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.

This 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 this saffron is 100% pure and never dyed or otherwise adulterated.

• 0.02oz (0.5g) glass container 
• Ingredients: Whole saffron threads
• Origin: Herat, Afghanistan
• Process: sun-dried 
• Tasting notes: honey, dried roses, fresh hay
• Cooking suggestions: 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   

Burlap & Barrel are delicious, single origin spices sourced directly from small farms around the world. Their spices are harvested by hand, dried naturally, grown organically whenever possible, and transported directly to preserve freshness. Burlap & Barrel is a Public Benefit Corporation building new international food supply chains that are equitable, transparent and traceable.

This 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.

Photos and information provided by Burlap & Barrel