the.com/saffron
the world's most expensive spice, harvested by hand from a flower that blooms one autumn week.
means A golden-orange spice made from the dried red stigmas of the crocus flower, prized for the warm color and earthy, slightly bitter flavor it lends to dishes from paella to biryani.
from From Old French 'safran,' which came through Medieval Latin 'safranum' from the Arabic 'za'farān.' The Arabic word may be linked to a root meaning 'yellow,' fitting for a spice that dyes everything it touches gold. The word traveled the same trade routes as the spice itself, spreading west into nearly every European language as the crocus harvest became one of the ancient world's costliest luxuries.
- price
- Can cost more than gold by weight
- labor
- Needs 150,000 flowers for one kilogram
- harvest
- Three crimson threads per flower, picked by hand
- history
- Cleopatra bathed in saffron-laced milk
- chemistry
- Pigment crocin dyes anything brilliant gold
kashmiri saffron — from pampore valley in kashmir, india; produces 90% of world's saffron
persian saffron — from khorasan province in iran; world's largest producer at ~400 tons annually
spanish saffron — from la mancha region; protected designation of origin since 1987