According to Merriam Webster dictionary, saffron is “an orange powder made from a type of flower (called a crocus) and that is used to color and flavor food”. However, saffron is a spice that probably has little or no impact on most people’s lives, but saffron is a spice that is used many times in my family for many different occasions. Saffron is a spice that comes from Southwest Asia and is traded to areas all over the world. This item is important to be because making this drink has been a tradition in my family for many years. My great grandmother taught my grandmother how to make it, my grandmother taught my mother how to make it and now my mother teaches me how to make it. We make this drink on holidays, birthdays and family get together's. On Thanksgiving, all four of us: my great-grandmother, grandmother, mother and I- are together and we all make it together which doesn’t always happen given where each of us lives and the number of times we see each other during the year. When I drink this expensive tea, it makes me value my Kashmiri culture. In this day and age, it is easy to assimilate to cultures other than your own; to assimilate to only the cultures you are exposed to. The fact that my family continues to make saffron tea after many, many years of living in the U.S shows how despite being in America, we still keep our roots and do not Americanize everything. It is through making this drink that we are constantly reminded of who we are and where we come from.

– Noor Q

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