Spendy Spices

The Friday File: The priciest spice in the world is saffron at $5,000/lb. It takes 50,000 to 75,000 flowers to get one pound of saffron, with the best coming from Kashmir and Iran. A distant second is vanilla, which primarily comes from Madagascar and costs $600/lb. It’s so costly because the flowers must be hand-pollinated, and the fruit handpicked. Third is mahlab at $68/lb, then long pepper at $45/lb.