I've fallen in love with vanilla powder.

[catbyte]

I'm finding I'm using it more and more in recipes instead of vanilla extract. There's no sugar in it. I make my own extract and it's great, but sometimes I want vanilla flavor without the dark color or the alcohol taste in recipes like frosting or to occasionally jazz up my coffee. I'd never heard of it before I saw it when I went to buy some new beans to make more extract. I get my vanilla through a local Michigan company. They have a great variety of beans at a good price. Their vanilla is fair-trade and they have a good variety of types. They ship fast and their beans are always very fresh. I have no financial interest in this company at all; they just sell high-quality vanilla products and I've never been dissatisfied. I've purchased vanilla beans from other places that ended up being old and dried out which was so disappointing. If I'm going to pay for vanilla beans, I want to be able to use them.

If you're interested, here's a link:

https://www.beanilla.com/

[True Blue American]

1. Saved to Favorites! :'

Question, I did not see powder.

[catbyte]

2. Here's the link:

https://www.beanilla.com/vanilla-powder?nosto=frontpage-nosto-3

[True Dough]

3. I'll bet it's good and tasty

But, wow, $65 per pound!

Vanilla sure is pricey. I don't know the economics behind it because I've never bothered to research it. Just assumed that vanilla must be a relatively rare commodity because it's even more expensive than printer ink, which is costly! I've never tried using printer ink in any baking recipes, however.


I usually keep two bottles of vanilla extract around. One pure, one artificial with 10% of the authentic stuff. I choose depending on the recipe, but I don't usually notice a big difference. I'm sure the connoisseurs do.

But maybe I'll order some vanilla powder...

[catbyte]

6. Vanilla is expensive because it is very labor-intensive and can only be commercially grown

in tropical climates. A woman was busted for embezzling almost $140,000 worth of them from Beanilla back in 2018. She got off easy, being sentenced to a year in jail, 5 years probation, and ordered to pay restitution after pleading guilty.

https://www.woodtv.com/news/kent-county/woman-accused-of-embezzling-139k-in-vanilla-beans/1220376883/

Here's a good article about why vanilla is so expensive:

https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2017/01/11/why-vanilla-beans-are-so-insanely-expensive-and-are-they-worth-it

[TreasonousBastard]

8. I remember reading about the Madagascar problems, but didn't realize it was...

so labor intensive.

Around here, local farmers refuse to grow some things because it's an extra two weeks growing. More scarce labor just makes it worse.

[True Dough]

10. At least the beans are good for four years of storage

A decent hedge against even higher prices in the future.

Thanks for the links!

[MLAA]

4. Cool, I will order some 🙂

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Saw vanilla paste there, too. Sounds interesting.

[catbyte]

7. I've used that, too and it's good, but now I prefer the powder. The paste is nice because

it includes the seeds so if you like the look of Breyer's vanilla ice cream, you'll like the paste.

[Jirel]

11. Try it!

The vanilla bean paste is my go-to. I ditched extracts for it years ago. Nothing beats the taste or ease of use. Fabulous in anything, including coffee and cocoa.

[Alice Kramden]

9. I love vanilla

Thank you for this