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Here's what I don't get... so here in the US, saffron is generally speaking, extremely expensive and rationed carefully by cooks. Meanwhile, I watch these cooki
by poulsbohemian 3y ago
Here's what I don't get... so here in the US, saffron is generally speaking, extremely expensive and rationed carefully by cooks. Meanwhile, I watch these cooking videos on YouTube and people in villages in places like Azerbaijan are casually throwing the equivalent of $10,000 worth of saffron into their tea. Granted, I understand places like Iran (spoiler alert: not the best relationship with the US) are major producers, so maybe it is cheaper in that part of the world, BUT it almost by definition is a scarce resource. I do find myself wondering if trade issues / foreign relations are a factor in the cost.
- yifanl 3y agoI'm not saying I don't believe you, but how credible are these cooking videos? $10000 of saffron could provide enough flavour for easily 6 months worth of tea.
- poulsbohemian 3y agoI’m just saying - you watch these people pull out some giant jar that is more saffron than I’ve ever seen in my life and they use it like it’s no big deal. Meanwhile I’m pulling out individual threads with tweezers because the cost is so high
- Anotheroneagain 3y agoThe west isn't that rich anymore - I think it's mostly an artifact from only taking western things into account. The numbers would look very different if the methods weren't biased.
- rpigab 3y agoYes, it's also a difference in values and culture, we are fools to think that Azerbaidjan would desperately need expensive weapons in their recent conflict against Armenia, when in reality they'd always prefer a dozen saffron tea cups over a thousand mortar shells to shoot towards the Nagorno-Karabakh.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- globular-toast 3y agoA $20k per year tea budget also seems incredibly high!
- c22 3y agoWhen I go to Safeway I can find a handful of saffron threads suspended in a small glass jar for about $23, or I can find a similar thing for $30 at a fancier grocer. Meanwhile, if I go to the nearby independent indian grocery store I can get a cigarette-pack-sized box of the stuff for about ten bucks. While it's definitely not the cheapest spice I don't feel bad about liberally using it in my chai recipe and a box usually lasts me a couple months.
- hammock 3y agoCould it be fake, adulterated or poisonous somehow?
- hammock 3y agoBS to downvote me for this comment. Cheap olive oil is counterfeit. Cheap milk, honey and coffee are adulterated with fillers. Cheap tumeric is colored with lead oxide
- tired_throwaway 3y agoI can buy some of your claims, but how do you adulterate a coffee bean?
- infecto 3y agoYou add fillers to the ground product.
- ssl-3 3y agoCoffee beans are bin-sorted in a way where the good coffee gets better, and the lesser coffee gets worse. The most-shapely and consistent beans go to the more-premium lines. The small, underdeveloped, or misshapen beans (called "clinkers") go to the cheaper lines, along with the other defects. And so does the chaff from the coffee hulls, which is rolled up into weird little balls and thrown in too -- which is not done with premium coffees. The unavoidable portion of insect parts is higher in cheap coffee than it is in expensive coffee. In an ideal world, all of the stuff that is removed from premium coffees would be used as compost or something. But it is instead included in the lesser coffees, where it is consumed.
- ghastmaster 3y agoI have a Greek friend who's family goes into the mountains and picks it. There is no market infrastructure in the villages, similar to how venison is expensive at a restaurant, yet poor rural hunters kill and eat it all the time.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- poulsbohemian 3y agoI suspect you are right here - not dissimilar to how I go to the woods after morels and would never pay the $50/pound that you find in some farmer’s markets
- Filligree 3y agoPicking mushrooms wild is, in fairness, hugely time-intensive. Also a great outdoor activity, so keep doing that. I'm sure you know just the right spots by now. :-)
- altinagr 3y agoThat's common with foragers. They also pick wild mushrooms which are very expensive in the market. Greece produces saffron, https://safran.gr/ https://safran.gr/ You can find them in shops, even on airport shops.
- pfannkuchen 3y agoI thought the venison thing was because it’s illegal to farm deer (in the US anyway).
- poulsbohemian 3y agoI can't speak to deer, but my cousin had an elk farm previously so that was at least legal. Given concerns over wasting disease, I'm not sure if farming deer would be a good or bad idea - as in, do we end up with a concentrated population that might spread the disease faster, or do we save the species by separating it from their wild cousins?
