How to buy real saffron (and not get fooled)

Saffron earns its price honestly — each crocus flower gives only three crimson stigmas, and it takes many thousands of flowers to make a single gram. That price is also why it is the most faked spice in the world, cut or replaced with dyed corn silk, safflower, or coloured threads.

There are a few kitchen tests that are hard to fake. Real saffron threads are trumpet-shaped, deep red with a slightly paler orange tip, never uniformly bright. Drop a few threads in warm — not hot — water and wait. Genuine saffron releases its golden colour slowly, over several minutes, while the threads themselves stay red. A fake dye bleeds instantly and the thread turns pale. Real saffron also smells honeyed and hay-like, and tastes faintly bitter, never sweet.

Use it gently. A pinch is plenty for a whole pot of biryani or kheer. Bloom the threads first in a spoon of warm milk or water for ten minutes to draw out the colour and aroma, then stir the whole infusion in. Crushing the threads lightly before soaking helps.

Buy it as whole threads, never as powder — powder is where adulteration hides. And buy small. A few good grams, stored in the dark, will outlast most of the other spices in your kitchen.