The Most Expensive Spices in the World
READ TIME: 21 minutes
Table of Contents
Introduction
More than most commodities, spices have had a profound impact on the development of human civilization. Starting in the Stone Age, people learned to first gather and use, then cultivate and develop spice plants. Their importance only grew as civilization expanded. The world map, the economy, and the advent of globalization were all spurred by the spice routes of the ancient world. Wars were fought to control where and how spices were traded. History is replete with tales of the power and influence that spices commanded.
Though not as dominant in the global economy as they once were, spices remain a significant export for some countries, contributing to their GDP and supporting local communities. If there's a single truth about spices, it's that they have staying power. Spices continue to nourish our lives through the food we eat, the medicines we take, the colors we see, the clothes and scents we wear, and how and where we travel. Even in a world in which we’ve largely supplanted the natural with the synthetic, spices maintain their mystique and value, with some priced above precious metals. Here are today’s most expensive spices.
1. Saffron - Up to $5,000 / lb (~$11,000 / kg)
Conjuring up images of luxury and opulence, saffron is undoubtedly the world’s most expensive spice. Its nickname “red gold” is quite fitting since it’s often been worth more than its weight in gold throughout history. For thousands of years, saffron has been used to add aroma, flavor, and color to food, to dye and scent cloth, to produce personal scents and makeup, and to cover up the smell of crowds in baths, theaters, and halls. Due to its early discovery and a myriad of uses, saffron was also one of the earliest known trade goods.
Smelling of earthy tobacco, honey, and vanilla, saffron's qualities are complex, but the spice itself is oddly simple. It is just the stigmas of the saffron crocus flower. Yet it is always expensive because of its global popularity and the enormous amount of effort and acreage that is required to produce it. About 75,000 flowers grown on a plot of land the size of an American football field are required to produce only one pound (0.45kg) of saffron. Making the process even more onerous, the flowers only last a few days and must be hand harvested the same morning they bloom. Once the blossoms are collected, each stigma must be manually removed from the flower and the red upper tips of the stigmas must be separated and then roasted at low temperature to dry them before they deteriorate or mold. Only master farmers can oversee the drying process because even a minute too long over the flames can ruin the batch, losing days of work and thousands of dollars. After all of this meticulous work, the saffron is ready to be classified for its color, scent, and taste. Although the three compounds responsible for saffron’s color (crocin), flavor (picrocrocin), and aroma (safranal) are well known and used in classifying the quality of the spice, there are at least 150 compounds that contribute to saffron’s unique effects, and perhaps more that we have yet to discover. The development of a synthetic alternative is thus highly unlikely.
Native to Greece, the Middle East, and Central Asia, the saffron crocus has been cultivated for millennia. With Minoan frescoes from 1600 BCE depicting saffron harvesting, Romans documenting its culinary and aromatic uses, and Arab traders racing to find sources and markets for it, saffron has been in high demand since antiquity. Early use of saffron was associated with sacred rites and religious rituals as well as the development of social status and stratification. This makes sense given the ancients believed that its strands contained the sun’s energy and held the secret of immortality. Indeed, according to Greek mythology, Zeus himself slept on a bed of saffron.
Currently, the vast majority of saffron is produced in Iran, with some estimates eclipsing 90%. Because of this, international sanctions pose a challenge to exports, sometimes impacting the overall volume and price of saffron in the global market. Other major producers include India, Greece, Afghanistan, Morocco, Spain, Italy, and China. Learn more about saffron here.
2. Vanilla Pods – Up to $920 / lb (~$2,030 / kg)
Although the most popular flavor in the world, the authentic vanilla spice is quite special. Less than one percent of vanilla flavoring comes from real vanilla. The other 99%+ of vanilla products are all flavored with a synthetic version of vanillin, which fails to capture the intricacies of the spice because it is only 1 of 250 flavor and aroma compounds present in vanilla beans. It is one of the supreme ironies of the English language that the term "vanilla" commonly refers to something that is plain, bland, or ordinary. The real thing is exquisitely complex and rare!
