Ask for saffron in five Indian cities and you will use five words. They all mean the same three crimson threads from the same flower, Crocus sativus, and none of them tells you anything about the quality of what is in the tin. This is a short guide to the names — where each comes from, who uses it, and what to look for underneath any of them.

Saffron and zafran are the same word

The English word came a long way to get here. Saffron entered English from Old French safran, which came from medieval Latin safranum, which came from Arabic za'farān. Persian has zarparān, "gold-strung", which is either the source of the Arabic or a cousin of it; either way it describes the thread well.

Zafran — spelt zafraan, zaffran, zaffron or jafran depending on who is writing — is the same Arabic and Persian word arriving in India directly rather than through Europe. It is the everyday word in Urdu and in much of North Indian Muslim cooking, it is what a Lucknow or Hyderabad biryani recipe calls for, and it is the word on Iranian tins. If you have typed "zaffron" into a search box, you were spelling the Arabic phonetically. There is no wrong way, and no different product at the end of it.

Kesar is Sanskrit

Kesar — also keshar or kesari — is the Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati word, from Sanskrit keśara, the filament of a flower. It is the word on most Indian packaging, in most Hindi recipes, and in the names of dishes: kesar pista kulfi, kesari bhaat, kesar doodh.

Two cautions. Kesari is also the name of a colour and of a sweet (rava kesari), and "kesar" on a cheap pack or in a sweet-shop window very often means kesari colour — a food dye — and not a single thread of saffron. And kesar is not a grade: a pack that says "pure kesar" and nothing else has told you what plant it is from, and nothing more.

Kong posh is the flower

In Kashmiri, kong is saffron and posh is flower. Kong posh is the crocus itself, and the name of the fields around Pampore where it blooms for three weeks in late October. You will see it written as one word and as two. A Kashmiri grower will tell you the difference between kong, the spice, and kong posh, the bloom — and it is the only one of these names that belongs to the place the saffron actually grows.

Kumkumapoo and the South

South India has its own words, all built on kumkuma, the Sanskrit for saffron-coloured. Tamil says kungumapoo or kumkumapoo, the saffron flower; Telugu kumkuma puvvu; Malayalam kunkumapoovu; Kannada kumkuma kesari. Bengali uses jafran, from the Persian. If you grew up with one of these and have wondered whether kesar is the same thing: it is.

What none of the names guarantee

Every word above describes the spice. None describes the grade, the origin or the harvest year, which are the three things that decide what a gram is worth. The same tin can honestly be labelled kesar, zafran or saffron and still be Lachha sold at a Mongra price, three-year-old material sold as this season's, or — often — dyed safflower with no Crocus sativus in it at all.

So read past the name. Look for the grade stated as Mongra or Lachha rather than as "premium"; for an origin that names a district (Pampore) rather than a country; for a harvest year; and for a lot reference with a laboratory report behind it. A seller who has those will use whichever of the five words you used first, and it will not matter.

The names, in one place

  • Saffron — English, from Arabic za'farān by way of Latin and French.
  • Zafran, zaffran, zaffron, jafran — Urdu, Persian, Arabic and Bengali forms of the same word.
  • Kesar, keshar, kesari — Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati, from Sanskrit keśara.
  • Kong posh — Kashmiri: the saffron crocus. Kong alone is the spice.
  • Kumkumapoo (kungumapoo), kumkuma puvvu, kunkumapoovu, kumkuma kesari — Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.
  • Mongra, Lachha — not names for saffron but Kashmiri grades of it: stigma alone, and stigma with the pale style attached.