- CoolestBeans 3y agoMy parents love watching those videos so I know what you're talking about. There's four factors I think. One, the quality of the saffron makes a big difference in price. Longer deeper red strands are much more expensive than shorter and more yellow strands. I suspect they are not using the most expensive saffron in their teas. Two, there's a lot of markup purchasing saffron from most retailers, especially here in the US. You can get that amount of saffron for far less than $10,000 if you know someone who has a connect. Three, as you said the majority of saffron production is from Iran. Some friends I know are getting their saffron from the UAE but I'm pretty sure its being re-exported from Iran. Four, those videos are ultimately productions. If you compare the earlier videos to the later videos on some of that channel you can tell they've upgraded their digs. They might just be exaggerating for the camera.
- poulsbohemian 3y agoNo kidding - last time I saw a video they were using better Shun knives than the ones I use in my kitchen. A big step from what they had in their first videos, and kinda neat to see the upgraded life their worldwide platform has given them
- jorvi 3y agoThere is also a lot of "fake" saffron. Keuringdienst van Waarde (Dutch TV show that analyzes the quality / scams in food) has a whole item on it: https://kro-ncrv.nl/programmas/keuringsdienst-van-waarde/peperduur-saffraan-of-geverfd-maisdraad-zo-onderscheid-je-echt https://kro-ncrv.nl/programmas/keuringsdienst-van-waarde/pep...
- noduerme 3y agoIf you're talking about the Azerbaijan outdoor chef who digs a pit with a backhoe to barbecue a whole cow, that guy is amazing. My dad's an old pitmaster and became obsessed and sends me the guy's videos religiously.
- djoo 3y agoI’m curious ! Can you share the link ? Thanks in advance
- vasco 3y agoLiterally all the search results for "Azerbaijan outdoor chef"
- abenga 3y agoHis YT channel is called "Wilderness Cooking" I think.
- cess11 3y agoHere it is: https://www.youtube.com/@WILDERNESSCOOKING/videos https://www.youtube.com/@WILDERNESSCOOKING/videos It's not really very wildernessy since most of the time he's just outside his house, but still quite interesting and a good inspirational resource.
- poulsbohemian 3y agoThat’s actually a different guy that the videos I was thinking, but still represents the same idea.
- tech_ken 3y agoSome types of saffron are fake I think. I don’t know the difference, but some cooking blogs I’ve read mentioned that “too good to be true” saffron deals always just are.
- darkoob12 3y agoI think Saffron is cultivated in all over Iranian Plateau which includes Iran Azerbaijan Afghanistan Turkmenistan Kurdish parts of Turkey and Iraq.
- dotnet00 3y agoHaving lived in Iran for a bit, Saffron was indeed extremely cheap, we used to regularly eat saffron ice cream, and we frequently used it in sweets. I didn't even realize how expensive it was in the rest of the world until later.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoThere is a wonderful ice cream shop in LA called Saffron and Rose. It is in Little Persia (near UCLA) of course, everyone who visits LA should try it at least once, they have a lot of really cool flavors besides the saffron/rose one, but it is definitely the one to try at least once.
- globular-toast 3y agoThere are different types. Real saffron is used sparingly and I doubt anyone is throwing a bunch of it in tea. My friends from Afghanistan would add a thread or two to their kahwah. Before they left they gifted me a massive bag of "saffron". I was a bit confused because it would be equivalent to a lifetime's worth based on how they used it. I think I concluded it might have been part of a different part of the plant or something, but it wasn't the "real" saffron they were using for sure.
- mattdesl 3y agoIn Sweden they sell bucketloads of saffron for basically a euro or two per pack. The equivalent in UK stores would have a 10x markup at least. It seems like an industry that somebody could easily capitalize on, unless there is some trade or monopoly restrictions we don’t know about.
- chakintosh 3y agoThe youtubers you see are most likely using fake saffron which is very popular.
- cess11 3y agoYou can probably grow saffron yourself. I live in northern Europe and when its season some of the seed shops here stock live Crocus sativus.
- speedylight 3y agoIt may not be real saffron, there have been cases where people sell fake saffron, not sure what they use instead of the real thing but it can happen.
- thewileyone 3y agoOn a trip to Spain, I bought a container of saffron in Toledo for USD100 for my mom. Lasted her for years. Tremendous markup along the trade route.