The spice we know of as vanilla or vanilla "bean" actually doesn’t come from a bean at all; it comes from the cured and fermented fruit pods of tropical climbing orchids. Although they all have a heady, sweet, comforting aroma and are derived from the same wild Mexican species, only three species out of over a hundred vanilla orchids are used to produce the flavor and aroma we’ve come to know and love. V. planifolia is the species most commercially produced and is cultivated in Madagascar, Indonesia, China, Mexico, and Papua New Guinea. The Mexican variety is known for its rich, complex flavor with chocolatey, spicy, and fruity notes. The Bourbon variety of V. planifolia, grown mainly in Madagascar, Comoros, and Réunion, has a rather fragrant aroma that is clear and creamy, reminiscent of dark caramel with a distinctive vanillin note. V. tahitensis, also known as Tahitian vanilla, is lighter, fruitier, sweeter, and more floral. It contains less vanillin than V. planifolia. Lastly, V. pompona is produced on a much smaller scale in the West Indies and Central and South America. Its flavor profile is unique, blending vanilla’s signature sweetness with earthy dried fruit notes and a touch of smokiness, making it a favorite among some chefs seeking a more adventurous taste.
Vanilla’s price, like saffron, is also reflective of a very involved production process. The labor starts with the hand-pollination of the vanilla flowers, since the small bee native to vanilla’s original Mexican habitat is not present in the major vanilla producing countries. Each flower must be pollinated with a small matchstick on the one day of the year that it blooms. After about nine months, the 8 inch (20cm) green pods begin to turn golden at their base, so each day the newly maturing pods must be harvested, heated, and then slowly dried over several months. The curing and fermentation process requires expert skill to maximize yield and quality and involves handling the vanilla pods hundreds of times before the product is shippable. Production is further complicated by external factors like climate change and crime, making vanilla one of the world’s most volatile markets. The vanilla farmers of Madagascar, the world’s largest producer, are often struck with droughts, cyclones, and theft, resulting in an upsurge in the cost of vanilla globally.
Unlike the Aztecs, who used vanilla to flavor a chili-infused cocoa drink, people today primarily use vanilla to complement sweeter foods and drinks such as alcoholic beverages, baked goods, confections, and desserts. Although we are most aware of vanilla when manufacturers show dark specks of “vanilla” in their brand of ice cream or dessert, these are generally bits of the vanilla pod hulls with little flavor and aroma. The primary source of vanilla’s sublime scent resides in the blackish brown seeds, called caviar, within the pod hull. In many cases, manufacturers will use alcohol to extract the potent vanilla flavor from the caviar and then flavor their products with the extract. This method is preferred because it allows for the flavor to be more consistently distributed. It also allows for more volume because extracts are typically produced from the less expensive and drier Grade B vanilla pods.
Unlike these shorter and thinner Grade B pods, though, which have about 20% moisture, Grade A pods (30%) are longer, fuller, and plumper. Thus, they tend to be used when the vanilla pods can actually be seen, such as a topping on crème brûlée. Learn more about vanilla here.
3. Organic Dill Pollen – Up to $400 / lb (~$880 / kg)
Originating in Northeastern Europe and Russia, the dill plant was used medicinally as a digestive aid and mild sedative as early as 3000 BCE. Dill is derived from the Nordic dilla, “to lull,” due to its relaxing effects. When dill reached Rome via rather undemanding overland trade routes shortly after the founding of the Roman Empire, dill began its journey as a culinary herb and spice. Venerated as a taste of the gods by the Romans, victorious soldiers returning from battle were adorned with wreaths made of dill flowers. Only the most premium of breads were baked with dill seed. Eventually, the plant was cultivated across much of the Northern Hemisphere, stretching from Europe to North America to India, where a relatively interchangeable species of dill is grown on a smaller scale.
