• Page 1: Introduction
• Page 2: Types Of Vanilla Products
• Page 3: How To Buy Vanilla
• Page 4: The Best Vanilla Extract
  & Vanilla Beans
• Page 5: Taste Test ~ Vanilla Extract
  Tasting Chart & Notes

• Page 6: Taste Test ~ Vanilla Bean
  Tasting Chart & Notes
• Page 7: Shortbread Cookie Recipe
• Page 8: Panna Cotta Recipe
• Page 9: Resources & Best
  Book About Vanilla

The seed pod or fruit of the vanilla orchid. Botanically, it is incorrect to call it a bean; it is a pod. Only two species are used for culinary purposes. The pods, or beans, are tasteless and odorless until they are boiled, cured, dried and rested.  The vanilla bean is used directly in recipes—scalded in milk, cream or other liquid to provide vanilla flavor to ice cream, custard and other products. Beans look and taste slightly different, depending on where they are grown and how they are cured. From left to right, these beans are from Papua New Guinea, French Polynesia and Madagascar, respectively.

A concentrated substitute for vanilla extract in paste form, made from combining ground vanilla with vanilla extract, along with a natural thickening agent (a gum); some products contain sugar. Unlike vanilla extract, vanilla paste contains the seeds that provide “speck” to the appearance of the dish. It is a replacement for whole vanilla beans for people who want authentic vanilla bean flavor and appearance, but don’t use whole beans often enough (whole vanilla beans will dry out and become hard over time, while vanilla bean paste has a very long shelf life). One tablespoon of vanilla bean paste is equal to one whole vanilla bean.

Vanilla means “little pod” in Spanish. The pod, also (incorrectly, from a botanical point of view) called the bean, is the edible fruit of the vanilla orchid. As you can see in the photo at right, it resembles a long green bean, which is why the term “bean” persists. Most of the fragrance of the pod, which emerges when the pod is cured, resides in the seeds and the oily liquid surrounding the seeds. The pod contains about 2% vanillin (which provides the aroma), 25% sugars, 15% fat, 15% to 30% cellulose, 6% minerals and 35% water.

Vanilla Pompona or V. Pompona

A third variety of bean, Vanilla pompona, originated in the West Indies and also grows Central and South America, but is not of top culinary quality. It is said to have a cherry-like aroma and is used primarily in perfume and non-food applications. Instead of looking like green beans, the pods look like miniature, four-inch-long bananas.

Vanilla Orchid

A climbing orchid from the family Orichidaceae. When the fruit (pod) is cured, it is edible; among the 20,000 different species of orchids, only the Vanilla species bears an edible fruit. There are more than 50 species of vanilla orchid, but only three produce fruit that can be used commercially: Vanilla planifolia, Vanilla Pompona and Vanilla tahitensis. When growing wild, the thick green orchid vine of the orchid will climb up the tree trunks in the jungle. When grown commercially, however, they are pruned back—both to enable workers to pollinate and harvest them, and because the vines will not flower until they stop growing. The pollinated flower produces large green vanilla pods (called “beans”) that take about six months to reach maturity; then they are harvested and cured. See Vanilla planifolia.