February 2023

Hajabdol... Saffron With Pistachio

?

What this tasted like is simple, what this treat actually is requires a little more thought. The flavour is simple, saffron. The first part of the flavour description of this treat is saffron, and that’s the main flavour you get. Even the colour tells you that there’s saffron in it. The pistachio portion of this treat is a little more subtle, and better represented in the texture and visual portion than the flavour. What I’m saying is that the saffron flavour dominates the flavour of this treat.

The trickier part of this treat is trying to figure out exactly what it’s supposed to be. When I first opened it I assumed it was some kind of nougat or taffy, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The texture of this treat is not soft or chewy at all, it’s crumbly. It almost feels like you’re biting into a very poorly made cookie, one that’s very dry and falls apart instantly. After giving it a few moments of thought it came to me, it’s halva (or halwa depending on where you live). There are many different variety of halva, some are gelatinous, some are soft, and some are crumbly. While I don’t have it in writing (I couldn’t read the package) my experience tells me that this is a crumbly halva.

Honestly I’m not a big fan of saffron. I don’t mind it blended with other flavours, but as a main flavour or on its own it’s a little too much for me. I feel like saffron is popular not because it tastes good, but because it’s so expensive. Kind of like diamonds that actually serve no purpose, but because they’re expensive people want them. I guess if you really do love the flavour of saffron this might be okay, but for me it was a little too much. After figuring out that it was a halva I did appreciate the texture a little more, however it did fall apart and stick to the package, so it was a little challenging to eat.