The most popular spice and herb derived from the dill plant are dill seed and dill weed. Only recently has its pollen become of significant interest to the culinary world. The pollen provides a potent, concentrated dill flavor and aroma, nuanced from the seed and the weed, which also gives it a longer shelf life. While it can be used as a substitute whenever the other two dill spices are required, the pollen is specifically a finishing spice. It should only be added to a recipe right before serving. This will ensure the pollen’s strong fragrance and fresh flavor are fully present in the dish. It is a perfect complement to creamy soups, pasta sauces, salads, and chocolate truffles, although some would argue that fish - salmon especially - benefit the most from a sprinkling of dill pollen. Learn more dill pollen here.
4. Organic Fennel Pollen – Up to $275 / lb (~$605 / kg)
Fennel pollen is affectionately called the “spice of angels” and “culinary fairy dust” due to its seemingly magical ability to amplify the flavor and aroma of any dish, sweet or savory. A pinch of this spice can make a good dish remarkable, adding depth and character. Prized in Tuscany for centuries, fennel pollen was eventually brought to California by Italian immigrants at the turn of the millennium and flourished in its similar Mediterranean climate. Although most fennel pollen production and consumption are still local today, burgeoning demand and high prices are driving an expansion of commercial cultivation in California and beyond. Production of the pollen has now started in China and India as well, the world’s two largest producers of the fennel plant.
The pollen is the most flavor-dense part of the fennel plant, a flowering herb in the parsley and celery family. Contrary to what you may think from its name, fennel pollen is generally harvested and sold as both the dried blossoms and the attached pollen. As you can imagine, production of fennel pollen is an intensive manual process. The plant’s miniscule yellow flower buds must be handpicked just before they go to seed. They are then laid onto wooden boards, covered with butcher paper, and placed under a protective net in a carefully maintained dry room so that the pollen retains all of its essential oils and pungent aroma. After several days, the fennel is tested for moisture and packed into large cotton bags for the final drying process. It becomes the spice when it has a dry and brittle texture, gold-green hue, and strong anise fragrance. Then it is finally ready to impart a bright, citrusy, aromatic, warm, buttery, floral, and licorice-like flavor to any dish or beverage. It is specifically cherished as an addition to fish, pork, and desserts, taking a wide variety of recipes to new heights. Learn more about fennel pollen here.
5. Dried Makrut Lime Leaf – Up to $190 / lb (~$420 / kg)
Makrut lime leaf is native to Southeast Asia and has been used by indigenous cultures since time immemorial in food, medicine, perfume, and cleaning products. Although primarily associated with Thai food in the West, the Makrut lime has had as long and deep an influence on the cuisines of Southern China, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Fusion cuisine has increased the availability and demand for these leaves, though fresh leaves are still sourced more easily through traditional East Asian markets.
Growing on a small, thorny evergreen tree (Citrus hystrix), the double-lobed Makrut lime leaf is stiff and glossy. It is dark green on top with a porous matte light green underneath. The high price of the leaves is due to their perishability, low weight per leaf, and constricted supply. While the plant grows easily and in large quantities, even in California, Florida, and Australia, commercial production of the leaves is limited. This is largely due to the incredibly dense and sharp spikes that envelope the leaves. The long thorns pose a significant challenge since the leaves must be collected meticulously by hand to avoid them. Hystrix means porcupine in Greek, and harvesters intimately understand how it got its name.
The leaves can be used both fresh and cooked, either to infuse liquids or to add directly to dishes in thin slices. Dried lime leaves are also available and are typically more expensive due to the drying process. However, the citrusy mandarin orange, lemon, and lime notes for which the leaves are famous are muted and the dried leaves are unsuitable for slicing in dishes, limiting their primary use to flavoring liquids as you would with bay leaf or curry leaf. A major benefit is that they can last up to a year, in contrast to the week that fresh leaves will last in your refrigerator. Learn more about makrut lime leaf here.
6. Green Cardamom – Up to $125 / lb (~$275 / kg)
With a fragrant and very pleasant combination of ginger, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, eucalyptus, and floral notes, green cardamom has a beautiful aroma that lends itself equally well to dishes and beverages.
