Saffron

• 1. Introduction

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  Saffron is the spice made from the crimson threads of a purple autumn crocus, and about 150 flowers are needed to produce a single gram of the dried product. That arithmetic explains why people call it red gold. It also helps explain why saffron has attracted counterfeiters for centuries.

  Behind the spice sits a plant that cannot make seeds and is unknown in the wild. How did such a plant spread across continents? What gives its threads their colour and their hay-like scent? How do buyers tell a true thread from a fake? And how did a spice tied to Persia end up growing in Pennsylvania?

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• 2. A Sterile Clone

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  Twenty-four chromosomes sit in every cell of Crocus sativus, arranged as three sets of eight. That triple set makes the saffron crocus a sterile triploid. Its purple flowers cannot produce viable seeds, so the plant depends on people to reproduce. Growers dig up clusters of corms, which are underground, bulb-like organs that store starch, then divide and replant them. A corm lasts one season and can produce up to ten cormlets, which grow into new plants the following year. Each corm is a small brown globule up to 5 cm across, wrapped in a dense mat of parallel fibres called the corm tunic.

  The likely ancestor is Crocus cartwrightianus, nicknamed wild saffron, which is native to mainland Greece, Euboea, Crete, Skyros and some of the Cyclades. Crocus thomasii and Crocus pallasii were once suggested as other possible ancestors. The cultivated crocus itself is unknown in the wild. Proposed homelands include Iran, Mesopotamia, Kashmir and Greece. Harold McGee states that people domesticated it in or near Greece during the Bronze Age.

  Only in October, after most other flowering plants have released their seeds, do the flowers open. Their colours range from pale lilac to a darker, striated mauve, and they carry a sweet, honey-like fragrance. The plants stand 20-30 cm tall and bear up to four flowers. Their thin green leaves can reach 40 cm in length, and as buds they are shielded by white, membrane-like leaves called cataphylls.

  From each flower emerges a three-pronged style 25-30 mm long, and every prong ends in a vivid crimson stigma. Those three tips per flower are the entire reason for the harvest.

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• 3. Dawn Harvest

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  Dawn is when the work begins, because saffron flowers open at first light and wilt as the day passes. Every plant in a field blooms within a window of only one or two weeks. Pickers must work fast, and the extracted stigmas have to be dried quickly. The numbers are punishing. One fresh flower yields about 30 mg of fresh saffron, which dries to about 7 mg. Forty hours of labour are needed to pick 150,000 flowers.

  Planting is mostly done in June in the Northern Hemisphere, with corms set 7-15 cm deep. Depth matters. Mother corms planted deeper yield higher-quality saffron but form fewer flower buds and daughter corms. Italian growers get the best thread yield at 15 cm deep, in rows 2-3 cm apart, while depths of 8-10 cm favour flower and corm production. The crop prefers loose, well-drained clay-calcareous soil rich in organic matter. Historically, growers added some 20-30 t/ha of manure before planting and used raised beds for drainage.

  Rainfall differs enormously between saffron regions. Kashmir averages 1000-1500 mm a year, Greece about 500 mm and Spain about 400 mm. Timing matters more than totals, because generous spring rains and drier summers suit the plant best. Rain just before flowering lifts yields, while rain or cold during flowering invites disease. Rabbits, rats and birds dig up corms, and nematodes, leaf rusts and corm rot add further risks. Some reports suggest the plant can tolerate air temperatures from minus 22 to 40 degrees Celsius.

  That labour is what keeps the price high. At US$5,000 per kg or more, saffron has long been the world's costliest spice by weight. In 1974 the average retail price in Western countries was 1000 dollars per pound. In February 2013 a 1.7 g bottle sold for $16.26.

  Almost all saffron grows in a belt stretching from Spain in the west to India in the east. As of 2024, Iran produced around 90% of the world's supply, with Afghanistan next and Greece third. Spain, which comes fourth today, was the largest producer in the 19th century.

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• 4. Colour and Scent

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  More than 10% of dry saffron by mass can be a single pigment, alpha-crocin. This carotenoid gives dishes and textiles a rich golden-yellow hue. Chemically, it is crocetin bound to two sugar units called gentiobioses. Crocetin alone dissolves in oil, but the attached sugars make crocin dissolve in water. That is why saffron colours rice and other non-fatty foods so well.

  Bitterness comes from picrocrocin, a glucoside that can make up as much as 4% of dry saffron. It is a union of a sugar and a smaller molecule called safranal. After harvest, the heat of drying and enzymes split picrocrocin into D-glucose and free safranal. Safranal is less bitter and may supply up to 70% of the volatile fraction in some samples. It is the main compound behind the aroma.

  Saffron holds some 28 volatile compounds, mostly ketones and aldehydes. One of them, 2-hydroxy-4,4,6-trimethyl-2,5-cyclohexadien-1-one, smells of dried hay. Chemists consider it the strongest contributor to the fragrance, even though it is present in smaller amounts than safranal. Connoisseurs describe the overall aroma as metallic honey with grassy or hay-like notes.

