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How to identify the quality of saffron
Saffron is one of the most incredibles species in the world, but the price of this makes it have many imitations. If you want to know how to identify the real one saffron, keep on reading.
How is saffron quality tested
There are too many ways to test saffron, fake saffron usually is painted with colorant and costs way too many less than the original. The best way for anyone to distinguish the quality of saffron is to use your senses by checking the smell, taste and appearance of your saffron.
Six ways to identify real saffron
To avoid saffron counterfeit, we prepare for you six points to check that your saffron is authentic. Of course, if you buy it from Moonflowers, you can forget about this, because our saffron have the best quality.
The smell
Saffron has a distinguished and soft scent. The aroma should be floral, honey-like, with a slight sweetness to it. This is a measure of the safranal in saffron.
The taste
Despite its scent, saffron has a very distinguished and hard to pinpoint taste. The taste profile of saffron can best be described as being floral and sweet but also earthy and some would even say it’s bitter. This is the measure of picrocrocin in the saffron.
The appearance
Time of color release in water. Add the saffron threads to water so it can steep. If it starts coloring the water quickly, your saffron may be fake or low-quality. Real saffron slowly turns the water into a yellow/golden color. This test measures the crocin of the saffron.
How to reacts in baking soda
Even if this sounds strange, it actually works. You can check the quality of organic saffron by mixing baking soda and saffron in a small cup filled with water. In case the mixture is yellow in color then the saffron is pure.
Rub the saffron threads with your fingers
After soaking the saffron threads in cold water for a few minutes, take out a pair of threads and place them on your finger. Rub the threads with your fingers back and forth three times, if the saffron threads fall apart or turn to dust or liquid you have fake saffron or very low quality saffron. Pure saffron threads are not going to break apart.
Price
Saffron is one of the most precious spices in the world. It is so expensive because it is an extremely labor-intensive crop. Crocus sativus, or the saffron crocus, flowers in the fall. Each flower has three tiny, threadlike stigmas in the center. So, the price of saffron obviously has to be elevated, if it looks very good to be real, then it probably is’t saffron.
Tips for buying saffron
Never purchase ground saffron. In spite of the fact that your formula may call for ground, in case you purchase it in strings, at slightest you'll be able figure out in case it is genuine. Once the substance is ground, it is nearly inconceivable to recognize genuine from fake or debased. Also ground saffron, indeed in case genuine, can contain fillers such as colored rice flour, starch or other flavors such as turmeric or paprika.
If you want the best quality organic saffron and avoid possible fake saffron sellers, you should see the options Moonflowers offers you. You can do every single saffron test you want on our products and you’ll see that Moonflowers saffrons have the best possible quality.
