The Challenge of Saffron

Saffron is beautiful, suble, exotic. And incredibly difficult to produce. As this video points out, it takes the stamen from 10,000 flowers to produce about 2 ounces (your standard size spice bottle) of saffron for cooking. And it has to be harvested by hand due to the inherent delicacy. So when Porsche names a new paint color, Saffron Yellow Metallic, you know there is something going on behind the scenes.

Major complexity. That is what is going on behind the scenes. This paint goes down in stages. First there is the base color coat for the yellow color. Then they put down a clear coat to make it pop. You could stop there. But not Porsche. They add another very complicated layer of metal-oxide-coated mica to create a shimmery final finish. They need to hand-sand cars between coats with this finish. Even the thickness of the finish can affect the consistency and final appearance of this paint. And then a final clear coat. Four layers in total.

Beauty certainly never comes without some sacrifice. Your wallet will surely need to make some sacrifices to offset the effort that Porsche has gone to to provide this option. Is this flavor is right for you? Who knows? But it can’t hurt to take a little taste, now can it. Hopefully we’ll see one of these in person soon enough. Is Saffron Yellow Metallic the next Miami Blue?