Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) About Our Vanilla

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Q: Which beans are right for me?

A: The first and most important question back to you is: “What do you intend to use your vanilla beans for?”

If you are planning to use them in your own or “cookbook” recipes for home cooking or baking, you are going to want to buy one or more types of our fabulous “gourmet”-grade vanilla beans. Gourmet grade, or “prime,” vanilla beans are the highest quality beans used in their recipes by discriminating (and often finicky!) cooks, pastry chefs, master chefs and bakers, and will be best for daily use in your home kitchen. These beans are moist and plump due to their higher moisture content (we specify 30% - 35% to our sources), so you will be able to split them open with a sharp knife and, depending on the recipe, scrape out the oily seeds inside (sometimes called “caviar”), and use them as called for in the instructions. Gourmet beans are also expected to be cosmetically pleasing with no blemishes, and have excellent lengths compared to their less glamorous “extract-grade” cousins. The longer beans we carry compared to many of our online competitors should tend to have a slightly stronger and/or deeper flavor, since they have been on the vine a bit longer. You may get a few more beans per pound for shorter beans, but you also may have to use more beans per recipe to get the same, desirable vanilla flavor.

Using real vanilla beans in a recipe is a delight and a luxury! We pride ourselves in meeting our customers’ most demanding expectations, by specifying to our sources that the gourmet beans shipped to us meet strict quality specifications for pleasing appearance, moisture content and with lengths in the longer ranges, with 16 cm. as a minimum. You can pay less for more inferior, short, dried-up beans, but why waste your money?! When you open up your package containing Amadeus’ superior-quality, gourmet vanilla beans, we want to bring an instant smile to your face and have you say, "Wow!"

For making homemade vanilla extract (or for flavoring any other type of brewed or distilled liquid spirits), you would do better to get one or more varieties of our “extract”-grade vanilla beans (oftentimes on many websites erroneously referred to as “Grade B” beans). These beans have no less stringent specifications than prime grade beans; they may just not be as cosmetically “nice looking” as gourmet-grade beans. That really doesn't matter, since you are only going to put them in alcohol (i.e., vodka, or other liquid base) to extract out the flavor in them. The major advantage of using extract-grade beans is that they also have a lower moisture content than gourmet-grade beans (our “Euro-TK” vanilla beans are around 25% moisture, and we specify from 12% - 20% maximum moisture for our standard extract-grade beans). The lower moisture content literally means only that they have less water in them -- which has nothing to do with the organic flavor components you care about in the beans. In fact, like the difference between “fresh” and “dried” fruit (fresh apricots vs. dried apricots, for example), the flavor in the drier extract-grade vanilla beans is actually more concentrated! As importantly, and also due to the significantly lower moisture content and that they tend to have shorter lengths, extract-grade beans weigh less, so you will get many more beans per lb. - perhaps close to twice as many. Since extract beans are usually also less expensive per lb., you get a far better bargain for your money using extract beans for this purpose than gourmet-grade beans.

For more detailed information about the different varieties of vanilla beans we offer from different origins, click this link. Due to subtle differences in flavor among vanilla planifolia beans from different origins, we suggest you try a few of each type and see which variety you prefer!

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Q: I just received my vanilla beans, and they don't smell like “vanilla” at all. In fact, they have kind of a musty smell that isn't very pleasant. Is there something wrong with them?

A: Ironically, vanilla beans in their natural state don't actually have what most people think of as a “vanilla” scent (i.e., like what vanilla ice cream or a vanilla candle smells like). With some gourmet- or prime-grade beans, some people actually experience an odor like a pungent “alcohol” or acrid chemical-like smell coming from raw vanilla beans.

Extract-grade beans may even, in fact, have little or no aroma. That is because what we call an “odor“ (usually associated with an unpleasant smell) or “aroma” (usually associated with a pleasant smell) is carried into the olfactory senses in our nose on water vapor. Because extract-grade beans are so dry, they may emanate very little water vapor to carry their aroma or create much of a “scent” at all.

