For giving
The Crystal Bottle — 1 g
One gram of Super Negin in a crystal keepsake bottle. About 60 cups of tea.
$19.99About 60 cups of tea
Give the bottle
The grade explained
What is Super Negin saffron?
Super Negin is the top of the commercial grading ladder — but almost nobody explains what the rungs below it actually contain. Here is the whole ladder, and what each grade costs you in flavour.
Every saffron crocus gives three red stigmas attached to a yellow style. What a grader does with that yellow style is the entire difference between grades.
The grades, from best down
Saffron grades
| Grade | What it is | Yellow style? | Colour strength |
|---|---|---|---|
| Super Negin | Only the all-red tips, long and unbroken | None | Highest |
| Negin | All-red, slightly shorter, some breakage | None | High |
| Sargol | Cut red threads, more fragments | Trace | Good |
| Pushal | Red threads with 1–3 mm of style attached | Yes | Lower per gram |
| Bunch / Dasteh | The whole stigma, tied | Yes, a lot | Lowest |
| Powder | Ground, origin unverifiable | Unknown | Unverifiable |
Why the yellow style is the whole argument
The yellow style carries almost no crocin, picrocrocin or safranal — the three compounds responsible for colour, taste and aroma. It does, however, weigh something.
So a gram of Pushal contains meaningfully less of what you actually want than a gram of Super Negin. Cheaper per gram is not cheaper per cup.
What the laboratory adds
Grade is a visual judgement. ISO 3632 is a laboratory one: it measures crocin (colour), picrocrocin (taste) and safranal (aroma) by spectrophotometry. Category I is the top tier and begins at a crocin reading of 200.
The two together are what you want: Super Negin by eye, Category I by instrument. One without the other is half an answer.
Every batch we sell is Super Negin, tested to ISO 3632 Category I.
Read the proof pageKeep reading
More from the Learn library
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Afghan vs Persian vs Spanish vs Kashmiri saffron
Four origins, four reputations, and a great deal of marketing.
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Trust, but verify
How to spot fake saffron: five tests you can do at home
Studies of retail saffron have found nearly half of samples adulterated — dyed corn silk, safflower, and old threads re-coloured.
Read →
The price guide
What real saffron costs — and why
Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world by weight and one of the cheapest by serving.
Read →The saffron behind the writing
Buy the thing we keep describing.
Single-origin Herati Super Negin, single-origin and harvest-dated.
For the ritual
The Ritual Set
The bottle plus the porcelain teacup and saucer.
$44.991 g + teacup & saucer
Shop the set
For the kitchen
The Connoisseur Jar — 5 g
For the kitchen that cooks with saffron, not around it.
$59.99$12.00/g
Shop 5 g
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