Which Is The Most Expensive Spice In The World, And What Makes It So Valuable?

Most Expensive Spice:  The most expensive spice in the world is saffron; for the same reason, it is also known as Red Gold in many parts of the world. Saffron originates from the stigmas, the small red filaments, of the Crocus sativus flowers. This flower only opens up once a year for a short time, and one flower has only three dainty stigmas. To cultivate just a kilogram of saffron, approximately 150,000 to 370,000 flowers must be individually picked by hand and go through a very time-consuming and labour-intensive harvesting process.

Delicate hand harvesting is the main cause of the high cost of saffron. The stigmas for Saffron, popularly known as Kesar in India, need to be picked by hand, usually during early morning when the flowers are new, to maintain their strong aroma, pigmentation, and taste. Additionally, the yield per flower of Saffron is very low since only a small portion of every flower is used. All these factors are responsible for making saffron’s cost more than thousands of dollars per kilogram and, at times, even more than gold by weight.

Also Read: How To Check The Purity Of Saffron At Home? Try These 5 Easy Tests