Field notes & recipes

Saffron Recipes

Field notes from a saffron house: how to tell real saffron from dyed, what Super Negin actually means, the Afghan tea ritual, and the dishes worth spending threads on — qabuli pulao, sholeh zard, sheer yakh. Start with the saffron ritual, check our lab results, or go straight to the crystal collection.

Saffron Spritz Mocktail

An alcohol-free spritz built over big ice: saffron syrup, pink grapefruit, lime and cold sparkling water, with bitterness doing the work the spirit used...

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Saffron Iced Tea

A quart of green tea brewed short and hot, with twenty-five saffron threads bloomed separately, honey syrup, and lemon added at the glass rather...

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Saffron Cardamom Coffee

Light-roast coffee simmered ten minutes, cardamom steeped off the heat, and 20 saffron threads bloomed separately and stirred in at the end.

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Saffron Lemonade

Forty saffron threads bloomed in warm simple syrup, then built into a two-quart pitcher with fresh lemon juice and chilled four hours.

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Saffron Baklava

A 9 x 13 tray of baklava with 30 saffron threads bloomed into the syrup rather than the filling, poured cold over hot pastry.

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Saffron Custard Tart

A British custard tart with 30 saffron threads steeped in warm cream, an egg-washed blind-baked shell and a slow low-oven set.

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Saffron Shortbread

Buttery shortbread fingers tinted and scented with 25 saffron threads bloomed in cream, baked slow and cut while hot.

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From reading to tasting

Read enough? Taste it.

Everything in the journal comes back to the same bottles: single-origin Herati Super Negin, single-origin and harvest-dated.

The hero
The 1 gram crystal bottle of Authentic Afghan Saffron Super Negin threads

For giving

The Crystal Bottle — 1 g

One gram of Super Negin in a crystal keepsake bottle. About 60 cups of tea.

$14.99About 60 cups of tea
Give the bottle
Most gifted
The Authentic Afghan Saffron gift box beside the branded porcelain teacup of golden saffron tea

For the ritual

The Gift Box

Two crystal bottles in a gold-foiled gift box — one to give, one to keep.

$27.991 g + teacup & saucer
Shop the set
All-red Super Negin saffron threads heaped in a cut-crystal footed bowl

For the kitchen

The Connoisseur Jar — 5 g

For the kitchen that cooks with saffron, not around it.

$44.99$12.00/g
Shop 5 g

Free U.S. shipping over $50 · Gift wrap and a handwritten card available