Adjika
Also known as ajika, adzhika, ajika paste
Paste
Quick answer
The hot paste of Abkhazia and Samegrelo in western Georgia: red or green chillies pounded with garlic, salt, blue fenugreek and coriander. It is a seasoning spread thinly, not a sauce spooned on, and the tomato relish sold under the same name in Russia is a different thing.
In essentially every version: Hot red chilli, Garlic, Salt, Blue fenugreek (utskho suneli), Coriander seed.
3 distinct versions are set out below. None of them is presented as the correct one, because there isn’t one.
A note on the name
Both Abkhaz and Megrelian traditions regard adjika as their own, and the region is politically contested. SpiceHQ names both and adjudicates neither. Georgia registered AJIKA as a geographical indication in September 2022, for paste made anywhere in the country from Georgian-grown pepper, garlic, herbs and spices; the same specification calls the paste Abkhazian by origin and requires the name on the label in Georgian, Abkhaz, Latin and Cyrillic letters. That is the position of one state’s register. The name is also used in Russia and Ukraine for a cooked tomato-pepper relish, which is a sauce and is not the preparation recorded here.
What goes into it
What essentially every version is made from, with what each ingredient is there to do.
| Ingredient | Role | How essential |
|---|---|---|
| Chilli flakesDried hot chillies for red adjika, fresh green ones for green adjika. | heat | defining |
| Garlic (fresh) | savoury depth | defining |
| SaltA large proportion: the salt preserves the paste. | salt | defining |
| Blue fenugreek (ground) | primary aromatic | usual |
| Coriander seed (ground) | supporting aromatic | usual |
| Coriander leaf (fresh) | supporting aromatic | regional |
| Dill (fresh) | supporting aromatic | optional |
Colour is the first division: red adjika from dried hot chillies, green from fresh green ones with more fresh herbs. Beyond that, households vary the herb and seed mix and the salt, and some Megrelian versions pound in walnuts for body — a tree-nut allergen worth asking about when buying. The paste is dry and dense — closer to a salted chilli-garlic mash than to anything pourable — and a thin, tomato-based adjika has left the tradition this profile describes.
The versions
Each attributed to whoever describes it. The sources say what goes in and how it is made and give no amounts, so none are shown.
Red adjika
Regional traditionAbkhaz and Megrelian household practice · no amounts given · medium confidence
Dried hot red chillies soaked and pounded or minced with garlic, a generous amount of salt, blue fenugreek and coriander seed into a thick, oily-red paste.
Made with: Hot red chilli, Garlic, Salt, Blue fenugreek (utskho suneli), Coriander seed. The source gives no amounts, so none are shown.
Green adjika
Regional traditionMegrelian and Abkhaz household practice · no amounts given · low confidence
Fresh green chillies with garlic, salt and a larger share of fresh herbs — coriander, dill, sometimes mint — giving a sharper, greener paste.
Made with: Fresh green chilli, Garlic, Salt, Coriander leaf, Fresh dill, Blue fenugreek (utskho suneli). The source gives no amounts, so none are shown.
Ajika as registered in Georgia
Regional traditionThe specification of the geographical indication AJIKA, no. 26 in the register of Georgia’s National Intellectual Property Center · no amounts given · high confidence
A thick, even, hot paste, dark red or reddish brown. The specification makes five things necessary: hot red pepper, salt, garlic, dried spices and blue fenugreek. Dried peppers are washed, moistened and hung to dry, then minced coarsely and again finely; chopped garlic and the spices are added and the mass is minced several times more, salted, and stirred hard with cooled boiled water. Ground walnuts or other nuts, sunflower seeds and fresh or dried herbs may be added, sweet pepper may replace part of the hot to tame it, and seeding the peppers makes a milder paste. Fresh green pepper in place of red gives a greenish one. No amounts are given.
Made with: Hot red pepper, dried, Garlic, Salt, Blue fenugreek, which the English text calls blue melilot, Dried coriander. The source gives no amounts, so none are shown.
The rule for a name protected in Georgia, read in the English text the register publishes. The pepper, garlic, herbs and spices must be grown in Georgia; walnuts, other nuts, sunflower seeds and salt need not be. Walnuts and other nuts are allergens where they are used.
Using it
Spread thinly on meat before grilling or roasting, stirred in small amounts into bean dishes and soups, or served in a tiny dish at the table. Its salt content means it seasons as well as heats.
Very hot, very garlicky and salty, with the nutty-sweet blue fenugreek and coriander giving it an aroma that sets it apart from other chilli pastes. It is used by the fingertip rather than the spoonful.
Hot to very hot.
- Grilled meat and mtsvadi
- Rubbed onto chicken before roasting
- Stirred into beans and soups
- Mixed with butter or walnut paste as a spread
Scaling: Scale by the chillies and add salt to taste rather than by ratio; chillies vary in water content and the salt is doing preservation as well as seasoning.
What to use it on
Chicken
StrongChicken rubbed with adjika before roasting or grilling is common in western Georgia; the salt, garlic and chilli season and crust the skin.
Storage
Good for: not established
In the fridge, covered, with the surface smoothed flat or under a little oil.
Fading is a quality matter; mould on a paste is a safety matter, and a mouldy jar should be discarded rather than scraped.
Allergens and safety
Not among the substances that must be declared as allergens under EU Regulation 1169/2011 Annex II or under the United States major food allergen rules. That is a statement about labelling law and not about whether allergy occurs: allergic reactions to spices are documented in the clinical literature and are simply not a labelling category. Where a ground spice presents an allergen risk it is usually through adulteration or shared processing equipment rather than through the plant itself.
Culture and origin
Abkhazia and Samegrelo (Mingrelia) on the Black Sea side of the Caucasus, where it is the characteristic hot seasoning. Abkhaz and Megrelian traditions both claim it, and the paste is used across Georgia. The specification under which Georgia protects the name says it has long been made chiefly to slightly different recipes in those two places.
Abkhazia and Samegrelo
Claimed by both Abkhaz tradition and Megrelian tradition; SpiceHQ names both and adjudicates neither.
The defining hot seasoning of the western Caucasus coast, and one of the reasons Megrelian food is reckoned the hottest in Georgia. It is made at home and kept for months under its salt.
The Georgian specification’s account of Abkhaz practice
The specification Georgia registered in 2022 gives the paste an Abkhaz name, which it spells apirpil-jika and translates as pepper salt, and says the name ajika spread from Abkhazia to Samegrelo, then to western Georgia and the whole country. It describes the Abkhaz way of making it: pepper sown in March, picked when even the lowest fruit had reddened, tied and hung to dry in the apatskha, which the text glosses as a farmhouse or dwelling, once over smoke and now mostly without; then rubbed with both hands for a long time on stone. It names two stones, a flat one with a small hollow, the akhakia, and a second, the apkhniga. The older paste, it says, had few ingredients: hot red pepper, salt, garlic and dried coriander. Households now use a mortar or a mincer. It also records that in November 2018 Georgia’s heritage agency listed the making of Abkhazian apirpil-jika and Megrelian ajika as intangible cultural heritage.
A Georgian state document describing Abkhaz practice; its statement of Abkhaz origin cites a general encyclopaedia, and no Abkhaz source was read. A story it tells about shepherds and salt it calls a legend, and it is not repeated here.