain:

• Grameen Hat Black Rice 1kg — the bag most households open first
• Grameen Hat Black Rice 2kg — the repeat bag, once it has a regular place in the week

Quinoa, and the Name People Type

Quinoa is a seed from South America that is cooked and eaten the way rice is. It has no Bangla name of its own, so shoppers spell it by ear — কিনোয়া in Bangla script, kinoya or kinua in Latin letters, and quinoa on the pack. All of those are the same grain.

It arrives as a small pale seed that cooks in under twenty minutes and roughly triples in volume, which is why Grameen Hat Quinoa 250g goes further than a quarter-kilo of rice would suggest. Rinse it before cooking; the coating on the raw seed tastes bitter.

Kaun Rice Is Foxtail Millet

Kaun, কাউন, is a millet rather than a rice, whatever the pack title says. Its English name is foxtail millet, and anyone who has read about it in English and then gone looking in Bangla has met this gap from the other side.

The grain is tiny, pale gold and cooks soft in a fraction of the time black rice takes. Two bag sizes are listed:

• Grameen Hat Kaun Rice 250g — enough to cook it twice and decide
• Grameen Hat Kaun Rice 1kg — the size to buy once it has earned its jar

Kaun or quinoa?

They look alike in the bag and behave alike in the pot, which is why the two get confused constantly. Kaun is a grass grain grown across Bangladesh and India; quinoa is an imported seed from a different plant family. Kaun is the softer, milder of the pair, and quinoa holds a slight bite.

Brown Atta and Unrefined Sugar

Two everyday staples sit beside the specialty grains, both kept closer to their unprocessed form than the white versions on the same shelf.

Grameen Hat Brown Atta 500g is wholemeal wheat flour for roti and paratha. Dough made from it takes a little more water and rests better than white flour dough, and the half-kilo bag suits a household trying it for the first time.

Grameen Hat Brown Suger 1kg is brown sugar with some molasses still in the crystal, which is what makes it damp and golden. The pack title spells the last word with an e where the a belongs. Typing it out exactly will not find it, so look for the brand and the kilo size in the grid instead.

Chia Seed

Grameen Hat Chia Seed 200g is the one item here that is not cooked. Chia swells in liquid and forms a gel around each seed within a quarter of an hour, which is why it goes into drinks, soaked puddings and sprinkled over yoghurt rather than into a pan.

A spoonful goes a long way for that reason, and the small jar lasts longer than its weight suggests. Keep it dry between uses, since any moisture in the tin starts the same swelling early.

Which Bag Size to Start With

Grains that are new to a kitchen fail for a dull reason: the bag is too big, the household tires of it, and the rest sits in the cupboard. Pack size is a real decision here rather than an arithmetic one.

The quarter-kilo bags

Quinoa and the smaller kaun bag both come at 250g. That is two or three cooked meals — enough to find out whether anyone at the table actually wants it again, and small enough that the answer costs little either way.

The kilo bags

Black rice, kaun and the brown sugar come in kilo bags, and black rice goes up to two kilos. A kilo of unpolished rice stays good for months in a sealed jar, so the larger bag is for a grain already in the rotation.

Cooking Grain That Is Not White Rice

Everything in this range except the chia takes to a pot, and none of it behaves quite like the parboiled rice most kitchens cook on autopilot. The pack carries its own water ratio and timing, and that is the figure to follow.

Rinsing and soaking

Rinse quinoa until the water runs clear; the bitter coating on the raw seed washes off in a minute. Black rice benefits from a soak of a few hours, which shortens the cooking and softens the bran. Kaun needs neither, only a quick rinse.

Water, time and colour

Black rice wants more water and longer on the heat than white rice, and it will dye the water, the pot and anything cooked with it a strong purple. That is the bran pigment dissolving, and it is normal. Kaun and quinoa both finish quickly and turn mushy if left to sit in hot water.

Storing Grain in a Humid Kitchen

Dhaka air is the enemy of an opened bag. Whole grains keep their bran, and bran carries oil, so these items go stale faster than polished white rice does once air reaches them.

