History of Saffron

The history of saffron reads like an epic tale of romance, conquest and mystery. The spice has been renowned and highly coveted throughout the world for thousands of years. Cleopatra, Alexander of Great and the Buddha all have had encounters and stories attached to their names involving saffron.

The precursor to saffron was the ancient plant known as Crocus cartwrightianus and cultivation of saffron has been documented in paintings and writings dating back to 4000 years.

Over the centuries saffron has been used for a variety of reasons such as; culinary purposes, dying clothes, medicinal remedies and even as an aphrodisiac. For example, Cleopatra used to bath in it claiming that it made sex better. In Persia, people wove saffron into their garments and offered it to the Gods in worship rituals. Today, Iran in the dominant supplier of saffron in the world.

Saffron is believed to have originated somewhere near the island of Rhodes in ancient Greece and then spread throughout Asia, Egypt and Mediterranean Europe via the Romans. After the decline of the Roman Empire, saffron largely disappeared from Europe until its re-emergence in Spain when the Moors invaded.

In Europe, saffron has always been a respected and coveted crop, in fact, in England the township of Saffron Walden is named after the exotic spice. In the 1700's saffron was brought over by the Dutch to Pennsylvania. Records indicate that saffron's value as a commodity was pegged on par with gold.