Determining Saffron Quality: Never An Easy Task

By Author: Shweta Batra
Total Articles: 10
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Saffron is quite popular among the other variety of spices not for its yellowish appearance or quality of taste that it brings to the dishes but, for its cost that makes it one of the most costly spices in the world. Apart from its cost, it is also one of the spices that take a long time to obtain because it takes around 150,000 crocuses approximately to extract 35 ounces of best quality saffron. Till date, Iran is the only region that has the largest plantation of saffron and because of this it is able to cater to the needs of nearly 85 percent of the total world. Apart from Iran, countries like India, Spain and Greece are also the producers of Saffron. It is aid to be one of the oldest herbs ever utilized for different purposes including in the field of Medicine. Among rest of the world, Europeans are said to be the first one to utilize saffron in cooking. However, in some Asian sub continents saffron is used in religious ceremonies also.
One should always be careful while judging the saffron quality at the time of purchase because such quality spices are easy to be adulterated because of its demand and value for ...
... money. The quality saffron that is quite expensive has a deep orange red color and the threads of saffron are the best for cooking purposes because they provide better flavor compared tom powdered form of saffron and studies even show that they have better medicinal capabilities. The main reason behind the adulteration of saffron is the costly nature of the spice due to which, many dealers are practicing illegal practices of adulteration and in turn fooling the customers who are unaware of the quality. The quality of this herb can be compromised by adding materials of similar color or taste to it and even by dying the cheap quality saffron strands that have very less taste in them. For instance it is not necessary that red saffron available in the market may be high quality saffron. There are several factors that are involved in judging the quality of this spice such as the aroma, the color. Some of the quality saffron has a mixture of both yellow and red in the strands that represent its quality. However, keeping in mind certain simple information about saffron can help you a lot in future while purchasing it and Saffron should be purchased from reputed dealer who can guarantee you of its quality.