Saffron is the most valued and treasured spice on the planet. The word saffron comes from the French word Safrana, which comes from the Latin word Safranum. Safranum comes from the Arabic word which means YELLOW
Kashmiri Saffron is among the most requested in the world. Farmers mainly cultivate Kashmiri kesar around the town of Pampore. This spice comes from the flower Crocus sativus.The delicate purple flower yields saffron when farmers dry its stigmas.
People across the world admire Kashmiri saffron for its rich flavour, health benefits, medicinal uses, and role in cosmetics. The unmatched features of Kashmiri kesar are its longer and thicker stigmas, natural deep red color, bitter flavor, high quantity of crocin, safranal, and picrocrocin.
There are several types of saffron namely
- Kashmiri
- Iranian
- Spanish
- Greek
- Italian
It has many names: zafran in Urdu, Kesar in Hindi, Kongposh in Kashmiri.
TYPES OF KASHMIRI SAFFRON:
The saffron available in Kashmir is of three types
- Lacha kesar, with stigmas just separated from the flowers and dried without further processing;
- Mongra kesar, in which stigmas are detached from the flower, dried in the sun, and processed traditionally;
- Guchhi kesar, which is the same as Lachha, except that the dried stigmas are packed loosely in air-tight containers while the previous has stigmas joined together during a bundle tied with a cloth thread.
KNOW YOUR KESAR:
Many sellers colour fake products to imitate this spice. To find out whether yours is pure or not, dip a small amount of product in warm water or milk & if it changes its color right away, then it is an imitation. The real one will leach its color but will remain crimson.