Why 5 Of The World's Priciest Salts And Spices Are So Expensive | So Expensive Food

[Music] while searching the world for expensive items we came across some of the priciest seasonings we use to flavor our food from cinnamon to bamboo salt cloves to river reed salt join us as we revisit what makes these spices and salts so expensive first we're heading to south korea to see why bamboo salt is the most expensive salt in the world this is standard sea salt but after 30 days it'll become this high quality bamboo salt costs almost 100 for an eight and a half ounce jar making it the most expensive salt in the world so what is bamboo salt used for and why is it so expensive for hundreds of years koreans have used bamboo salt for cooking and as a form of traditional medicine it's made by placing sea salt inside of bamboo and roasting it at a high temperature the goal is to infuse the salt with minerals from the bamboo and to remove any impurities but the premium compared to other types of salt is steep nine times roasted bamboo salt sometimes referred to as purple bamboo salt can cost over 10 times the price of pink himalayan salt most of that cost comes from the labor intensive process every single step is done by hand and the process starts by cutting three-year-old bamboo into uniform trunks leaving one side closed as a container for the salt sea salt from the west coast of korea is densely packed by hand into the bamboo workers load filled bamboo onto a cart and push it into a kiln traditionally only pine logs are used this process takes around 12 to 14 hours baking everything at over 800 degrees celsius burns away the bamboo leaving a column of salt but the process has only just begun foreign [Music] the ninth and final roast is the hottest at over 1 000 degrees celsius it's fired in a special kiln and operated by an expert shintae jun has been making bamboo salt for over 20 years that experience is extremely important because any error at the stage could result in wasting a month of work at this temperature the salt and bamboo completely melt and drain into a mold after a few days of cooling a blackened rock-like structure remains this is nine times roasted bamboo salt workers carefully break this down by hand trying not to waste any material [Music] after a month of work it's ready to be packaged and soldered the final price varies depending on where you buy it and what form it's in but nine times roasted bamboo salt doesn't come cheap [Music] [Music] [Music] the health benefits of food have always played an important role in korean culture for centuries bamboo salt baked two to three times has been used in traditional korean medicine but in the 20th century the nine times roasting process was developed manufacturers say this process is the lowest toxicity and highest mineral content today it's used for cooking toothpaste soap and various remedies for proponents of bamboo salt say that it can help with everything from digestion to oral health skin care and inflammation that it even has anti-cancer effects but proposed medical benefits have likely helped it maintain its high price but there hasn't been enough scientific study to fully back up all of these claims studies have shown that bamboo salt contains higher levels of iron potassium and calcium compared to regular sea salt and that it could improve your immune system but these beneficial minerals constitute only a small percentage the majority of bamboo salt is sodium chloride even with lower toxicity it's unclear how potent the health benefits are in 2016 the who wrote in a report that the composition of specialty salts poses no toxicological risks but does not offer any relevant nutritional benefits either the full benefits of bamboo salt compared to sea salt have yet to be extensively researched but despite that bamboozle continues to be popular sale and cinnamon is native to just one region of the world and producing it requires hours of delicate work even the most skilled workers can make only a few pounds of quills a day one pound of cinnamon quills can cost 27 but not all spices labeled cinnamon are the ceylon variety many in the western market are actually cheaper types of cinnamon called cassia so what makes ceylon cinnamon so favorable and why is it so expensive [Music] salon cinnamon is named after the old british name for sri lanka and it is often considered real cinnamon it is made from the dried inner bark of a tree called cinnamom verum growing these trees is an investment farmers must wait four years after a tree is planted before they can begin harvesting at harvest workers break down the branches early in the morning when the bark is still moist again must continuously care for the trees throughout the year otherwise the branches won't be suitable for making cinnamon at all the rigorous nature of this job has only just begun now peelers must do the delicate and essential work of stripping the inner bark of each branch by hand [Music] this is the most labor-intensive part of the process and it's not as easy as simply shaving the outside of the bark as you would the skin from a potato to produce the most valuable cinnamon the bark must be made extremely thin the thinner the quills are the more costly they will be ruined has spent 40 years mastering this skill soon after the bark is removed each piece dries under the sun and curls up within a few minutes after drying the small pieces are stuffed inside a straight piece of bark forming one 42-inch quill by the end of a long day workers will have only produced about three pounds of quills those then need to drive for three to four days before they're packed into veils and sent off to a separate facility that's where they'll be graded and officially priced based on their width pd romance and sons buys bales of cinnamon from various peelers at its facility quills are graded over 10 scales the most valuable quills are classified as alba it takes a peeler four times longer to produce one kilogram of alba than to produce the same quantity of lower grades the leftover