It is rusty red, long and thin, exudes its very own aroma and only comes into its own when you dissolve it in water or cream: saffron, the red gold, the most expensive spice in the world. For Yasmin Goudarzi, saffron is more than just a spice. For them it means home. Her father is from Iran. The food of her childhood is characterized by the red spice like caraway or savory perhaps shaped our childhood. Many years later she dedicated herself to the spice. Professional. Also because it is part of their identity, their DNA. One could almost think that saffron flows through her blood.
“I felt the need to get to know Iran better. So I spent several months there. The country and the people, my roots, came closer to me than ever before,” says Yasmin Goudarzi, founder of Orient Kontor, a small company that specialized in importing saffron. In no other country in the world is so much saffron cultivated and exported as in Iran. Spain and Afghanistan still play a significant role in the saffron business. In total, the global export market in 2019 was around 190 million euros.
Back in Germany, the Hamburg native told her friends about the country and the people, not about what is written in the media, about a government that does not correspond to her values. Goudarzi cooked for her friends. Took them into a world of flavors that had previously remained hidden from them. She was able to break down prejudices by telling stories and above all by eating. “It’s not called for nothing that cooking is international understanding. My friends asked a lot and were interested in what ends up in my cooking pot,” says the Hamburg native with Iranian roots. That was the impetus for her company. She wanted to bring the spice that triggers so much in her to the German market.
“We chose the saffron because you don’t find good quality in German supermarkets,” says Goudarzi. “And still have to spend a lot of money for it.” Saffron belongs to the crocus family. The flower is made up of six leaves that end in the flower tube. Each plant annually produces a light yellow style that divides into several long red stigmas at the top of the flower. They are usually between two and a half and four and a half centimeters long. That’s the spice we’re talking about here.
“You often find short threads of saffron that are of inferior quality, not the typically long ones that we get from Iran,” explains Goudarzi. “Ours are thicker and longer and have a more intense aroma.” If you don’t know a retailer you trust, you should always make sure to buy saffron in whole threads. Never ground is Goudarzi’s tip. This is where fakes or stretched products quickly creep in. For example with turmeric. If you still use powder, you can do the saffron test. To do this, dissolve the powder in water with the help of baking soda. If it is pure saffron, the solution will remain yellow; if it contains turmeric, it will become cloudy and turn red. This test was used by spice traders centuries ago.
“Good saffron exudes a unique smell. You can even smell it through metal cans. Another quality feature is the color. It has to be deep red. The threads have to be clearly recognizable, sometimes flowers are mixed in with them. They have no place in it,” says Goudarzi. “Saffron is water-soluble. It dissolves particularly well in lukewarm water. If the water turns a bright yellow to orange, the saffron is fresh.”
Goudarzi works with small farmers in the Khorasan region, south of Mashhad. The high plateaus of this area have the perfect climate for growing the saffron crocus. Harvesting the saffron threads is difficult. Once a year, usually towards the end of October, the fragile threads must be carefully plucked from the blossom. Early in the morning, when the flowers are still closed, the stigmas are collected by hand and then dried in the traditional way. For one gram of saffron you need about 40 flowers. A reason why it is the most expensive spice in the world. “No machine has the sensitivity of human hands,” says the entrepreneur.
Goudarzi sells its saffron in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. She is still running her “Orient Kontor” part-time because she loves her father’s country so much and because she wants to support the people of Iran locally. In real life she is an educationalist. The saffron goes to private customers, but also to the catering trade. Every year she sells about five kilograms of saffron. That doesn’t sound like much at first, but the farmers in Iran have to laboriously harvest 200,000 flowers. The Hamburg native sells one gram of these saffron threads for 8.99 euros in her online shop.
No spice is used as frequently in Persian cuisine as saffron. In rice, in sauces and also in tea. “A lot of people ask me what you can do with the spice,” says Goudarzi. “I recommend absolute beginners to use the spice in cream sauces, for example for pasta. To do this, finely grind threads with a mortar and flavor the sauce.” One should approach saffron calmly. At first just a pinch, if you like it stronger, take a little more.
Saffron tastes bitter and floral, but also noble and fine. Well sealed, stored in a cool and dark place, for example in a metal can, saffron can easily be kept for up to a year. It should not be forgotten that saffron is only harvested once a year. That means: if you buy the expensive spice in September, you get the goods from October of the previous year.
Goudarzi prefers to use saffron in black tea, as this is when the spice unfolds its full aroma. With every sip she is a little closer to her roots.
