SAFFRON is the most expensive spice in the world. It is mainly cultivated in countries such as Iran, Spain, Italy, Greece, Morocco, India and Turkey. Historically, saffron is dubbed as ‘red gold’ and is believed to have been discovered during Bronze age Greece.
If you make a quick search on e-commerce platforms, you would find that 1g of saffron, which equals roughly one loosely packed tablespoon, is priced up to RM 100. In Malaysia, saffron is said to be generally priced between RM28,000 and RM32,000 per kilogramme.
So what makes saffron so expensive? The high cost of saffron is attributed to its labor-intensive method of extraction. Saffron threads are the stigmas of a purple flower named Crocus sativus, also known as Saffron Crocus. Each flower only has three stigmas.
Hence, it takes around 150 flowers to make 1g of the dried spice. Moreover, the stigmas only can be extracted manually by hand due to the delicate nature of the flower and the flowers are only usable when harvested shortly after the flowers have bloomed.