The fruit pods of a tropical perennial herb in the ginger family, green cardamom plants grow in areas subject to high temperatures and humidity and that have rainfall of around 150 inches (381 cm) per year. As with all the spices on this list, cultivation is very time- and labor-intensive. It takes four years from seed for the plants to produce a meaningful crop and they will only continue to produce for three or four more years. The land must be heavily maintained year-round and the crop itself must be hand-harvested. Farmers maneuver through the terraced fields, breaking off the fruit-bearing shoots and collecting them in woven baskets lined with fresh leaves. Since cardamom pods are highly perishable and need to be processed quickly to preserve their quality, cultivators must quickly offload their harvest to drying facilities. They are then sold to packing and exporting companies. Unexpected climate changes and ecological shifts brought on by deforestation also affect production and thus contribute to its high price.
With a native range of India, Burma, and Sri Lanka, green cardamom is a key ingredient of many traditional dishes in these countries. Interestingly, the spice trade resulted in its popularity in Scandinavian baked goods as well as Middle Eastern coffee and tea. Although Guatemala does not have much local use for the spice, a German coffee planter introduced green cardamom there in the early 20th century and the country has since overtaken India as the largest global producer. Learn more about green cardamom here.
7. Pasilla de Oaxaca – Up to $95 / lb (~$210 / kg)
Originating in Mexico and Central and South America, the chili pepper has since spread around the globe while simultaneously splitting into tens of thousands of cultivars. Most are very common and abundant, which is reflected in both their availability and their cost. The Pasilla de Oaxaca is an outlier.
Although technically a pasilla is just a dried chilaca pepper (a mild, highly wrinkled, medium-sized chile), the Pasilla de Oaxaca stands out due to its terroir and its unique smoke-drying process. With its blackish red color, pronounced smoky aroma, meaty texture, and lightly fruity heat (4,000 - 10,000 SHU), the Pasilla de Oaxaca is much bolder in flavor, aroma, and heat than its milder pasilla brethren.
The story of these chili peppers begins in the Sierra Mixe region of Southern Mexico. The Mixe people live in the hot, arid, and mountainous region northeast of the city of Oaxaca. A little over a century ago, they created the Pasilla de Oaxaca as a way to preserve the excess local fresh chilaca peppers. Pasilla de Oaxaca chiles fully mature from green to a deep dark red over a period of 100 days. Once they ripen, they are left to partially dry on the vine prior to harvesting. The glossy, wrinkled peppers are then collected and smoke-dried over charcoal made from local Encino wood in a traditional adobe oven for several days. This final stage gives them their signature smoky flavor. When finished, they are carried down the grand Sierra mountains on horseback by indigenous tribes, eventually arriving in the markets of Oaxaca and Puebla days later. The uniquely smoked peppers are used locally, with a very small amount reaching external markets like the United States. Hence, its price tag.
8. Long Pepper – Up to $80 / lb (~$175 / kg)
Growing on a slender tropical climbing vine, the long pepper is a fruit native to India, Malaysia, Singapore, and Sri Lanka. It packs a peppery flavor, combining a floral aroma and slightly sweet taste with hints of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom. With its ability to directly replace black pepper in recipes, while adding depth and a more resinous finish, the long pepper is making a comeback in the culinary world after stepping away for a few centuries.
The predecessor to black pepper, long pepper was the most popular pepper in Europe through the 16th century. The Romans preferred it over black pepper, despite it being twice as expensive. They used it in medicinal applications and to flavor food and beverages. Unfortunately for long pepper, competition for spicy heat became fierce starting in the 12th century. Long pepper was brought in on land routes, but sea routes started becoming available for black pepper (from India) as well as grains of paradise (from Africa). Over the next few centuries, these alternatives became much less expensive and more abundant than long pepper, effectively pushing long pepper out of the pantry. Adding insult to injury, global cultivation of the chili pepper also began in the 16th century, offering 1/3 of the cost and more availability. Only recently have western cuisines become reacquainted with this ancient culinary wonder. Although many multiples more expensive than black pepper, chefs are recognizing the benefits of its complex flavor profile and demand is finally growing after centuries of obscurity. Learn more about long pepper here.