smaller cuts are turned into ground cinnamon and make up the cheapest form but even the most valuable quills are often confused with a more widely accessible and cheaper variety of cinnamon [Music] comes from another kind of cinnamon tree called cinnamom cassia and it doesn't require as much time or effort to make cassia bark is hard and sturdy so quills are made as one curled piece of bark without the fillings cinnamon cinnamon on the other hand is tender and soft and needs those inner layers to prevent the quill from breaking water come on is very fragrant and brown whereas real cinnamon is paler with a milder flavor cassia also contains on average higher levels of coumarin an organic compound that can cause liver damage if consumed in large amounts this is why researchers say ceylon cinnamon is ultimately the healthier option but if you're buying cinnamon in the u.s it can be hard to tell the difference between them part of the confusion between the two comes from the use of the label cinnamon in the u.s it is legal to label both ceylon and cassia cinnamon as cinnamon while in the uk and other countries cassia must be labeled cassia and cannot be classified simply as cinnamon regardless of what it's called in the u.s consumers worldwide prefer the real thing in 2018 ceylon accounted for more global cinnamon revenue than any other variety but even as demand is expected to grow through 2025 climate change poses a serious threat to cinnamon production in recent years sri lanka has experienced droughts over several months and these long periods of dry weather can kill cinnamon trees which need marshy wet soil to survive there's also a shortage of cinnamon peelers another threat to production that's likely to drive up prices this industry relies on experienced peelers who can practice the difficult work of making these quills over many years [Music] green cardamom is one of the most expensive spices in the world just one kilogram of it can sell for ninety dollars but getting that little bit of green cardamom requires a lot of work harvesters need to collect six kilograms of these small raw pods by hand to produce just one kilogram of the spice so why is it so hard to grow green cardamom and is that what makes it so expensive known as the queen of spices cardamom comes from small oval shaped fruits called pods which contain several black seeds inside those seeds are what give green cardamom its uniquely citrusy sweet flavor and aroma the green cardamom plant grows in select regions around the world but it especially thrives in india's iduki district where raja's family has grown the spice for 30 years after cardamom is planted farmers must wait three years for the plants to mature when that waiting period is finally over workers have most of the year from july to next february to harvest while that's a long harvesting period not all of the pods can be harvested at the same time and knowing precisely when to harvest is a job for highly skilled workers foreign to do the job right harvesters train for six months alongside experienced farmers this is when they learn to decipher a ripe fruit that can be picked versus a raw pod that is not yet ready to harvest in the end the plant doesn't yield much farmers harvest a maximum of 10 pods on average from each plant that number of pods produces only about one and a half teaspoons of ground cardamom but harvesting is just the beginning only after the pods are dried well they look like the green cardamom sold in stores you can buy cardamom pods just the black seeds or ground cardamom which are the seeds in powdered form all the pods head to a separate location to dry for about 18 hours within a day or so after harvesting any delay will cause the pods to decay and lose flavor drying also preserves the spices green color a factor that directly impacts how valuable a pod will be and what it will be used for from here the pods are cleaned and sorted workers use their hands to push and separate the smaller lower quality pods through the holes [Music] each pod is then graded based on its size weight and color highly value pods are bigger greener and full of seeds out of all the cardamom raja harvests the majority won't be worth very much in fact only a sixth will qualify as good quality marketable some exported whole green cardamom pods from other producers can be even costlier retailing for over four times the price at ninety dollars per kilogram the company's lowest grade cost 900 indian rupees or about 12 dollars per kilogram and can be sold as ground cardamom pods with any sign of discoloration or rot aren't marketable and will therefore be rejected [Music] [Music] foreign but this whole process could be totally disrupted by changes in weather if there's too much rain the pods will rot if there's not enough they'll burn out from the sun more recently the world's climate crisis and unpredictable weather in india's iduki district specifically have heard supplies of green cardamom the district makes up at least a sixth of global production and roughly three quarters of india's green cardamom production but its supply took a hit in recent years as harsh weather and rains ruined farmers crops this drove up the prices of cardamom in 2019 but didn't necessarily benefit small farmers in order to make a huge profit farmers need a large inventory and when cardamom is sold in small amounts by small farmers most of the payment is used to cover the cost of production only raja spends about fifteen thousand indian rupees or about two hundred dollars per acre just on fertilizer that's between ten and fifteen percent of the total profits he'll make off that acre and those profits often don't cover the total raja must spend on production um all this considered the global cardamom market is expected to grow by about 169 million dollars between 2021 and 2025. this is good for the industry but could present a challenge for farmers unable to meet demand as the climate crisis continues to threaten the supply of this coveted spice [Music] in the forest of south india