As with gold, the high price of saffron is a simple question of the laws of supply and demand. The spice is as much in demand toady as it has been for many thousands of years, yet its supply remains as limited as ever, thanks to the difficulty of obtaining it. Saffron is made from the dried yellow stigmas of the violet flowers of Crocus sativus, a member of the Iris family. The stigmas must be harvested by hand and it takes 500,000 of them to make just one kilo of saffron. Hardly surprisingly, therefore, only around 300 tonnes of the spice are produced globally each year.
Rather alarmingly, perhaps, for those concerned about the security of supplies for such a rare and precious commodity, the world’s principal producer of saffron is Iran. More encouragingly, however, Spain remains a strong second-place contender, followed by India, Greece, Azerbaijan, Morocco, and Italy. Furthermore, the contemporary herb and spice manufacturer, McCormick & Company Inc. says about the Spanish product: “Spain is considered the premium source of Saffron. Its flavour is distinctive and agreeable in character”.
These days, saffron is mainly used as a colorant and flavouring for cheeses, pastry, rice, and seafood dishes. It’s used in spice blends for paella, curry, kheer, and bouillabaisse. However, its strong perfume and bitter, honey-like taste have been around for centuries. The pleasantly spicy and bitter taste and tenacious odour have been familiar to many past civilisations. The ancient Assyrians, for example, used saffron for medicinal purposes. The Greeks and Romans used it to perfume their luxurious baths. The bright orange-yellow colour also made saffron useful as a dye – indeed, saffron-based pigments have been found in 50,000 year-old depictions of prehistoric beasts in what is today Iraq.
Experts believe saffron was first documented in a 7th century BC Assyrian botanical reference compiled under the ruler Ashurbanipal. Since then, documentation has been found for saffron’s use over the span of 4,000 years in the treatment of some 90 illnesses. Saffron has been used as a spice and medicine in the Mediterranean region since then, with usage and cultivation slowly spreading to other parts of Eurasia as well as North Africa.
The ancient Minoans of Crete included saffron in their palace frescoes by 1500–1600 BC, showing saffron’s use as a therapeutic drug, while people throughout the ancient Mediterranean used saffron in their perfumes, ointments,potpourris, mascaras, divine offerings, and medical treatments. In Egypt, Cleopatra used saffron in her baths so that lovemaking would be more pleasurable, while Egyptian healers used saffron as a treatment for all manner of gastrointestinal ailments. The Roman Aulus Cornelius Celsus prescribes saffron in medicines for wounds, cough, colic, and scabies, while his countrymen generally had such a love of saffron that Roman colonists took the spice with them when they settled in southern Gaul, where it was extensively cultivated until Rome’s fall.
Saffron was reintroduced to Europe when Moorish civilization spread to Spain, France, and Italy. During the Black Death of the 14th century, demand for saffron-based medicine skyrocketed, and much saffron had to be imported via Venetian and Genoan ships from southern and Mediterranean lands such as Rhodes. The theft of one such shipment by noblemen sparked the fourteen-week long “Saffron War”.
The conflict and resulting fear of rampant saffron piracy spurred significant saffron cultivation in Basel, in Switzerland, which grew prosperous as a result. Cultivation and trade then spread to Nuremberg, in what is today Germany, where epidemic levels of saffron adulteration brought on the Safranschou code, under which saffron adulterers were fined, imprisoned, and executed.
Soon after, saffron cultivation spread throughout England, especially Norfolk and Suffolk. The Essex town of Saffron Walden, named for its new specialty crop, emerged as England’s prime saffron growing and trading center. However, an influx of more exotic spices such as chocolate, coffee, tea, and vanilla from newly contacted Eastern and overseas countries caused European cultivation and usage of saffron to decline. Only in southern France, Italy, and Spain, did significant cultivation endure. Nevertheless, saffron remained a spice sufficiently available in England during the 17th century for the “herbalists’ bible” Culpepper’s The Complete Herbal of 1649 to publish the following warning about saffron: “The use of it ought to be moderate and reasonable, for when the dose is too large, it produces a heaviness of the head and sleepiness. Some have fallen into an immoderate convulsive laughter which ended in death”!
Europeans brought saffron to the Americas when immigrant members of the Schwenkfelder Church in Holland left Europe with a trunk containing saffron corms; indeed, many Schwenkfelders had widely grown saffron in Europe. By 1730, the Pennsylvania Dutch were cultivating saffron throughout eastern Pennsylvania. Spanish colonies in the Caribbean bought large amounts of this new American saffron, and high demand ensured that saffron’s list price on the Philadelphia commodities exchange was set equal to that of gold. The trade with the Caribbean later collapsed in the aftermath of the War of 1812, when many saffron-transporting merchant vessels were destroyed. Yet the Pennsylvania Dutch continued to grow lesser amounts of saffron for local trade and use in their cakes, noodles, and chicken or trout dishes. American saffron cultivation survived into modern times mainly in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Currently, as befits its premier place in the international saffron producers’ league, Spain operates a grading standard to rank saffron quality – which, in turn, is designed to set the market price. Nevertheless, many growers, traders and consumers choose to ignore the results of such laboratory tests and instead sample batches of saffron “thread” for taste, aroma, pliability and other qualities, in a fashion similar to that practised by wine tasters.