Saffron by Princesa de Minaya

All orders will be carefully packaged and shipped via Ground. Orders placed Monday or Tuesday will ship within 48 hours. Orders placed Wednesday through Sunday will ship on the following Monday.

2 grams of saffron in a hand-painted jar

Its aroma is bewitching, with nothing like it in the world. Its color is magnificent, the sort of golden yellow you might expect to find on jewelry, not in your meal. And just a pinch of the crimson thread-like spice will perfume an entire dish. There's a reason saffron is the most expensive spice in the world.

Harvested by hand from the Spanish crocus, it's a wonder this unique spice exists at all. Its supply is so limited that there's a good chance you've never tasted it, but now you can: We've been lucky enough to secure a small batch of the best grade of saffron from Spain.

It's no surprise to find such stunning saffron at La Tienda. When the proprietors of La Tienda, the Harris family, began importing Spanish foods to the United States in 1996, they selected the best regional foods the country offers. Their good taste, combined with exceptional products, means we have better access to the very best products from Spain, including this rare, aromatic spice.

Saffron is harvested by plucking purple-petaled crocuses in late autumn as soon as they begin to open, removing the stigmas by hand and laying them out to dry. It takes roughly 200 hours to produce a single pound of saffron, and the stigmas of 14,000 crocus blossoms.

This particular saffron, Princesa de Minaya, is grown in La Mancha, the site of the finest saffron (azafrán) in the world. Why buy Select Category Class 1 saffron, the highest grade that exists? Because you get the most bang for your buck: the highest flavor intensity and strongest golden color. You can use less of this beautiful spice than you'd need to with lesser grades.

And its gorgeous jar will beautify your countertop and safeguard this precious spice.

—Katy Andersen

Katy Andersen studied cheese in Italy as a Fulbright Scholar before joining Lot18 as the Gourmet Food Specialist. Katy grew up on an organic farm, surrounded by a garden, an heirloom apple orchard and heritage livestock. While at Princeton University, she founded the Greening Princeton Farmers Market and the Princeton Slow Food chapter. Most recently, Katy was co-president of the Wine & Cuisine Society at the Harvard Business School. She was also a member of the winning finalist team of the Bordeaux blind-tasting competition at Lafite in 2011.