harvesters climb trees as tall as 50 feet to hand pick these clove buds when exported than half a pound of these dried cloves cost thirty dollars that's ten times as much as some cumin but as they focus on keeping their balance harvesters must also be careful not to break the buds if they do the value of the clove drops significantly and that's just where the risk begins to harvest cloves correctly workers put their lives on the line so what makes cloves worth the risks and why are they so expensive [Music] clothes are the flower buds of clove trees that haven't blossomed yet when dried they're commonly used as a spice a clove flavor is complex with notes of sweetness bitterness and heat the oil found in cloves has medicinal properties that make the spice valuable outside of just cooking cloves with the round head or crown still intact have the most oil but to get cloves with the highest possible oil content highly skilled workers are needed at every stage clove is harvesting is a very big job it's a very risky job so we we have to get special people to do that to get to the top of the trees harvesters like shibu rely on only a ladder and some rope he reinforces the bottom of the ladder with mud so it doesn't move as he navigates the tall tree shibu ties a sack to his waist and then he starts his climb working his way from the top of the tree to the bottom harvesters can't pick too soon or too late or the cloves will drop in grade and value in addition to picking at the exact right time and being careful not to harm the clove bud they need to be sure not to break the tree branches they climb otherwise the tree will have a lower yield next harvesting season [Music] navigating all these elements can be extremely dangerous in black rock estates harvesting clothes has led to death a couple of years back we lost a worker who was in love while he was plucking the lightning strike team we lost almost about six of them was they had paralyzed like we had to take them and rush them down to the hospital and they were admitted for a month yet hand picking is the only way farms like blackrock estate have managed to keep delivery in quality clothes because timing is crucial charles needs a big team to pick the clothes as soon as they're ready which is usually mid to late february charles can sell the clothes for their highest price in the first 25 days of the harvesting season the more he can harvest during this time the better it is for business when the clove season is fully on when we have a very good drop we get about nearly about 300 workers during peak harvesting season these workers make around 30 dollars a day on average once the clove clusters are picked harvesters carefully remove the individual buds from the stalks and leaves they sift and sort each bud according to its size age and whether it has a top it's best if the circular crown of the clove where it would otherwise flower is still intact this improves the spice's taste and aroma even though there are machines to help with this process charles prefers to pay for it to be done by hand to lower the risk of clove damage they have glow breaking and sorting with machinery but still the half the clothes is damaged in that we get broken clothes in that so it's not very good doing to the machine the highest quality clothes were picked at the right time just before they turned pink or flowered they're large and plump and still have the crown second quality cloves also still have their tops but they're smaller they were either picked too early or too late and the third quality has no crown with the top having either flowered or broken off after the sorting workers leave the clothes out to dry in the sun high quality clothes take three days to dry under good sunlight but a quality clove won't always get sold as the highest grade because official grading doesn't happen until after it's dry if there's too little or too much sun the clothes quality drops instead of golden brown it becomes black and it loses one of its most valuable properties its oil content first quality cloves are the most fragrant and have the highest oil content the headless third quality cloves have the least and the difference shows in the price charles sells his first quality clothes for about ten dollars a kilogram and its lowest grade for under seven dollars clove oil is mostly made up of the compound eugenol which is not only responsible for the cloves familiar aroma but also for its medicinal benefits researchers have noted eugenol has antimicrobial anti-inflammatory pain relieving and antioxidant properties so the demand for clothes goes beyond their culinary uses cloves are so sought after in india that charles is able to sell more than just the buds we sell everything nothing goes to waste even the pollen the dust everything we sell that's also because the cloves he grows kanye kumari cloves are known for their high oil content and strong aroma in fact these cloves were awarded a gi indication in 2021 [Music] charles says kanyakumari cloves are the most expensive variety in india when you go to the market to buy cloves the crow price will be about three times the price what we give it'll be about 2000 rupees where we get only 750. the retail price is so much higher because of the supply chain to maximize on profits for the farm charles won't sell his clothes directly to consumers who only buy smaller amounts as needed instead he sells to clothe dealers who buy large quantities dealers like franklin roosevelt then have to keep the clothes fresh until they sell them to retailers if he doesn't store the clothes properly their shelf life drops globally to cover the cost of quality control franklin sells clothes to stores for almost 12 dollars a kilo the shops that buy from franklin have to pay transportation and packaging costs bringing the retail price of clothes in india even higher but one of the biggest challenges in every step of the supply chain has been the changing climate [Music] channel so your landlord is between 2018 and 2019 india lost 13 metric tons of