Bulk Saffron

I've become a bit fixated on saffron since discovering paella, and am finding lots of uses for it. The problem of course is that saffron is expensive.  The last time I bought it in my local supermarket, a .06oz bottle was $22. Ouch.

Spanish Saffron

Everyone wants Spanish Saffron. It's supposed to be the best. I got news for you: Spain exports about 190,000 kilos of saffron each year.  The annual native saffron production in Spain is only 1,500 kilos.  Which means that it is highly probably that your 'Spanish' saffron came from somewhere else.  Probably Iran, since Iran produces about 90% of the world's saffron.

Afghan Saffron

For several years, there has been a campaign to move Afghan farmers from growing opium poppies to growing saffron. This program has been quite successful.  Afghan saffron is very high quality.

Via much digging, I've found a source of Afghan saffron that – while the company is in San Francisco – seems to be as close to the importer as you can get.  The bottom line is that you can get high quality saffron at prices drastically cheaper than at your local supermarket.

Where?  Vanilla, Saffon Imports

Did you know there is an ISO standard that sets standards for the quality of saffron? I didn't either.  According to ISO 3632, Category I saffron (the higheat quality) must meet certain minimum scores.  Here are the ISO minimum scores for Category 1 saffron, and the scores for the saffron I received from Vanilla Saffron Imports (The scores are printed on the container's label):

 As you can see, this is high-quality saffron.

Price

Now for the best part: an ounce of saffron from VanillaSaffron Imports was $80. That makes it less than a quarter of the cost of supermarket saffron.