The fragrance of saffron

The subtle smell of saffron. Its brings forth memories of sweet dishes – kheer, laddoos, barfi’s and even the very high-end biryanis. There is also the ‘jaffran’ tea which comes with such a small of pinch of saffron, that you could almost miss it – yet that small pinch is enough to fill the entire house with the sweet aroma of saffron.

It has always been a ‘treasured’ spice, tucked away far into the deep freezer and removed once or twice in a year, for special occasions and festivals/pujas. Sounds almost like gold, doesn’t it? And it costs also almost as much as gold – Rs.2 lakh per kg. And that’s understandable given the cost and toil. Like mining gold, saffron is tough to cultivate. One lakh flowers of saffron gives 1 kg of saffron and output is half kg per hectare of land.

Demand always outstrips supply. More than we as small individuals, it is the bulk buyers like ice-cream and snack, sweet makers who buy more. The production in India is usually around 15,000 kgs and that itself is insufficient. One wonders how the likes of Haldiram, Vadilal, Amul, Bikaji will buy saffron this year? Maybe clandestine imports from Iran – though it is almost as expensive as gold, there is no metal detector for this.