Any thoughts on offering affron Saffron extract?

Hey /u/srubek and /u/_86JR_, settle down. Take a breath. No need to get at each other. Discuss the facts in an objective way, then perhaps we can get closer to the real answer. When you start getting personal, then it detracts from the facts of the discussion. No need for that.

So I think the saffron thing is more complex than just fake/real. I also don't think that just because you personally didn't react to something that it means that it is fake. I bought the Mehr saffron and tried it back to back with Affron. They taste almost identical. I think they are pretty much the same thing. They actually both taste like metallic plastic ass to me. I thought maybe they were just fake or low quality, so I went and bought some very expensive Spanish whole saffron stamen. These were very expensive highly-rated ones that were not ground up, so I know they are legit. They taste like metallic plastic ass to me, too. LOL. So I am not sure if I just have a genetic mutation that makes me taste saffron different than everyone else, or if people really do like the taste of metal and plastic shavings in their dishes. I see a bunch of blogs online saying that if it tastes like metal, that means it is low quality or fake. However, all the saffron I have bought so far tastes the same. Regardless, both the Mehr and the Affron tasted just like the two different bottles of whole saffron stamen that I got. So either the entire market for saffron is fraudulent, or I just don't like saffron. However, the Mehr and Affron are pretty much the same thing.

Now this is where it gets more complex. Safranal is the primary compound responsible for the smell of saffron. This is what people assumed was the main active for the cognitive effects, too. However, it is looking more like crocin and crocetin are a big part, too. Safranal acts on 5-HT and GABA, whereas crocin and crocetin seem to be NMDA antagonists. Well it just so happens that crocin and crocetin are higher in the flowers of saffron, which are considered "bad" to include for culinary purposes. High-quality saffron for cooking should only be from the stamen. However, perhaps not for the cognitive effects. I tried higher doses of both the Affron and the Mehr, and it feels very much like a dose of DXM. This is likely the NMDA antagonism from the crocin and crocetin. So perhaps saffron extracts that include the flowers are idea for the cognitive effects, due to the increased amounts of crocin and crocetin. This could explain the fake/real thing. Some of the extracts might include ground up petals, which is not ideal for culinary use, but might be good for cognitive use. This is why we are doing more testing and investigation. I don't want to write saffron off, but we need to figure the situation out before we can bring a quality product out.