How to Tell Real Kashmiri Saffron: 5 Tests You Can Do at Home

Saffron is the most copied spice in the world. It sells by the gram, it is hard to judge by eye, and the fakes are good: dyed corn silk, safflower petals, threads bulked out with the flower's own yellow style. None of that means you need a laboratory. Five checks in your kitchen will catch almost every fake.

1. The water test

Drop four or five threads into a glass of lukewarm water and leave them alone.

• Real saffron releases colour slowly. A golden-yellow haze drifts down from each thread over ten to fifteen minutes, and the threads themselves stay red.
• Fake saffron usually bleeds red almost at once, and the threads turn pale or white as the dye leaves them.

This is the single most useful test. If you only do one, do this one.

2. Look at the shape of the thread

Put a few threads on a white plate. A real saffron stigma is a thin trumpet: narrow at one end and flaring out at the other, often with a slightly frilled tip. Corn silk and shredded petals are the same width all the way along.

3. The rub test

Wet a single thread from the water test and rub it between two fingers. Real saffron leaves a yellow-orange stain and the thread holds together. A dyed fake tends to smear red and fall apart into mush.

4. Smell and taste

Real saffron smells sweet, a little like honey and hay. Put a thread on your tongue: it tastes bitter, not sweet. A fake that tastes sweet has usually been coated in sugar or glycerine to add weight.

5. The baking soda test

Mix half a teaspoon of baking soda into a little water and add a thread. Genuine saffron turns the mixture yellow. Many dyes turn it red.

What the tests cannot tell you

Home tests tell you whether something is saffron. They cannot tell you the grade, or whether it came from Kashmir or somewhere else. For that you need a lab report. Look for an ISO 3632 test result that states the crocin (colour), picrocrocin (taste) and safranal (aroma) values, with a report number you can check.

Our promise

Every jar of our Mongra saffron comes from Pampore and is tested against ISO 3632 Grade I. If a thread fails the water test, write to us within seven days and we will refund you in full.