27/29

Editors’ choice best new food

Rumi Spice Blends

We know saffron as an expensive spice that flavors and tints dishes such as paella or risotto. But Kimberly Jung, CEO and co-founder of Rumi Spice, knows saffron as a tool to improve the lives of Afghanistan farmers. Formerly a U.S. army officer, Jung launched Rumi Spice with the goal to incentivize farmers to turn away from cultivating poppy for opium or marijuana—some of the only lucrative cash crops in Afghanistan—to growing saffron. And because Afghanistan grows some of the best saffron in the world, Rumi Spice has figured out how to pay farmers up to six times more for saffron than farmers make growing opium. The company incorporates the crimson spice into usable blends that even novice cooks can use in dishes of all ilk.