Product Review

Here's what you get:

- 10 Extract Grade B Bourbon Planifolia Vanilla Beans grown in Madagascar. 5 to 6 inches.
- 10 Extract Grade B Tahitian Vanilla Beans grown in Papua New Guinea. Please note that they are very dry. 3 to 5 inches. Some will snap like a twig, but they are still fine for making extract.
- 10 Extract Grade B Mixed Whole and Split Bourbon Planifolia Vanilla Beans grown in Indonesia. Please note that these are very dry. Indonesian Beans have a smoky flavor because of the way they are cured. 3 to 5 inches. Some will snap like a twig, but they are still fine for making extract.

These beans are excellent for making vanilla extract. For cooking, where you want to split the beans and/or scrape out the caviar, you should use Grade A Gourmet vanilla beans.

Our beans are traditionally cured over several months to ensure that the full flavor of the vanilla bean is developed. We do not sell quick cured vanilla beans where the beans are cured in 7 to 10 days.

These vanilla beans are triple inspected. The first inspection takes place during packing and is for smell, appearance, and mold. The next inspection takes place during vacuum sealing and is for mold and appearance. The final inspection takes place before shipment to ensure that the vacuum seal is intact and that there is no mold.

Some facts about vanilla beans:

- Bourbon refers to the formerly named Bourbon Islands (now Reunion) off of Madagascar. Bourbon alcohol is not used in vanilla beans.
- Vanilla beans orginated in Mexico and must be hand pollinated outside of Mexico because the pollinator, the Melipona bee, cannot survive outside of Mexico.
- There are over 200 organic compounds in vanilla. Artificial vanilla (vanillin) cannot capture the complexity of natural vanilla.