In the Spanish region of Castilla-La Mancha, Don Quijote’s land of undulating fields and iconic windmills, lie rows upon rows of bright lilac flowers – crocus sativus. The crimson centres of these flowers are so precious, that one ounce of them can cost more than its weight in gold.
This is saffron, one of Spain’s most defining flavours, famously used in paella. The spice itself, fiery red in colour, comes from the stigmas of the crocus flower. Each flower produces only three stigmas, just three strands of saffron that must be harvested by hand.
As a spice saffron produces a strong and pungent flavour, which tastes earthy, floral and sweet all at the same time. It’s complexity makes it suited to both sweet and savoury dishes. Equally important is saffron’s role as a colourant, everything it touches takes on rich, warming golden hue that matches the spice’s signature aroma. In Spanish cuisine saffron is most recognizably used in paella where it lends the rice a jewel-like amber tone.
Saffron has historically been considered one of the world’s most expensive spices. First recorded in the 7th century BC, the flower is native to the Middle East. Renowned food stylist Caz Hildebrand has traced saffron’s possible origins to Persia but notes that it has a long and broad history. In her book, The Grammar of Spice, she writes, “...saffron is praised in the Bible, Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s poems, Alexander the Great reportedly used it in baths to cure battle wounds.”
First cultivated in Greece, saffron shaped ancient economies and trade across the region. Saffron was first brought to Spain as the Umayyad Caliphate expanded its rule into the Iberian Peninsula via North Africa in the 8th century. The caliphate maintained rule over the modern-day Spain for over six centuries and saffron was one of the many culinary imports to the region that became a staple of Spanish cuisine.Contemporary cultivation takes place in the ‘gold belt’ which stretches across the Mediterranean and the Middle East and boasts Spain as one of its key producers.
Since the 1700s, the Castilla-La Mancha region of central Spain has become the capital of the country’s saffron production. This is primarily because the saffron crocuses have adapted to the high altitude of the mountainous terrain and the area’s dramatic climate of extreme hot summers and cold wet winters. Saffron from this region is praised for its intense colouring, fragrant aroma and powerful flavour and was granted Protected Designation of Origin (D.O.P) status in 1995. It is the only spice to gain such distinction in Spain.