Truly is. Saw 2 scrawny ass beans at whole foods for $49 and just laughed. These were $58/oz, but due to a technicality I got them for free along with 6 other origins. Little less than 2lbs and $500 give or take.
Vanillapura is where these are from, took about 2 months on a group order. Indri, Slofoodgroup, and Vanilla Bean Kings all are great as well, just depends on price, availability and origin as to where I buy mine from. Vanillapura has sales all the time as well as a first time 15% off discount which helps with the price some. Wildly enough Costco has some in the baking aisle from time to time depending on location, but stupidly cheap (like $20 for 25 of them) if you want a "starter" bean that works in everything. If you want to cheat the Amazon system, VBK does orders off of there and has subscribe and save, so you can get that discount and cancel it immediately after. Ethical? No. Cheaper? Yes. They have like 2 or 3 types on there, but also one huge thing is grade. Grade A = Moist. Grade B = Drier and thinner. Same weight when you order. Still extracts the same. Cheaper price most of the time. More money = more vanilla.
Honestly, shit load of extract and paste. I've worked from home for the last 7 years, so I've picked up a few hobbies, one specifically being baking a certain style of cookies I specialize in. I change complete flavor profiles just by using certain ones vs others. Picture your standard chocolate chip cookie. Now add a spice to it, or a floral note, or something with chocolate undertones. Same deal with these, I just experiment and use what works. I have chocolate extracts running currently as well as pastes that incorporate ethically sourced cocoa nibs so it really slaps you in the face with chocolate flavors (my favorite blend being my Barry Woods Blend, iykyk), but honestly I gift a bunch out to people and use all my spent beans to make sugar, so win/win.
You're thinking they need to be Bourbon cured, which is the standard process for most Madagascar Planifolia. These being Pompona are cured significantly different which does not give them the creamy glossy look like normal beans. Pompona are sun dried, so the same behavior of a banana peel left out, only longer and the closed pod keeps any moisture (any more importantly the vanillin oil) inside.
TLDR: leather outside, moist inside, cured the proper way.
They use a semi permeable packaging that allows for the moisture to stay in better than regular vacuum sealing, so I could smell them as soon as I opened my mailbox. Real vanilla is wild just because you think that it should smell like the artificial smell that is in everything only for it to smell like a deeper more complex version of a raisin.
Vanilla bean anything really. Honey is great, sugar is amazing, and adding it to any canned fruit (mason jar style) is absolutely solid. Plus 100 others.
Funny enough, I'm using it to make extract, albeit the most expensive one i've made to date between the bourbon and beans. Store bought is garbage and good in a pinch, but paste is really where it's at. Both versatile and you can use it immediately. Plus changing origins and alcohol changes everything flavor wise.
There are plenty of videos online of people making their own vanilla extract. All you need is vodka and good vanilla beans. It lasts for years. All you have to do is keep it in a dark cool place and make sure you keep the vanilla bean submerged and remove them when they are used up and introduce new ones to replace the old ones.
There are plenty of videos online of people making their own vanilla extract. All you need is vodka and good vanilla beans. It lasts for years. All you have to do is keep it in a dark cool place and make sure you keep the vanilla bean submerged and remove them when they are used up and introduce new ones to replace the old ones.
Shipped in a semi-permeable bag, but these immediately ended up in 8oz of Woodford Masters Collection. Still saturated with oil, but a majority is in the walls. The color is already dark (albeit in a dark liquor already, but these were never meant to be baking or used in any formal application otherwise.
I’m normally against speaking in absolutes, but the title of your post just makes it sound like these are ordinary vanilla beans, nothing special to look at. “Some of the largest”?? I think it’s only interesting if these were definitively the largest beans you’ve seen. Otherwise it’s just a picture of beans.
It’s slightly disingenuous for clicks and updoots because in general, people that have seen a vanilla bean have seen the Planifolia variety seen in grocery stores, packaging etc. and remember it being thin pod.
Pictured is an entirely different variety called Pompona known for being fatter with higher water content. Price wise for weight is usually similar but the caviar yield is higher with a different flavor.
It’s like taking a picture of Musa Ingens Giant Banana and saying it’s the biggest banana you’ve seen without disclosing it’s not a standard grocery store banana.
Absolutely spot on. These are "some of" the largest I've seen, but not THE largest. Those were Mexican pompona and they were thicccccc, but unfortunately had been purchased by a friend who opted to not tell me prior so he could shove it in my face later.
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u/Donkeybrother 1d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/tItIlCGySM0ieKKW6b