Saffron, or saffron flower, is a spice and herb that everybody in the world has probably heard of and is familiar with. It is a magical spice and herb in the form of thin reddish threads and is used in cooking, among many other uses for treating many diseases.

Saffron (scientific name is Crocus sativus) is a highly-priced plant. The dried flower parts (the stigmas) that resemble threads are harvested from the flower and are used to manufacture saffron spice, food coloring and medicine.

Saffron has a high price for many reasons, but primarily because it takes 75,000 saffron flowers to make 0.5 kg of saffron spice and that the plant is picked by hand.

You have likely seen the red or crimson part of saffron that resembles a thread. This is the stigma and this is the most important part of saffron. The flower has three stigmas which appear inside the flower when it blooms.

Where does it come from?

Saffron can be harvested just about anywhere; nevertheless, Iran, Spain, Greece, New Zealand and India are the most common spots to harvest saffron plants. It is also grown in some areas of England.

Why Is Saffron the Most Expensive Spice in the World?

In the list of the world’s most luxurious spices, saffron would win the blue ribbon. Called “red gold”, saffron is shipped at a high price because of the amount of labor that goes into it

To get one kilogram of saffron, the farmer is going to handpick 150,000 to 200,000 flowers of the tender Crocus sativus.

A thread of saffron comes from each flower, which is a small yield. Each flower must be picked by hand and it must be careful work; picking the wrong thing means a loss in yield.

The number of flowers and the amount of labor involved makes saffron the most expensive spice sold today.