The most expensive agricultural product on earth
Saffron is the dried stigma of Crocus sativus. Each flower produces three. They are picked by hand, in a short season, and it takes somewhere in the region of 150,000 flowers to produce a kilogram. That is why saffron trades at a price per gram closer to precious metal than to spice.
In a 150 gram jar of Majoon-e-Zafrani, saffron is 0.2 per cent — 0.3 grams. Written down like that it can look like a token gesture. It is not.
Saffron is used in fractions of a gram
Saffron is extraordinarily potent in colour, aroma and flavour. A biryani for eight people uses a pinch. A traditional preparation calling for saffron by the gram would be both ruinously expensive and unpleasant to take — the flavour becomes medicinal and bitter well before it becomes strong.
Zafrani preparations across the region use saffron at fractions of a per cent for exactly this reason. The 0.2 per cent figure is not the corner being cut. It is the correct dose, and it is roughly what you would use if you were making this at home and buying the saffron yourself.
Why publishing it is the harder choice
A seller who does not publish percentages can imply any quantity they like. "Enriched with pure saffron" carries no obligation. Printing 0.2 per cent invites exactly the question this article exists to answer — and answering it honestly is the whole argument.
The number that deserves scrutiny is not the saffron. It is the base. Ours is 39.8 per cent, and the thirteen botanicals make up the remaining 60.2. That ratio is where the substance of a majoon actually lives.