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Our new *unreleased* 100% cotton bandana, featuring colorful illustrations of our favorite spices. *Spice Club Subscriptions & Gift Cards excluded.

Herati Saffron

Delicate floral flavor, golden color and warm, honeyed fragrance.

Regular price
$9.99
Regular price
Sale price
$9.99
Unit price
per 
Availability
Sale price
$9.99

Why Burlap & Barrel?

  • Single origin spices sourced directly from small farms
  • Over 10,000 5-star reviews
  • Guaranteed to wow you or we'll replace

Our uncommonly delicate Herati Saffron threads have a beautiful delicate floral flavor, golden color and warm, honeyed fragrance reminiscent of dried roses and fresh hay. The saffron is harvested by a cooperative of farmers. They carefully pull the threads from the flower, leaving a characteristic flame-colored tail, and sun-dry them. Saffron is a key element in sweet and savory cuisines from the Mediterranean to South Asia. It adds a distinctive floral flavor and golden color to fragrant rice dishes like paella, risotto and biryani, to frozen desserts like ice cream and kulfi, and to teas.

Our saffron is of the highest quality, sometimes called super negin or sargol, depending on how it is harvested and graded. The slight gradation in color is your assurance that our saffron is 100% pure and never dyed or otherwise adulterated.

Highlights

Origin:

Herat, Afghanistan

Process:

Sun-dried

Tasting notes:

Honey • Dried Roses • Fresh Hay


Ingredients

Kosher
non gmo clear
non irradiated clear
no preservatives clear
Salt Free
Ingredients:

Whole saffron threads (Crocus sativa)

Cooking tips

  • Steep a few threads in warm water when making crunchy baked rice
  • Add a pinch of threads when making paella
  • Fold into buttery bread, cake or cookie doughs 
  • Steep in cream for a rich pasta sauce 

SOURCING

Sourcing image

Our saffron is cultivated in the deserts of the Herat province in western Afghanistan, on the border with Iran, where saffron has grown for thousands of years. During the annual harvest in November and December, farmers begin work at dawn, plucking the beautiful white and purple crocus flowers before the desert sun can wilt them and ruin the invaluable stigmas. Each flower produces only three stigmas, which are painstakingly extracted by hand and dried.

Saffron is immensely valuable, and like any valuable product, dishonest traders may attempt to deceive consumers about the quality of their product. Safflower, a different flower entirely, is sometimes sold as saffron; safflower petals have straight, orange threads, while true saffron threads are deep red, curled and tangled. Lower-grade saffron threads may also be cut and colored with red dye to make them appear higher quality.

Meet the farmer: Shakoor, left, farms saffron in Herat, Afghanistan, as part of the collective of farmers who grow our spectacular saffron.

how do we compare? Supermarket Icon Supermarket Fair Trade Icon Fair Trade
Heirloom Spices Yes No No
Fair Prices for Farmers Yes No Depends on global commodity price
Time in Storage None. We import spices at harvest Up to 10 years At least 1 year
Flavor Profile Intense & fresh Stale & bland Inconsistent
Knows Farmers Names Yes No Unlikely
Customer Service Fast responses from real people! No There might be a 1-800 number?
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