I would like to buy saffron snuff. The scent is very nice. I have saffron cologne and also saffron incense so why not saffron snuff. It would be nice to have double fermented schmalzler scent in a fine grind snuff as well.

saffron priced higher than gold . To scent a snuff with natural saffron essential oil would cost Big $$$$$$$$$$$. The cologne and incense is more than likely a artificial chemical scent to mimic saffron. Roughly 150 flowers together yield 1 g (0.035 oz) of dry saffron threads; to produce 12 g (0.42 oz) of dried saffron (or 72 g (2.5 oz) moist and freshly harvested), 1 kg (2.2 lb) of flowers are needed; 1 lb (0.45 kg) yields 0.2 oz (5.7 g) of dried saffron. One freshly picked flower yields an average 30 mg (0.0011 oz) of fresh saffron or 7 mg (0.00025 oz) dried.You need – 45 lbs for ¼ oz of essential oil. At $4,336 per pound. 1/4 oz oil cost $195,120. If you use 1/4 oz of oil to scent 500 grams, one gram would cost $390.24 Then add on the cost of production

I’ve worked with saffron for over 40 years, and in every kitchen I worked in, or was in charge of, the saffron was kept under lock and key. It was distributed by the pinch, using tweezers. It would be safer to keep a bottle of Louis XII cognac sitting on your desk than to keep the saffron there. You could try making an infusion/tincture of saffron using a pinch (4-5 stamens) in some good booze of an unassertive nature. Let it steep and put that on some good quality leaf, air dry and mill. Sieve, mill again, sieve. http://www.tienda.com/food/products/sn-09.html?gclid=CjwKEAjwotmoBRCc6LWd2ZnkuBYSJACyt2quKlfJ1fIOhmM6z4sEa8CrFfJa1Lo6O0NLLh9voPSQWBoCS4bw\\_wcB

i live in Turkey and there is place where saffron is planted. Name of the villiage is also Safran i know it is expensive but anyway i can prefer the artificial scent as well. Maybe in india it is not expensive (heaven of spices) so the indian snuff producers may consider this.

That sounds insanely expensive. Also @chefdaniel they really kept it under lock and key in the restaurants?

@hgrissom Yes we did. Expensive stuff.

@chefdaniel I knew it was expensive, I just didn’t realize how much. When I make paella I cheat and use “American saffron” because I’ve never seen the real stuff around here

@hgrissom I get mine from the link I posted above. Not cheap, but you really don’t need that much to get the aroma and flavor…and color in something like paella.

@chefdaniel that looks great, I’ll have to get some soon

@hgrissom I get mine from the link I posted above. Not cheap, but you really don’t need that much to get the aroma and flavor…and color in something like paella.< so actually its oil isn’t necessary tiny amount can be ground to scent the snuff. Am i right?

@linguist I really don’t know. I assume it wouldn’t be outright harmful. Perhaps try a little bit in your favorite natural snuff and report back.

@linguist Correct

This sounds like an interesting idea but you might end up with bright orange-red nostrils!

Somehow the two ideas that 1) saffron is expensive and 2) people use saffron when preparing Paella, do not add up in my head :). Is it really SO expensive, that a batch of premium snuff is unreachable?

@SkeG One gram goes for $15.00. Paella, properly prepared, is not cheap. Of course you can take shortcuts, but you get what you pay for, so YMMV. For snuff preparation it would be a financial stretch and a risk for the maker to invest in it, hoping it will sell. It’s not a scent for everyone.

@SkeG paella isn’t cheap at all, even without saffron all the seafood involved is pricey. I make mine with lobster, shrimp, squid, mussels and a little chorizo. Don’t make it often due to cost, but it is amazing

@hgrissom Agreed. Yours sounds excellent. Chorizo is a favorite of mine, and I like to add clams if I can find them fresh. Check out that website from La Tienda I listed above. Great source for Spanish food.

Hmm, interesting. I remember hearing that Iranians travelling overseas often bought saffron locally and sold it on arrival through their social networks to get around currency exchange restrictions. Wikipedia has an interesting section on the different grades of saffron here.

@chefdaniel i did that the other day. It looks like an awesome site. However, I think what I really need is like a three year snuff making/chef apprenticeship with you! lol

@chefdaniel, @hgrissom, all right, a well made paella seems to be expensive. Never eaten a seafood paella myself. But, how much is a gram? I mean, if it is enough for a huge pan of paella, then how much snuff would it produce? I have never seen saffron personally so I do not know how intense the taste is :). Or is a gram like nothing, and one would need, like, ten grams?

@SkeG I have only cooked with good spanish saffron once, so take this with a grain of salt. A little saffron seems to go a long way. A gram of saffron would make a decent(ish) amount of paella (my recipe calls for two generous pinches, so I don’t know how to translate that into grams). Also to take into account is that only a little saffron is needed in cooking due to its taste, I’m not sure how well it stands up to just being there for scent, or how long the plain scent would last. I further have no idea how it would stand up to tobacco. I think it would depend very much on the tobacco being used. I don’t think saffron would fare very well in say, Viking Dark. However a light natural tobacco may do ok. I think we’re in new territory here and the chef would probably be better able to answer than I am. As i said to linguist, put a little saffron in a natural tobacco and report back, it’s the only way to know for sure. Sorry that’s not more helpful, but like I said, I don’t think anyone has ever done this. I think the oil would be more successful for scent, but it is prohibitively expensive. I don’t know if saffron would draw negative effects from the nose or not either.

@hgrissom I’d love to, but I’m too old for that s__t. I’m getting

This vial holds one gram and measures about 1" square. Trust me, there’s a lot of air in there. This is $15.00 and enough to make a batch of Paella for six people. I have no idea how much snuff this would make. If someone wants to subsidize the project I’d be happy to find out. I’m not in a financial position right now to invest in something that may or may not be viable. Any takers?

double fermented schmalzler ,Schmalzler are greased ; I figured oil to scent it. using dry would be less expensive. Still too far out of reach for my pockets. I do hope you get some oneday. They have the 3D printer now, although a hamburger cost $300,000. But they are new on the market; 10 year from now who knows, every house may have one

It would be easy enough to grind up some saffron into powder and mix it with a plain snuff such as Toque Quit or Toque Natural and see how it blends with tobacco. I am not convinced it would be a great snuff but hey, I would be willing to try it. After all, I like snuff mixed with ginseng powder.