01
Dyed look-alikes
Corn silk, safflower petals and shredded coconut fibre, soaked in red dye and sold as threads. In water the dye runs out within seconds and the fibre goes pale.
ISO 3632 · Category I · every lot
Priced like gold, tested like medicine.
Saffron is the most counterfeited spice on earth. So we publish the full ISO 3632 profile of each lot — and tuck the signed lab card under every lid.
Gram for gram, Kashmiri Mongra costs about what gold does. At that price, “trust us” is not good enough. Every lot is measured in a laboratory before it is packed, and the figures below are the ones on the card in your tin.
Crocin · colour strength
8.7
Kashmiri threads average 8.0+; anything under 6 is Iranian bulk or dye.
Picrocrocin · taste
92
The honeyed-bitter backbone. Ours bites gently, then lingers for minutes.
Safranal · aroma
38
Hay, wild honey and a little woodsmoke — the smell of a Pampore drying room.
Moisture
9.8%
Dried to 9–10% so threads snap, never bend. Bendy threads are stale threads.
Tested per lot · NABL-accredited lab T-2214, Srinagar · moisture at packing 9.8%
drag to inspect · trumpet flare
Interactive specimen
The trumpet flare, up close
Every Mongra thread ends in a hand-cut horn — the signature of Crocus sativus from the karewas. Turn it in your fingers. Look for the flare: flat, uniform needles are never Kashmiri.
| Origin | Crocin | Thread | Colour | Street price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kashmir · Pampore this tin | 8.0 – 9.1 | Thick, trumpet-flared | Deep maroon-crimson | ₹450 – ₹700 / g |
| Iran · Khorasan | 5.5 – 6.8 | Slim, uniform | Orange-red | ₹250 – ₹350 / g |
| Spain · La Mancha | 4.0 – 5.2 | Fine, often styles-on | Bright scarlet | ₹600+ / g (export) |
Four checks you can run at the kitchen counter
Trumpet-flared tips
A real Kashmiri thread widens at one end like a tiny horn. Uniform straight needles are a warning sign.
The slow gold bleed
In cold water, true threads release a golden halo over 10–15 minutes. Instant red is dye leaving the thread.
Three threads, one litre
Drop three threads into warm milk. If the whole litre turns sunset-gold, you are holding mongra-grade crocin.
The finger test
Rub a thread between your fingers: hay, wild honey, a little smoke — and a stain that stays for hours.
What testing is for
Four ways saffron gets faked.
Each one is profitable because a buyer cannot tell by looking at a sealed tin. Each one shows up in a lab report.
02
Padded with styles
The yellow-white style is part of the flower but carries almost no colour or aroma. Leaving too much of it on adds weight you pay for at the saffron price. Mongra is pure stigma, with no style at all.
03
Weighted threads
Threads coated in oil, glycerine or sugar syrup weigh more and look glossy. They feel sticky or bend instead of snapping, and leave a greasy mark on paper.
04
Relabelled origin
Cheaper saffron from other countries, repacked as Kashmiri. It is real saffron, but its crocin is lower and its threads are slimmer, which is exactly what the lab profile and the comparison table show.
Under every lid
How to read your lab card.
Seven lines on a card the size of your palm. Here is what each one tells you.
- Lot
- Ties the tin to one harvest lot. Quote it to us and we can pull its full record.
- Origin
- The field the flowers were picked from, recorded against the GI registry.
- Crocin
- Colour strength. The one number dye and relabelled saffron cannot reach.
- Picrocrocin
- Taste: the honeyed bitterness. Low in old or badly dried saffron.
- Safranal
- Aroma. It fades with age and exposure to light, so a high figure means the lot is fresh.
- Moisture
- Dry enough to keep, not so dry the aroma is lost. Wet saffron is heavier saffron.
- Lab
- An accredited laboratory, not our own bench. The card is signed by the analyst.
About the testing
Questions answered.
If a question is not here, send us your lot number and ask. The lot record is there to be checked.
Ready to taste the difference?
Every tin on the saffron shelf comes from a tested lot, with its card under the lid.
Shop saffronWhat is ISO 3632?
The international standard for saffron. It grades threads by laboratory measurement rather than by appearance: colour strength (crocin), bitterness (picrocrocin), aroma (safranal), moisture and foreign matter. Category I is the top grade.
Is every lot tested, or just a sample batch?
Every lot. Each lot is tested at a NABL-accredited laboratory in Srinagar before it is packed, and the signed lab card for that lot goes under the lid of every tin packed from it.
What does the lot number on my tin tell me?
It ties your tin to one harvest lot: its picking date, the karewa (field) it came from and the lab report for that lot. Quote it to us and we can tell you everything recorded against it.
Can I test saffron at home?
Not to laboratory precision, but you can catch most fakes. Drop a few threads into cold water: real saffron releases a slow golden halo over 10–15 minutes and the threads stay red. Instant red colour, or threads that turn pale, point to dye.
Why does lab-tested saffron cost more?
Testing is a small part of it. The price is the flower: roughly 150 hand-picked blooms go into one gram. Testing is what lets you check you received those blooms rather than dyed corn silk at the same price.
What if my tin does not match its lab card?
Write to us with the lot number from the lid. We will check it against the lot record and, if the tin does not match, replace it or refund it.