Why Super Negin?

The grade is in the thread.

Saffron is sold in grades, and the grade tells you what part of the flower you are paying for. Here is what the names mean, what a lab test adds, and how to check what is in your jar.

Saffron crocus flowers, each with three red threads

Where it comes from

Three threads. One little flower.

Saffron is the dried stigma of the saffron crocus, Crocus sativus. Each flower carries three red threads, joined at the base by a pale yellow style.

The crocus flowers for a few weeks in the autumn. The flowers are picked by hand, the threads are separated from each one by hand, and then they are dried.

150flowers, roughly, to make a single gram of dried threads. When so much goes into so little, every thread matters.

The Persian grades

Good saffron has nothing to hide.

Persian saffron is graded by how the threads are cut and sorted. The red stigma carries the colour, taste and aroma. The yellow style adds weight, but very little else.

Our selection

Super Negin

The longest, thickest whole red threads, cut clean of the style and sorted by hand. The top selection by thread.

Colour: All red
Threads: Long and whole

Sargol

All red, cut clean of the style, but shorter threads, and often broken pieces in the mix.

Colour: All red
Threads: Shorter, some broken

Pushal

Red threads with some of the yellow style still attached. More weight on the scales, with less colour and taste.

Colour: Red and yellow
Threads: Style attached

You may also see bunch (or dasteh) saffron, the whole thread with its style tied in a bundle, and konj, the yellow style on its own.

The lab test

Grade and lab results are two different measures.

The thread grade describes what you can see. A laboratory test under the international standard ISO 3632 measures what you can taste and smell, and sorts saffron into categories, with category I the highest.

Crocinthe colour, the gold it gives to a dish
Picrocrocinthe taste, gently bitter and honeyed
Safranalthe aroma, the scent you notice when you open the box

The certificate figures for our current batch are not available yet. We will publish them on this page when they are, rather than quote numbers we cannot show you.

Red saffron threads in a small bowl, with a wooden spoon and crocus flowers

The bloom test

Steep it. Watch it turn gold.

Real saffron gives up its colour slowly. Drop a few threads into a glass of warm water and watch. It is a good kitchen check against dyed saffron, not a lab test of grade.

0min

A few threads into warm water. The water is clear, with red threads at the bottom.

10min

Gold halos form under each thread and slowly begin to spread.

20min

The water is a deep, even gold. The threads themselves are still red.

This short film illustrates blooming. It is not a timed test.

Buying well

How to spot poor saffron.

Not every disappointing jar is fake. Some is simply a lower grade, or old. These are the signs worth knowing.

Colour that rushes

Dyed threads turn warm water orange-red within seconds, then fade towards white. Real threads release gold slowly and stay red.

The wrong shape

A real thread is thin at one end and opens into a small trumpet at the other. Safflower petals look flat and frayed; corn silk is fine, curly and pale.