Buying Saffron in Spain

All daily municipal markets will have at least one herb and cooking mix seller. I doubt they would remain in business if not providing reliable goods. You can also find azafrán in supermarkets and corner shops. Sorry, I could not recognise a quality stem of saffron from another, could you?

I bought good saffron in La Mancha at a little tiny shop. Very reasonable prices. You'll find it everywhere.

We bought our spices in a supermarket. As I recall, it will be labeled Azafron. If you buy from a street vendor (we saw many during our trip), you are more likely to have Customs confiscate it when you come home. If it's packaged, like you get at a store, you should be fine. Safron isn't cheap, although it's affordable, in Spain. The store had several choices, a collection of tiny 1 gram vials or larger glass jars. I also noticed it looked more red, as opposed to orange at the street vendors, in the store. We decided our relatives wouldn't know what to do with it if we sent them Safron, so we opted for a paella mix that included Safron instead. We also brought home some powdered red peppers, powdered spicy peppers, pinchito (bar-b-que skewer) spice, and some other spices I can't remember off the top of my head that aren't available here. As expected, when I got to Customs, they asked about my listed "spices" and were satisfied that they were purchased at a grocery store in Madrid.

You probably would find it at the department store, El Corte Ingles-there was one in each of those towns (not in the old town Toledo). We loved those stores-especially browsing the olive aisle.

Thanks everyone for your response.
Brad, buying it from the store was a helpful tip, I have to remember that. I always buy Saffron here in the US that comes from Spain. I thought it would be reasonably priced if I get it from the source. Again, thanks for your response.

If you want to sure it is high quality, genuine saffron, buy packaged saffron at a good store, such as the gourmet foods aisle at El Corte Ingles. I bought several 0.5 gram packages of Azafran D.O. la Mancha, which is a mark of authenticity. The threads are mostly all red, but there a few shading to yellow, meaning the pickers took a bit of the style along with the stigma. I don't mind that as the shading is one indication that it is not dyed fake saffron. The highest grade of saffron in Spain is cut, not picked, so it includes only the deep red stigma. This is very expensive and well out of my price range! I would be leery of any saffron sold at a street vendor, especially if it is in bulk, or unlabeled vials. There is a lot of fake saffron around, either dyed material or safflower. Not so much in Spain, but definitely in Morocco, and in Mexico. So I would stick with the packages bought from places like El Corte Ingles, labeled with a guarantee of origin, like the D.O. la Mancha. I cannot remember exactly what I paid for this half-gram packages, but it was probably around 5 euros. One-half gram is enough for four or five recipes of paella (6-person recipes).