Saffron (Crocus sativus) is the dried stigmas of the saffron crocus flower. The crocuses are grown through the spring & summer for the late autumn harvest when the flowers are handpicked (mechanical harvesting would destroy them), then dried and packed. Saffron is harvested early in the morning before sunrise and then dried in hygienic lab conditions, allowing for the highest levels of both crocine and safranal.

To produce 1gram of top quality saffron takes 160 flowers. Each plant has up to 4 flowers and each flower has 3 stigmas. The stigma is the end point of a flowers ‘style’ which is a tube that contains the pollen. The style is picked and the stigma’s are cut off. Each Stigma is around an inch long (25-30mm). The style is yellow and the lower half of the stigma will be orange becoming yellow as it meets the style. Top quality saffron will be cut well above the point where the stigma starts to become orange.

Saffron grading is done via labrotary measurement of crocin (color), picrocrocin (taste), and safranal (fragrance) content. Grading standards are set by the ISO (International Organization for Standardization).