Saffron is a strange and precious gift to mankind, whose mystery and high price are fully justified by its legendary attributes recognized for over 4000 years. Among the world’s many wonderful spices, saffron is unique in its ability to not only add flavor and aroma to food, but also a deep rich color. Saffron threads are harvested by hand plucking of the red stigmas of the Crocus(Sativus L) flower. This a very tedious and painstaking artisan process(known as la monda) and briefly roasted(known as el tueste) over the dying embers of a fire. This process requires about 100,000 flowers to produce a single pound of saffron filaments.

Dissolve a few filaments in a hot liquid you would like to use for flavoring for about 20 minutes. The liquid selected depends on the recipe you are using. Typically, sufficient flavoring is realized by using 4 o 6 filaments per serving.
Another method is to crush the saffron into a powder by using a pestle and mortar and then adding it to the dish or steeping it first in a liquid and then adding it to the other ingredients.

Finally, in dishes such as the "paella valenciana", the saffron threads must be toasted  and then ground into a powder before adding it to the dish.
Saffron is also excellent in combination with other spices such as garlic, thyme, tomato or ginger extracts to provide an amazing array of new spice concepts.
Store saffron in a dark, cool dry place. Shelf life is 3 years from production.