Check out these two sources and maybe run a test?

https://sadafpack.com/blog/how-can-we-distinguish-original-s...

https://motherwouldknow.com/how-to-identify-real-saffron-avo...

I’m half Iranian and didn’t grow up with my dad, so I have very little cultural connection except for my love of Persian food.

It’s hard for me to justify buying the little bottles of Saffron at groceries stores given the price and the ratio of product to packaging.

Now I’m going to order from that company and step up my culinary game! Still not cheap but at least it feels like a good deal and I appreciate that it’s not shipped across the world and that it’s available in bulk.

The contents on the website are a bit.. weird? Good 'ol GPT maybe?

> 3. Distinguishing fake saffron with gasoline Saffron does not dissolve in gasoline. Therefore, by dissolving saffron in gasoline, you can decide if your saffron is original or fake.

This doesn't make sense.

> #first stage;

Put saffron in water. In some cases it will change the color of the water very quickly; but this color change is not worth it, because this fast color change signifies fake saffron.

#second stage;

Put the root in water for a short time. When you remove the root from the water, the original saffron does not lose its color, while if it is fake, it loses its added color completely and does not look the same.

Either someone is poor at communicating in English and using heading styles, or this is some kind of poor quality hallucination.

A personal method I think is effective (especially you are familiar with saffron's smell/taste), is to soak a little of it (as mentioned) for a few hours, and taste it. It should have a slightly sweetish, herbal taste.

(It's possible they asked some younger kid/nephew for help - again speaking from experience as I've seen this trend a lot as an Asian myself - and younger gens would likely know how to use a hashtag/pound, but younger gens are generally quite decent with English too. Again, this is in general - of course there are exceptions which this article appears to be.)

Now when I looked at the pictures on the website you linked, it definitely looks like the fake stuff.

Worth noting that saffron adulteration in India is common enough that the country's Food Safety and Standards Authority disseminates public guidance on how to detect for it at home; see serial numbers 46 and 47 here[1].

[1] https://www.fssai.gov.in/cms/checkadulteration.php

The most-shapely and consistent beans go to the more-premium lines.

The small, underdeveloped, or misshapen beans (called "clinkers") go to the cheaper lines, along with the other defects. And so does the chaff from the coffee hulls, which is rolled up into weird little balls and thrown in too -- which is not done with premium coffees. The unavoidable portion of insect parts is higher in cheap coffee than it is in expensive coffee.

In an ideal world, all of the stuff that is removed from premium coffees would be used as compost or something.

But it is instead included in the lesser coffees, where it is consumed.

Moral: Buy things from Costco.

Olive oil (and all cooking oils in general) are the opposite of wine - once bottled they start degrading and any additional exposure to air, light, heat degrades them further.

What degrades specifically? Usually it's the nuanced flavors and health benefits of good extra virgin, it'll usually be fine for cooking but you're losing out on the purposeful decision of using olive oil over vegetable oils (gross)

Freeze

No light

Add a little vitamin E. Vit e catches to radicals and therefore prevent oxygenation

It's so weird to me when people act like neutral oil has no applications. Olive oil can be good without neutral oils having to be bad. They're just good for different things.

Also a great outdoor activity, so keep doing that. I'm sure you know just the right spots by now. :-)

Greece produces saffron, https://safran.gr/ You can find them in shops, even on airport shops.

While driving through Texas after the total eclipse, my wife and I were reading about the high fences on Texas ranches (deer hunting ranches, possibly with managed breeding), and enjoyed this article on the tradeoffs https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/which-side-of-the-f...

One, the quality of the saffron makes a big difference in price. Longer deeper red strands are much more expensive than shorter and more yellow strands. I suspect they are not using the most expensive saffron in their teas.

Two, there's a lot of markup purchasing saffron from most retailers, especially here in the US. You can get that amount of saffron for far less than $10,000 if you know someone who has a connect.

Three, as you said the majority of saffron production is from Iran. Some friends I know are getting their saffron from the UAE but I'm pretty sure its being re-exported from Iran.

Four, those videos are ultimately productions. If you compare the earlier videos to the later videos on some of that channel you can tell they've upgraded their digs. They might just be exaggerating for the camera.

Thanks in advance

It's not really very wildernessy since most of the time he's just outside his house, but still quite interesting and a good inspirational resource.