My experience is that it’s very difficult to get a rich vanilla flavour anywhere.
Aside from vanilla ice cream (where it’s the only flavour present), the only products that I’ve had where I can recall tasting vanilla have been various sodas (vanilla coke, some brands of root beer, and butterbeer at Universal Studios Orlando come to mind).
…Which is kind of weird, considering how many recipes contain vanilla (it’s a joke between myself and my mother that every recipe in every cookbook everywhere requires exactly one teaspoon of vanilla extract, regardless of what other flavours are present and how many people a single preparation of the recipe is supposed to serve).
The most vanilla things I make both involve soaking a vanilla pod in gently simmering syrup. I have a modernised 14c recipe for juniper poached pears in white wine syrup like that, and and a winter fruit salad recipe where the dried fruit gets simmered with a vanilla pod and lemon zest in a light lemon syrup.
I find it tends to disappear in things like cakes, although it can be pleasant in Rice Krispy squares if you use the real stuff and not vanillin.
I think some things would taste weird without vanilla, even if the specific flavor can’t be directly detected. I put a half spoonful in a cup of Stash decaf chai tea, and I can definitely taste it. (This is the only way I can tolerate decaf tea, due to the spices, and the vanilla.)
Well I’m selling the vanilla now so pm me if you want it and I’ll shoot over a paypal link.
Mine is double strength.
I agree. I have stopped putting vanilla in a lot of recipes like brownies and such where it’s supposed to be so important because I cannot even taste it. I’ve begun to question if the stuff I buy at the store has any real potency at all.
I’m in touch with my aunt about the guy and she is going to connect me to other sources in Ghana which would likely be more consistent, but he does have an actual charity and it was on an approved charity list by a global online organization, so at least he is a real person. My aunt says he’s probably just a “briefcase NGO” meaning sort of a small time business person doing work catch as catch can. I’m glad he messaged me even if I do not end up working with him as I would have never even considered importing vanilla and cocoa if he had not.
Today I did the easy thing and made up a price sheet and messaged all the folks who wanted some. Whatever happens with supply in the future, right now I have enough pods to steep several gallons of vanilla, and I already have a bunch of bottles. So I’m setting prices low and selling only the bottle size I have so I don’t end up with a bunch of bottles I don’t need. And meantime I’m working on the permitting and importing to figure out if I can make a real business out of this.
I’ve tried different kinds of vanilla – Madagascar, Mexican, Vietnamese (or was it Thai?), and now I can’t recall which kind I liked the best. But I’ve never seen Ugandan.
It’s infinite, according to the interwebs. It’s vanilla beans steeped in vodka. I keep the tea refrigerated during the steeping process just to make sure there aren’t any issues. Then I strain out the solids. The extract is, essentially, straight vodka.
I’m bottling this in small 2 oz bottles so if you purchase more than one, it means that the stuff not currently open is still sealed, which can’t hurt.
From the Amadeus Vanilla Bean site. This is where I source my beans.
What exactly is Bourbon vanilla?
A: Originating on Bourbon Island (now called Reunion Island) in the Indian Ocean off the East Coast of Africa, the process developed there for producing the best vanilla beans in the world now refers to beans grown and cured on Reunion and the nearby islands: Madagascar and the Comoros Islands.
By far the most important of these is Madagascar, which produces more than 60% of the world’s vanilla, and where these finest of vanilla beans, known as Bourbon vanilla beans come from.
We also carry the finest Bourbon-style (*) vanilla beans from Uganda - our UGANDA GOLDTM Super Premium Vanilla Beans, which are fast becoming world-famous for their superior flavor (see some of our client’s comments on our UGANDA GOLDTMbeans on our testimonials page).
(*) Recently, it has become common to confuse the term Bourbon by using it to refer to the plant-variety vanilla planifolia , which is the most common “type” of vanilla beans grown and produced around the world. The other type of vanilla commonly sold and used in recipes isTahitian vanilla, which comes from the plant-variety vanilla tahitensis , and is produced in Tahiti itself and Papua New Guinea, or “PNG”. As we have explained above, this is an incorrect usage of the term, which refers to “geography,” that is, where the beans are produced, rather than the plant variety. We have attempted to preserve the correct usage by designating the vanilla planifolia beans we offer as "Bourbon- type " vanilla beans
To make it double strength, I only have 5 more bottles available at this price. I’m using up old supply. Once that is gone, my prices will need to go up.
One of my friends used to wear it as perfume. Given how much smell affects taste, that would probably work as long as you’re within scent-range of the cook when you eat.
The issue was the bottles, but I found some at a good price, so I can do 11 more total. I think I’m probably not going to pursue this too much further unless I can do it as a cottage food thing, because the beans are just crazy expensive right now. If I have to use a commercial kitchen, it all just adds to the costs. But if I can do it at home, I can sell this for $25/bottle for regular strength. What I’m selling now is double strength.
Might be problematic, given this is an alcohol-based solution. And I don’t know about elsewhere, but in the EU, flavorings are heavily regulated by EFSA. It can be done, but there are hoops to jump through.
Right now it’s friends and family. I did a whole spreadsheet to price it all out and unless I can get vanilla at a lower price and I can do the work under the cottage laws, it’s not worth my time. The one thing that’s great about making vanilla is that the product lasts forever, and I have space to store it, so if I do a big steeping batch, and then bottle it all up, even if I can’t sell it right away, I could save it up for a Christmas market and probably sell it all then. I think there is a market. My aunt is going to talk to me this weekend. She has traveled extensively throughout the world and people that travel for her, so if she can get someone to cart home a pound or two of beans in their luggage for me, direct from a farm, I might still make it all work out. For now, get it while you can because I’m just using up beans I bought before. Right now, beans at $400/lb.
