Saffron from Taliouine

What it is

Safran de Taliouine comes exclusively from the stigmas of flowers grown from corms in the protected area.¹ The dried stigmas are 0.5 to 2.5 centimetres long, curved, brittle and deep red, and end in a funnel shape.² Their strong colouring power comes from crocin, the slightly bitter, somewhat pungent taste from picrocrocin and the scent from safranal; the order sets minimum and maximum levels for all three.³

In Moroccan Arabic saffron is called zaʿfran; the word zaʿfrani means saffron yellow.⁴

Where it comes from

The area of the designation of origin covers twelve communes in the province of Taroudant, among them Taliouine, Askaouen and Agadir Melloul, and five communes in the province of Ouarzazate, among them Siroua and Taznakht.⁵ Protection was applied for by the regional council of the Souss-Massa-Drâa region.⁶

Saffron has been grown in the mountains around Taliouine and Taznakht for centuries, mostly on small plots on terraces that follow the contour lines and so hold water and soil.⁷ According to Ministry of Agriculture figures reported by Aujourd’hui le Maroc in 2018, more than 1,600 hectares were under saffron in Taliouine alone, with an annual harvest of over 7.5 tonnes.⁸

How it is made

Before planting, the corms are cleaned of root, leaf and soil remains and are not treated with chemicals; planting starts in mid-September, on average 200 corms per square metre.⁹ Only organic fertiliser is used, and weeds are removed by hand.¹⁰

The flowers are picked by hand before sunrise, and the stigmas must be removed within three days at most; drying is done in the traditional way or in dryers, and the saffron is packed in standardised containers of 1 to 10 grams.¹¹ According to a local association member in Taliouine, it is mainly women who pick, three to five hours a day, and afterwards sort the parts of the purple flower.¹²

When

According to the order, the harvest begins in mid-October and lasts until the end of flowering.¹³ Aujourd’hui le Maroc gives November as the month of flowering and a harvest period of about one month.¹⁴ Every year Taliouine hosts the Festival international du safran, where growers from the provinces of Taroudant and Ouarzazate sell their saffron.¹⁵

How to recognise it

Saffron with the designation of origin bears on its label “Appellation d’Origine Protégée Safran de Taliouine” or “AOP Safran de Taliouine”, the official PDO logo and the name of the inspection body, which in the 2010 order is Normacert.¹⁶