Grower distils liquid gold from NZ vineyard
15 Apr 2010
An ingenious Marlborough saffron producer has devised a unique, time-saving way for chefs to use the golden spice - in liquid form.
Marlborough region - at the top of New Zealand’s South Island - is best known for its award-winning sauvignon blanc wine, but Kiwi grower Dave Pigou is now also producing high-end saffron from his seven-hectare vineyard in the Raupara Valley.
Pigou processes saffron into two special products - Saffience "essence" of saffron, and Saffoleo which is a saffron oil for cooking - at his Nelson-based boutique factory.
The Saffron Room, which has been operating for eight years, grows the crocus flowers from which the spice is extracted between grapevines and in open fields.
Vanilla and good wine
Pigou compares his saffron oil and essence to vanilla, which became widely popular in cooking when the concentrated extract was invented.
Saffron - the world’s most expensive spice by weight - had a subtle taste which added complexity to dishes, Pigou said.
He hopes to produce 12kg of dried saffron this year to spin into gold - dried saffron is worth about $20,000 per kilo.
"You can’t describe it; it’s a unique flavour. It comes through like a good wine on the back of your tongue."
Time-consuming process
Pigou came up with the idea for processed products because New Zealand’s boutique saffron crop is tiny compared with producers like Iran and Spain - and also because it's more convenient for cooks to use saffron oil and essence instead of having to infuse the spice themselves.
The Saffron Room’s crocus flowers are harvested once a year, the stigmas (from which saffron is produced) cut from the flowers by hand, put into resealable bags and then sent to nearby Nelson to be freeze-dried.
Freeze-dried saffron threads undergo a natural extraction process which produces the rich oil-soluble resin and water used in Saffience and Saffoleo. Saffience is a water-soluble liquid extract that works in a similar way to a freshly-steeped solution, and keeps for six weeks once opened.
Saffoleo is made from the rich resin extracted from the threads, and also comes in a cocoa butter base for sweet dishes and desserts.
"Saffron essence is ready to use, and anyone can add it to rice or other foods in whatever quantity they like, when they like. It takes away the guesswork," Pigou said.
"It also resolves one of the problems of using dry saffron - because it is very expensive and quite hard to cook with, only the head chef in a restaurant uses it. They never let the junior staff near it because the flavour can be destroyed very quickly."
Luxury product
The Saffron Room can’t compete with other, bigger saffron markets such as Iran, so it targets the luxury end of the market that cares about quality and is willing to pay more for a better product.
"In ancient times, saffron was more valuable than gold and we certainly need to aim at the high end of the market."
Marlborough is not the only region in New Zealand that produces saffron. Heart of the Desert, a Kiwi family-owned business in Central Otago, is also making waves with their boutique saffron - which is supplied to top restaurants all over the world.
More information:
Central Otago’s golden spice travels far
Classic NZ Wine Trail
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