Spices have always been part of human history and lands were discovered in search of of spices. Spices are small commodities, but their usefulness in the culinary world are essentially priceless.
Five of the world‘s most expensive spices are; cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, vanilla and saffron. Cinnamon costs six dollars per pound and comes from the bark of cinnamomum tree which is native to India. It adds a lot of flavour to many beverages such as coffee, hot cocoa, wine etc. Clove spice costs 7-10 dollars per pound and is native to Indonesia. It has very distinct smell and taste, with many medicinal effects and a typical ingredient when it comes to perfumes and other fragrances.
Cardamom spice
Cardamom costs 30 dollars per pound and it‘s flavours are very strong. It is native to India and comes in two different types, black or green cardamom. The cardamom we mostly associate with the name and flavour is the green cardamom.
Black cardamom has a minty taste and a smoky aroma in comparison to the green cardamom.
Saffron spice
Saffron costs 1600-5000 dollars per pound. It comes from a particular flower that is native to Central Asia and this is the reason why it is so expensive. The spice itself is the stigma of the flower and each flower has only about three stigmas.
In order to get a pound of saffron you need roughly 80,000 flowers. Addition of saffron to dishes brings outmost wonderfully sweet flavour and colour like no other spice like it.
More on spices
Saffron spice usually brings about a hint of golden- yellow that‘s as stunning as sunset itself. Spices especially those made from from seed contain high portions of fat, protein and carbohydrate.
Lastly, vanilla spice costs between 50- 200 dollars per pound. You only need very little of the spice in order to get the flavours across because of the strength of the spice. Mexico and Madagascar produces some of the best vanilla in the world.