clothes due to heavy rainfall and while the global clove market is expected to grow by three and a half percent by 2027 the changing climate may still continue to disproportionately burden clove farmers [Music] on day one harvesters cut out these river reeds and in eight days after drying burning and filtering the reeds will produce one of the most expensive salts in the world just one tablespoon of river reed salt costs about one dollar in kenya compare that to the four cents it costs locals for the same amount of sea salt so how do producers make salt from river reeds and why is it so expensive river reed salt or chun vi ya kienji is made from the reeds of the matua plant that grow along the anzoya river once the salt is extracted it's typically sold in small quantities to chefs and luxury hotel owners in kenya and abroad buyers describe its saltiness as powerful and umami-like i buy the river in salt because of i will say the magic in it the texture is smooth it is not rough for course for those who have tested umami from japan it tastes almost the same but this one has more of a sharp taste so when you're cooking with it you won't use a lot of it today only the bukutu community in the village of wabuye continues the traditional process of making this rare salt by hand this is the anzoya river and this is andrew wagnoni cicanga andrew and his sons harvest the reeds that grow along the riverbanks before they go out to harvest andrew starts the morning with a prayer they pray for protection from the dangers they might encounter at the river like snakes and crocodiles to avoid coming into contact with them andrew and his sons need to harvest early eh today they're looking for ripe river reeds [Music] if the reed isn't at least two meters tall and the flowers at the top aren't wilted and nearly dried the concentration of salt will be too low andrew hacks away at the ripe reeds being careful not to uproot the plant or cut too close to the roots that way the reeds can regrow more quickly and the roots can continue to spread onto other rocks only reeds with a high salt content make the effort worth it because from them andrew can make enough salt to sell again though there was a mild injury today's harvest was a good one after a long day of navigating the waters of the anzoya river andrew and his sons leave the riverbank with a lot of reeds those 20 tablespoons will sell for about 20 now they can begin the long manual process of extracting salt first andrew must dry the reeds drying reeds can take four days when the skies are sunny but in cloudier weather it'll take longer to begin processing he has to burn the reeds for one to three days once all the reeds turn to ash andrew places them in a large pot with drainage holes [Music] then he slowly adds water the water filters through the ashes and holes each drop collecting at the bottom he pours those droplets through another filter and into an aluminum pan next he places the pan over an open fire where the solution is left to boil until the liquid evaporates finally after a full day of work andrew is left with this wet salty paste the next day he packs the paste into banana leaves and places them under hot ashes to dry after three hours the salt hardens from reed to salt the process takes at least eight days andrew will sell the salt in the banana leaves this is the same long process his family has practiced for generations it's believed the tradition began in the 17th century when the bokuzu people migrated eastward from congo at the time areas in western kenya were cut off from salt roots so they set out to find a way to extract salt from these aquatic plants centuries later the salt that was made out of necessity became a pricey commodity at the market this pack containing just three tablespoons of river reed salt costs about three dollars and this larger pack seven dollars it's likely to sell because local demand is high buyers know the intense work put into making the salt so for them the price is worth it [Music] although there aren't studies to confirm it market sellers say that part of what keeps the salt in high demand locally is the belief it has special medicinal properties but the most notable feature is its taste in fact andrew's river reed salt won the title for most unique indigenous salt at an international gastronomy exhibition in italy in 2014. slow food one of the organizers of the exhibition established a presidium in 2009 for kenya's river reed salt to drive more demand for the product but fulfilling that demand would require more supply which is difficult when production is so limited one of the biggest threats to river reed salt production is climate change according to slow food the growing population in kenya has led to deforestation indigenous trees along the angzoya river have long held soil particles together and provided shade keeping temperatures stable but the loss of these trees along with higher temperatures unstable river levels and landslides has contributed to the loss of river reeds andrew tried growing the reeds with other water sources but couldn't get the same outcome okay [Music] in addition to conservation efforts like replanting indigenous trees slow food is working on creating more marshy areas for the reeds to grow since the river reads salts really does well with the waters from the river we were thinking that if we try a little bit to divert some of these water from from the river and have a mushy area plus some of the rocks we can actually try to see whether we can increase the number of breeds because i know that as the people continue knowing about this particular salt will be high demand this project along with increased commercial exposure of river read salt hopes to help producers like andrew and his sons keep their work alive for generations to come you

Channel: Insider Business

Views: 4,349,132

Keywords: Business Insider, Business News, Food, Spices, Salt, So Expensive, Expensive, So Expensive Food

Id: 60Myw4fYyBM

Length: 37min 53sec (2273 seconds)

Published: Tue May 17 2022