Kashmiri Mogra Saffron

The Most Precious Spice in the World — and Why Kashmir's Is the Best Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world by weight. It takes roughly 150,000 flowers and 75,000 hours of hand-picking to produce just one kilogram of saffron stigmas. Every thread is hand-harvested because no machine has ever been able to replicate the precision needed. This is why genuine saffron costs what it does and why the market is flooded with fake and adulterated products. Kashmiri saffron, specifically from the Pampore region in Kashmir, is considered a different category of saffron from Spanish or Iranian saffron. The thick, deep red threads with naturally attached yellow bases, the intense aroma that is both floral and earthy and the extraordinarily high crocin content — which is the compound responsible for saffron's colour and many of its health benefits — make Kashmiri Mogra saffron the gold standard in the global saffron market. Mogra Grade — What It Means Within Kashmiri saffron, Mogra is the highest quality grade. It consists entirely of the deep red stigma portion of the saffron flower with no yellow style attached. This red portion is where all the crocin, safranal (the aroma compound)…