9. Mahlab – Up to $65 / lb (~$145 / kg)
Originating in Central-Southern Europe and Northern Africa, mahlab is a deeply aromatic spice derived from the seed kernels within the cherry pits of the St. Lucie tree. Although now widely used as an ornamental tree and rootstock upon which to graft commercial fruit cherry cultivars, the St. Lucie tree used to be prized for the spice it held in its cherry’s small pits. Today, there are very few producers, constricting its supply and raising its price. As you may have guessed, mahlab also requires a difficult production process. Each stone-like cherry pit must be dried and cracked open individually to extract the little seed kernel within. There is typically only one kernel per pit. The kernels are then dried further before they are sold either as whole seeds or ground powder.
Traditionally, Greek, Turkish, and Middle Eastern cuisines use mahlab to sharpen the sweet flavor of baked goods and desserts, adding unique notes of bitter almonds, roses, cherries, and traces of vanilla. When cooked, however, it transforms from floral to fruity. The spice is best stored whole and then ground fresh into dishes since its flavor is bold and pervasive and pre-ground powders lose their notes fairly quickly.
Demand in the West is increasing due to a growing interest in Middle Eastern cuisine as well as its use in novel western dessert recipes. Mahlab can be quite difficult to find, but specialty Mediterranean and Middle Eastern markets tend to carry it. Learn more about mahlab here.
10. Grains of Paradise – Up to $60 / lb (~$130 / kg)
Hailing from the coastal areas of West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, grains of paradise is the seed of a tropical perennial herb found in coastal swampy habitats. It is a close relative of cardamom in the ginger family.
Although relatively rare in modern international markets, grains of paradise was one of the primary traded spices from the Roman era through the European Middle Ages. Originally transported by caravan through the Sahara Desert in the 14th and 15th centuries, spice traders sold grains of paradise as a black pepper substitute. It was much less expensive and easier to obtain at the time, since black pepper had to travel all the way from India. Grains of paradise was thus the spice of choice until the 19th century, when it fell out of favor due to the increased availability of black pepper.
Today, the main producer of grains of paradise is Ghana. Outside its native range, where traditional use is still strong, grains of paradise has limited visibility and demand. However, it's popularity is now growing. It's a staple ingredient in Samuel Adams’ Summer Ale, Bombay Sapphire Gin, and the famous Moroccan spice blend Ras el Hanout. Cooks around the world are rediscovering its magic and getting creative with its many applications.
The spice is composed of small, brownish seeds a few millimeters in diameter and similar in shape to miniature hazelnuts. It has a distinctly complex pepper flavor with notes of ginger, lavender, citrus, juniper, and jasmine. Generally interchangeable with black pepper, allowing for tons of culinary opportunity, grains of paradise is distinctly nuanced with a gentler and milder heat that builds slowly and tends to linger on the tongue. Learn more about grains of paradise here.
Conclusion
While spice prices vary depending on quality, time (year and season), region, and various market factors, these spices will likely remain on this list for years to come unless new technologies or cultivation methods are invented. They are inherently more difficult to produce and are cherished for their uniqueness, so demand remains high while supply is consistently constrained.
Although there are other spices and foods that occasionally spike in price due to their alluring newness, these prices are not confirmed or maintained by markets over time. A great example is the Aji Charapita chili pepper from Peru which was reportedly priced as high as $35,000 / kg in 2016. That price was never verified by legitimate sources, nor was it sustained by the market. Sometimes increased demand for a scarce resource will shoot prices up to absurd levels momentarily, but they are just anomalies. That is why we deal with established markets. This list can potentially change year to year, but it consists of the spices that are consistently the most expensive. We’d love to hear from you if you find a spice that unseats any of them!