Rumi Spice

Founded by three U.S. Army veterans, Rumi was born from frustration over the cycle of violence on the ground in Afghanistan and a desire to help Afghan farmers sell their saffron overseas. In 2014, Emily Miller, Kim Jung and Keith Alaniz decided to take the leap and try bringing a batch of the country’s highly-coveted spice to American chefs. The response was swift, and soon they were importing hundreds of kilograms a year, while growing their network of Afghan farmers to source spices. Their first big break, though, was all-American: the trio appeared on the show Shark Tank, where host Mark Cuban invested in Rumi. Today, Rumi is on supermarket aisles and in restaurant kitchens across the U.S.