A West African upland (dry-land) heritage rice kept alive by the Merikins — formerly enslaved Black Americans resettled in Trinidad after the War of 1812 — and reconnected to the US Lowcountry heritage rice movement.
The Merikins are a living branch of the Black American diaspora; their preservation of a hill rice once thought lost from the US South is a transatlantic act of seed-keeping that reconnected directly to Gullah Geechee growers.
As a whole upland rice with intact bran, Moruga Hill rice carries magnesium, fiber, and polyphenols and sits lower on the glycemic scale than refined white rice. Upland rices like this and African Oryza glaberrima types were the original 'hill rice' of the Sea Islands. Cook-and-cool to add resistant starch. Gluten-free.
Treat as a brown/whole rice: 1:2.25 ratio, 40-45 minutes, rest 10. Soak 30 minutes to shorten cook time.
Free, no account needed to ask.