  Dry saffron is fragile. It reacts to shifts in pH and breaks down quickly in light and in the presence of oxidising agents. Airtight containers limit its contact with oxygen, though the spice is somewhat more resistant to heat. Fresh threads show vivid crimson colouring, slight moistness, elasticity and an absence of broken-off debris.

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• 5. In the Kitchen

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  In Iran, saffron is an essential ingredient in chelow and tahdig, in stews such as khoresh-e fesenjan and in desserts including sholeh-zard and bastani sonnati. Elsewhere it appears in the Milanese risotto of Italy, the paella of Spain, the bouillabaisse of France and the biryani of South Asia. Arab cuisines use it too, as do confectioners and makers of liquors. In Tuscany, saffron from San Gimignano goes into the Golden Ham, a precious dry-cured ham.

  A few threads per person per dish is the limit of pleasure. In larger servings, saffron turns bitter, while its usual taste is described as hay-like and sweet. Eating less than 1.5 g is not toxic, but doses above 5 g become increasingly toxic. Mild effects include dizziness, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Higher doses can reduce platelet count and cause spontaneous bleeding. Dried saffron is 65% carbohydrate, 6% fat, 11% protein and 12% water.

  The code E164 marks saffron in the European system for food additives. Beyond the kitchen, it has dyed fabric, particularly in China and India, scented perfumes and served in religious rituals in India. It also has a long history in traditional medicine. Modern researchers are studying its effect on depression and anxiety. A 2024 review linked 8-12 weeks of saffron supplements to lower fasting blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin and blood lipids in overweight people with diabetes or prediabetes.

  Cooks who cannot afford the real thing have long turned to substitutes. Safflower is often sold as Portuguese saffron or by the name açafrão. Annatto and turmeric serve the same purpose, and medieval Europeans called turmeric Indian saffron.

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• 6. Grades and Fakes

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  Sargol is the top Iranian grade, made of red stigma tips only. Pushal, also called pushali, adds some yellow style and is weaker. Bunch saffron, tied like a miniature wheatsheaf, carries a large amount of style. Konge is yellow style alone, claimed to have aroma but little or no colouring power.

  Spanish grades run from coupé, the strongest, through mancha, rio, standard and sierra. In Kashmir the two main categories are mongra, which is stigma alone, and lachha, where stigmas still carry parts of the style. Colour and flavour concentrate in the red stigma, so more style means weaker saffron.

  Spanish growers fought for protected status for La Mancha saffron because Iranian saffron repackaged in Spain was being sold as Spanish Mancha. Genuine La Mancha saffron now shows its PDO status on the packaging. Kashmir faces a similar problem, since imported Iranian saffron is mixed with local saffron and sold as Kashmir brand at a higher price. In 2020, Kashmir Valley saffron received a geographical indication from the Government of India. It is recognizable by a dark maroon-purple hue.

  Italy and Greece have their own prized crops. Zafferano dell'Aquila is grown on just eight hectares in the Navelli Valley of Abruzzo, near L'Aquila, and was first brought to Italy by a Dominican friar from inquisition-era Spain. In Sardinia, San Gavino Monreale grows saffron on 40 hectares, about 60% of Italian production. Greek saffron from the town of Krokos is PDO protected for its colour and strong flavour.

  Laboratories offer a more numerical judgement under the international standard ISO 3632, which has three categories. Category I is the finest, followed by II and III, and there was formerly a category IV below them. Spectrophotometers measure absorbance, which reveals crocin for colour, picrocrocin for taste and safranal for aroma. Safranal must read 20-50 in every category. The crocin reading is the colouring strength. It falls below 80 for category IV and reaches 200 or greater for category I. The finest samples exceed 250, making them over three times stronger than category IV. Sargol and coupé typically land in category I, while pushal and mancha usually fall in category II.

  Yet many packages show neither category nor colouring strength, and little saffron sold in the UK carries an ISO label. Some growers, traders and consumers reject lab numbers anyway. They sample threads for taste, aroma and pliability, much as experienced wine tasters do.

  Cheating is old. Under Nuremberg's Safranschou code, sellers of adulterated saffron could be fined, imprisoned or executed. Fraudsters mixed in beetroot, pomegranate fibres, red-dyed silk fibres or the plant's own tasteless, odourless yellow stamens. Others coated threads in honey or vegetable oil to add weight. Powdered saffron was diluted with turmeric, paprika and other powders, and counterfeits have used horse hair, corn silk or shredded paper. Tartrazine or sunset yellow dyes have coloured fake powder.

  The newest trick uses colouring extract from gardenia fruits, which contains flavonoids and crocines resembling those in real saffron. Chemists countered with HPLC and mass spectrometry, hunting for geniposide, a compound found in gardenia fruits but absent from saffron.

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• 7. Ancient Roads

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  Around the year 1200, a Middle English text spelled the word saffran, borrowing it from French. The 12th-century Old French form was safran, from Medieval Latin safranum and ultimately Persian zaferan. That word traces to an older Persian term, zarparan, meaning gold-strung. It may refer to the flower's golden filaments or to the golden hue the spice imparts.

