Saffron from Charente

It took me almost a year of travelling to Jarnac while writing a book when, on a quite crisp November morning, before going truffle hunting, I talked with a bartender who worked on a cocktail list at the Maison Courvoisier. He knew my love for testing products, and after a few samples of drinks and so many other products, he poured me a tiny bit of saffron syrup in a spoon made from saffron harvested next to Jarnac. 

I must confess that I did expect then and still expect now to discover many more new products from this abundant region, but I never thought it to be locally sourced saffron. Those little tiny orange strigs so powerful that one or two too many can ruin the whole dish. After showing me the saffron itself, I went to the shop to get it and ordered much more to gift to some of my dearest people.

Sadly, precisely 2023, the year of my revelation, was awful for saffron production, as flooding and rain took so much place that it left no space for the proper growth of the crocus flowers, restricting the opportunity for the small strings to develop. The ones that did make it were disappearing too quickly, and those still available happened to find their home with me.