Kashmir- Its Saffron

Saffron (pronounced  /ˈsæfrɒn/) is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus, commonly known as the saffron crocus. Crocus is a genus in the family Iridaceae. Each saffron crocus grows to 20–30 cm (8–12 in) and bears up to four flowers, each with three vivid crimson stigmas, which are each the distal end of a carpel.Together with the styles, or stalks that connect the stigmas to their host plant, the dried stigmas are used mainly in various cuisines as a seasoning and colouring agent. Saffron, long among the world's most costly spices by weight,is native to Southwest Asia and was first cultivated in Greece. As a genetically monomorphic clone,it was slowly propagated throughout much of Eurasia and was later brought to parts of North Africa, North America, and Oceania.



Kashmiri saffron is considered the world's best saffron for its distinctive long, flat, silky threads with a dark red color, extraordinary aroma, powerful coloring and flavoring capabilities. This is the world's most potent saffron and is not easily obtainable outside of its native India since almost all of Kashmir's saffron is consumed within India and little is left for export.


Saffron is known to be the world's most expensive spice. Kashmiri saffron is known to be the world's most expensive saffron. For this reason, some saffron being sold on the market as Kashmiri are actually grown in other region's of the world but Kashmir.  We consider ourselves fortunate to be able to import not only the genuine Kashmiri saffron, but the finest Kashmiri saffron on the market, the Baby Brand Saffron, known world-wide for its unsurpassed quality for more than 160 years.


This Kashmiri saffron is 100% pure, premium quality, and is sealed in the elegantly designed packaging of 1-gram, 5-grams, 25-grams and a newly designed single use packages of 50-milligrams each to preserve the freshness of saffron.


This saffron is fresh, having been harvested from the current crop (Oct. 2010). Saffron is harvested only at the end of Autumn, with the next crop being harvested in the Autumn of 2011 and will be available in Nov.-Dec 2011.


All packages of our Kashmiri saffron are printed with the date of the crop year (Oct. 2010), sealing proof of its freshness.


How to recognize genuine Kashmiri saffron


If you have never used Kashmiri saffron threads before and you are planning to buy genuine Kashmiri saffron elsewhere this information should help you to recognize a genuine product.


Kashmiri saffron threads have two unique characteristic that no other saffron in the world has. First is the physical shape of the thread itself. Kashmiri saffron threads are flat and thin like a paper and slightly wider especially toward the tip of the thread than saffron threads from other regions of the world. Second, is that it feels very smooth and sort of silky to the touch and no other saffron in the world has this characteristic. For these reasons it is not a very wise strategy for the packagers to mix Kashmiri saffron threads with non-Kashmiri saffron threads. There are roamers out there saying that low quality Kashmiri saffron is being mixed with good quality Iranian saffron and is being exported and sold as high quality Kashmiri saffron (since Kashmiri saffron is more expensive than Iranian saffron). This simply is not true because when you mix non-Kashmiri saffron threads with Kashmiri saffron threads the differences will be obvious to the eye and you do not need to be a saffron expert to realize that there are two different saffron threads in the package. The only way this would be possible is if the entire batch consists of non-kashmiri saffron and the buyer has no idea of what Kashmiri saffron should look like.