You can check a few things yourself before you buy saffron. Drop a single thread into warm water. Real saffron releases its color slowly, while dyed imitations stain the water the instant they touch it. The shape of a thread also matters. A real stigma flares at one end like a trumpet, and it never

You are standing in the spice aisle staring at two little jars of saffron. One costs twenty dollars and the other costs forty dollars. Both look the same to you. You pick up the cheaper one and wonder if you are about to waste your money on dyed grass clippings. That worry is common because