From royal feasts to festive breads, saffron’s journey shows just how a tiny thread can colour the world.
Written by Yusif Babayev
This week, in our Foods & Drinks column, we focused on saffron, the spice that adds its mark to tables everywhere. Why is it, by far, more expensive than any other? How was this culinary treasure first discovered? Which cuisines use it extensively, and where is it hardly known at all?
Saffron is renowned as the world’s most expensive spice primarily because its cultivation is extraordinarily labour-intensive and painstakingly delicate. The spice comes from the Crocus sativus, a violet-hued flower whose stigmas are thin, silk-like, and extremely fragile. Each stigma must be carefully hand-picked. To produce just one kilogram of dried saffron, nearly 150,000 flowers are required. Moreover, these blooms last only 2–3 weeks each year, and harvesting must be done in the early morning hours, before the flowers feel the warmth of the sun. If the collected stigmas are not dried at a precise temperature, saffron quickly loses its fragrance, colour, and potency. Such labour, fragility, and brief harvest period make saffron far rarer and significantly more expensive than any other spice.
The origins of saffron date back approximately 3,500 to 4,500 years. Scholars attribute its beginnings to two major civilisations: Iran and the Aegean world. According to ancient Iranian sources, saffron was used in the 2nd–3rd millennia BCE as a medicine, dye, and natural flavouring. References to its medicinal use in cuneiform texts indicate that it was considered both valuable and sacred at the time. Meanwhile, in the Aegean region, frescoes from the Minoan civilisation, particularly those at Santorini (Akrotiri), depict women harvesting saffron, dating back to around 1600 BCE. This suggests that saffron was discovered independently by both Eastern and Western ancient cultures and, over the centuries, spread via trade routes to Mesopotamia, India, and the Mediterranean basin. In antiquity, saffron was as precious as gold and was typically reserved for royal tables and religious rituals.
The transition of saffron from a sacred, royal-exclusive spice to a part of everyday life happened very gradually. For millennia, its price was so exorbitant that only rulers, religious institutions, and wealthy merchants could afford it. In ancient Egypt, it appeared in the tombs of pharaohs, and during the Greco-Roman period, it was found in temples and the banquets of the elite, remaining out of reach for ordinary people.
The wider dissemination of saffron began primarily during the Middle Ages, particularly between the 8th and 13th centuries, with the revival of the Silk Road. As trade from Iran, Central Asia, and India brought larger quantities of saffron to Mediterranean ports, prices stabilised somewhat. Nevertheless, in Europe, saffron remained a luxury spice for the wealthy until almost the 15th century, accessible mainly to guilds of tailors and apothecaries in large cities and the tables of the nobility.
A true turning point came in the 15th–16th centuries, particularly with the expansion of saffron cultivation in Spain’s La Mancha region. As local production increased, the spice finally became available at more “affordable” prices in European markets, allowing a portion of urban populations to use it. From this period onwards, saffron was no longer solely a ceremonial or royal ingredient but also found its way into food, medicinal preparations, and confectionery. However, the concept of “everyday use by the general populace” only emerged in the 18th–19th centuries; with global trade becoming easier, saffron became part of festive tables, wedding dishes, and winter stores. Yet, saffron never became a truly cheap spice—it simply evolved from being a luxury once reserved for kings to a delicacy that modest households could afford on special occasions.
Today, saffron plays diverse roles in cuisines across the world and is prized primarily for three qualities: its aroma, colour, and aromatic depth. Its most extensive use is in Iranian cuisine, where saffron is not merely a spice but also considered a national symbol. Dishes such as tahdig, zereshk polo, and joojeh kebab derive their distinctive identity from the golden hue and subtle yet persistent fragrance that saffron imparts.
In Indian cuisine, saffron enhances both savoury and sweet dishes—particularly classics like biryani, kheer, and kulfi—serving as a key source of flavour and aroma. Spain’s famous paella would lose both its colour and character without saffron. In the Gulf countries, saffron holds a prominent place in dishes such as kabsa, majboos, and harees, enriching them and giving them a fragrant depth.
In Azerbaijan, saffron is an integral part of the nation’s plov culture, lending a unique pink-golden hue to plov and serving as the final aromatic touch in both savoury and sweet variations. The country has not only embraced saffron in its cuisine but has also celebrated this exquisite spice in a song titled “Zəfəran” (meaning ‘saffron’ in Azerbaijani).
While saffron is considered a staple in many of the world’s cuisines, there are regions where it is either rarely used or virtually unknown. In Northern European kitchens, saffron appears almost exclusively in festive pastries—particularly in Sweden’s Christmas bread, Lussekatter. Northern Chinese and Korean cuisines barely recognise saffron, relying instead on ginger and turmeric to fulfil similar roles. In Southeast Asia—Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia—turmeric entirely replaces saffron, making the spice largely unnecessary in these culinary traditions.
A similar pattern is seen across much of Africa: saffron is widely used only in North African countries such as Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, while in other areas it is either unknown or too expensive for regular use. From royal feasts to festive breads, saffron’s journey shows just how a tiny thread can colour the world.