Weevils and damp

Decant each bag into a jar with a tight lid as soon as it is opened, and keep the jar away from the stove and the sink. Weevils find open flour and millet quickly in warm weather. A dry metal spoon each time, never a wet one, is the habit that keeps atta and chia usable to the bottom of the jar.

What Changes the Price

Nothing on this shelf is priced like ordinary rice, and the reasons differ by item. Black rice and kaun are grown in small volumes against the main paddy crop, so a harvest that disappoints moves them quickly.

Quinoa and chia are imported, which puts freight and the exchange rate into the figure before the grain ever reaches a warehouse. Atta and sugar move with the commodity they are made from, and they move more slowly.

Writing any of those numbers down here would make this page wrong by next month and keep it wrong. Each listing above carries its own current figure beside the pack size, which is the comparison worth making anyway — a kilo against a quarter-kilo tells you more than either price alone.

About Grameen Hat

Grameen Hat is a Bangladeshi packaged-food label working in specialty grains and pantry staples. Its name joins two everyday Bangla words — গ্রামীণ, meaning rural or of the village, and হাট, the periodic open-air market that serves a cluster of villages on a fixed day of the week.

The packed range covers unpolished and minor grains alongside basic household goods: black rice, foxtail millet, quinoa, wholemeal atta, brown sugar and chia seed, in retail bags from a quarter-kilo upward. The grains it works with are the ones that sit outside the main rice and white-flour trade.

The products are sold in consumer-sized packs through grocery retail and online platforms in Bangladesh, aimed at households buying whole grains in domestic quantities rather than in sacks.

Where the Range Sits on Arogga

This brand is filed across six shelves, which is why no single category page shows the whole of it:

• The rices and the millet sit on Rice & Lentil.
• The atta is under Baking Ingredients, and the sugar under Salt & Sugar.
• Chia is shelved away from the grains entirely, on Honey & Seeds within Health & Immunity Boosters.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is kaun rice called in English?

Foxtail millet. Kaun is the Bangla name, কাউন, and the two words describe the same small golden grain. It is a millet botanically, so recipes written for millet will suit it even though the pack title says rice.

2. Is kaun rice the same thing as quinoa?

No, though they look near-identical once cooked. Kaun is a millet grown locally; quinoa is an imported seed from a different plant family. Quinoa holds a firmer bite, and kaun cooks softer and milder.

3. What makes black rice black?

The bran. Black rice is unpolished, and the pigment in the outer layer gives it the purple-black colour. Polishing that layer off would leave white rice behind, which is why the colour bleeds into the cooking water.

4. Which pack is sensible for a first attempt?

A quarter-kilo bag. Quinoa and the smaller kaun pack both come that size, and each gives a couple of cooked meals. Black rice starts at a kilo, so share the first bag with somebody if you are unsure.

5. How is quinoa cooked?

Like rice, in a pot with water, after a thorough rinse. It finishes in well under half an hour and the seeds uncurl a visible little tail when they are done. Follow the ratio printed on the pack.

6. কিনোয়া বাংলায় কী বলে?

আলাদা কোনো বাংলা নাম নেই — কিনোয়া নামটাই চলে, কারণ শস্যটা এদেশে জন্মায় না। অনেকে লিখতে গিয়ে kinoya বা kinua লেখেন, তিনটাই এক জিনিস। চালের মতো রান্না হয়, তবে সময় লাগে অনেক কম।

7. কাউন চাল আর কালো চাল কি একইভাবে রান্না হয়?

না, একদম আলাদা। কালো চাল ভিজিয়ে রাখলে ভালো হয়, পানি বেশি লাগে আর সিদ্ধ হতে সময় নেয়। কাউন শুধু ধুয়ে নিলেই চলে আর অল্প সময়েই নরম হয়ে যায়। একসাথে রাঁধলে একটা গলে যাবে, অন্যটা শক্ত থাকবে।