  By 1600-1500 BC, Minoan palace frescoes showed saffron, now identified as Crocus cartwrightianus, and they hint at a use as a therapeutic drug. Greek legends told of sea voyages to Cilicia, where adventurers sought what they believed were the world's most valuable threads. Another legend tells of Crocus and Smilax, in which the bewitched Crocus is transformed into the first saffron crocus. Perfumers in Egypt, physicians in Gaza, townspeople in Rhodes and Greek hetaerae courtesans all used saffron in scented waters, ointments, mascaras, offerings and treatments. A papyrus from 2000 BC shows it was known in Egypt, and Cleopatra used it in her baths so that lovemaking would be more pleasurable. Aulus Cornelius Celsus prescribed it for wounds, cough, colic and scabies. Dyers in Sidon and Tyre in Lebanon used it on fabric.

  Trade lists from Mari, in Syria, mention saffron, and a 7th-century BC Assyrian botanical reference compiled under Ashurbanipal describes it. The Hebrew Bible lists it among aromatic plants in Song of Songs 4:14. By the 10th century BC, ancient Persians cultivated saffron in Derbent, Isfahan and Khorasan. They wove the threads into textiles, offered them ritually to divinities and scattered them across beds. They also mixed them into hot teas as a cure for melancholy. Non-Persians feared the Persian use of saffron as a drugging agent and aphrodisiac. During his Asian campaigns, Alexander the Great used Persian saffron in infusions, rice and baths to treat battle wounds. His troops imitated him and brought saffron-bathing to Greece.

  Accounts of saffron's arrival in South Asia conflict. Kashmiri and Chinese sources date it anywhere between 2500 and 900 years ago, while historians of ancient Persian records place it before 500 BC, through a Persian transplanting of corms to stock new gardens and parks. Buddhist monks wear saffron-coloured robes, but the dye is usually turmeric or jackfruit rather than costly saffron. Using the cheapest dyes kept all the monks equal.

  Some historians think saffron reached China with Mongol invaders from Persia. Yet it appears in the Shennong Bencaojing, a forty-volume pharmacopoeia written around 300-200 BC that discusses 252 plant-based treatments. By about the 3rd century AD, the Chinese described it as Kashmiri. The herbalist Wan Zhen wrote: "the habitat of saffron is in Kashmir, where people grow it principally to offer it to the Buddha".

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• 8. Return Journeys

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  Roman recipes such as jusselle and conditum called for saffron. Roman colonists carried it to southern Gaul, where it was extensively cultivated until Rome fell, and then European cultivation plummeted. Competing theories say it returned to France with the Moors in the 8th century AD or with the Avignon papacy in the 14th century. The spread of Islamic civilisation may also have reintroduced the crop to Spain and Italy.

  The 14th-century Black Death pushed demand for saffron medicines to a peak. Europe imported large quantities of threads on Venetian and Genoan ships from southern and Mediterranean lands such as Rhodes. Noblemen stole one such shipment, and the theft sparked the fourteen-week Saffron War. Fear of rampant saffron piracy then spurred corm cultivation in Basel, which grew prosperous. The crop later reached Nuremberg, while cultivation continued in southern France, Italy and Spain.

  The royal Danish-Norwegian flagship Gribshunden sank in 1495 while on a diplomatic mission to Sweden. Excavations in 2021 revealed concentrations of saffron threads and small pucks of compressed saffron powder, along with fresh ginger, cloves and pepper. The saffron kept its distinctive odour after more than 500 years in the Baltic Sea. In England, the Essex town of Saffron Walden took its name from its new specialty crop and was a prime growing and trading centre in the 16th and 17th centuries. Cultivation there was abandoned, but saffron was reintroduced around 2013, along with plantings in Cheshire.

  Immigrant members of the Schwenkfelder Church carried saffron to the Americas, leaving Europe with a trunk of corms. By 1730, the Pennsylvania Dutch cultivated it throughout eastern Pennsylvania. Spanish colonies in the Caribbean bought large amounts, and demand was high enough that its list price on the Philadelphia commodities exchange equalled gold. That trade collapsed after the War of 1812, when many saffron-bearing merchant vessels were destroyed. The Pennsylvania Dutch kept growing smaller amounts for cakes, noodles, and chicken or trout dishes, and cultivation survives mainly in Lancaster County.

  Afghanistan grew saffron before Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire, according to belief. Prolonged droughts, conflict and shifts in farming caused it to decline for centuries. Cultivation resumed in the early 2000s as an alternative to opium poppy farming, backed by international organizations and the Afghan government. Production rose from 20 metric tons in 2022 to 46 metric tons in 2024. More than 80% of the workforce is women, who handle harvesting and processing, and the sector employs over 40,000 people. Exports go to India, Europe and the United States, and Afghan saffron has reached a crocin colour reading of 310 under ISO 3632.2 standards.

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