1. Beluga Caviar
True caviar is a distinction reserved only for sturgeon eggs, while all other fish eggs are technically to be referred to simply as roe. Since this difference is purely semantic and preferences are a matter of taste, the price of caviar corresponds more to its rarity than its flavor. After decades of overfishing, true caviar is normally reserved solely for royalty, Almas caviar from the Iranian Beluga fish, is regularly sold for over $35,000 per kilo, or roughly $1000 an ounce.
2. White Truffle
The most expensive truffle ever sold for over a million dollars, weighing in at just over four pounds. While it is rare to find truffles weighing over two pounds, a certain variety of European white truffles usually can be sold for anywhere between $4,000 and $10,000 per pound. At these prices, if you think a $5 bottle of truffle oil is too good to be true…you’d be right. Most commercially available truffle-flavored products don’t actually contain any truffle at all.
3. Dom Pérignon White Gold
This special limited edition champagne by a Wildcatter favorite – Dom Pérignon by Moet & Chandon – comes in a bottle sheathed in white gold. The 1995 vintage costs a cool $2,200 per bottle and also comes in a rose version.
4. Wild Ginseng Root
Another case of supply and demand, the price for wild ginseng has skyrocketed in the past decade. Highly sought after for its medicinal qualities, the growing and foraging of ginseng became highly regulated, driving the price up. There are rare cases of a pound of the wild root selling for $500,000 or even over $1 million dollars, with the average prices hovers at just above $1,000 per pound, on par with gold.
5. Saffron
Known in history as the world’s most expensive spice, a pound of quality saffron can cost anywhere from $5,000 t0 $10,000 dollars in today’s market. It takes over 70,000 blossoms (roughly the size of a football field) to make a pound of this edible gold, which dries up to 20% of its original size.