The fact is that the pleasant aroma we identify with vanilla only comes out when you actually use vanilla beans by cooking or baking with them - or putting them in some hot liquid like coffee or tea, for example. Or, in the case of extract-grade vanilla beans, using them to make vanilla extract. [But don't be misled by trying to judge the quality of vanilla extract by smelling or tasting it straight out of the bottle, either! Click here for our FAQ on that subject.]

If you were to bite into a vanilla bean, you would be even more disappointed, as the taste of a properly cured/dried vanilla bean is also quite unpleasant! We like to compare vanilla to a spice like cinnamon, which smelled or tasted by itself is quite strong and unpleasant, but mixed in with some sugar and put onto toast or a pastry creates the most delicious, aromatic taste treat!!

So the short answer to your question is, “No, there is absolutely nothing wrong with your beans if they don't have a ‘vanilla’ aroma when you smell them after taking them out of the package.”

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Q: How should I store my gourmet vanilla beans?

A: Vanilla beans should be stored in a closed, but not air-tight, container in a cool, dry, relatively dark place. Do not store vanilla beans in the refrigerator or freezer! (The cold will dry them out and may promote a particular type of vanilla mold.) The important thing is that the temperature be relatively constant and that air circulate a bit. We also do not recommend vacuum-packing, as that can result in the beans' getting somewhat phenolic, leading to a highly unpleasant, acrid smell.

We have recently been recommending that the "best practice" is to store your beans wrapped in wax paper, and kept in your food pantry in a closed, but unsealed, cardboard box (such as the mailing box they arrived to you in).

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Q: How long will gourmet vanilla beans remain fresh?

A: Stored properly, gourmet beans should remain moist and easy to work with for at least six months, many times quite a bit longer. If the beans do dry out a bit, you can place a half of a small potato in a jar with them to soften them for use. You can also soften them a bit by placing them in some warm water or milk just before use.

Our Extract Grade vanilla beans (and Pure Ground Vanilla Powder made from them) should have essentially an indefinite shelf life. The reason is that the flavor components in vanilla beans do not degrade significantly over time; the beans will just get drier as the moisture in them (which is just water, and has nothing to do with the “flavor” in vanilla beans) evaporates. So while at some point your gourmet beans may be a bit too dry to slice open and use in the kitchen, you can always use them for making vanilla extract or vanilla sugar. [Click the following links for our recipes for making your own, homemade vanilla extract or vanilla sugar]. Since our extraction-grade vanilla beans are already fairly dry, they should remain “potent” for a relatively long period of time. In fact, even after vanilla beans have been used for extract, they can often be used again, with some added, fresh beans, to make some more extract in a second “extraction.”

With all that being said, in the past couple of years—for a variety of factors, most of which are related to the extreme shortage of supply in the vanilla markets and the resultant extreme increase in the price of vanilla—we have seen highly shoddy growing and curing/drying methods (sometimes the beans are even picked by the farmers “too green” simply to prevent them from being stolen right off their vines!). This, in turn, has led to a serious, negative impact in the quality of beans we have been seeing, including their shelf life.

These shoddy practices have also led to a dramatic increase in the instances of mold formation on the beans. The mold many times isn't even visible for quite some time, and doesn't “bloom” until after we have shipped it to our customers. If you start seeing evidence of mold on your vanilla beans please refer to the FAQ below.

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Q: What about vanilla extract? How should I store it, and how long does that stay fresh?

A: Vanilla extract is actually like fine red wine, it gets better with age! So you can keep vanilla extract essentially indefinitely. Again, we suggest you keep it in a cool, dry, relatively dark place; like any other flavor product, the flavor will degrade if exposed to extreme or variant temperatures, moisture or direct sunlight. Remember pure vanilla extract is 35% alcohol (by FDA regulation), so treat it as you would a fine liqueur!

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Q: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 GOLD^TM Super Premium Vanilla Beans, which are fast becoming world-famous for their superior flavor (see some of our client's comments on our UGANDA GOLD^TM beans 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 plant species of vanilla beans grown and produced around the world. The other type of vanilla commonly sold and used in recipes is Tahitian 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/species. We have attempted to preserve the correct usage by designating the vanilla planifolia beans we offer as “Bourbon-type” vanilla beans when their origin is not Madagascar or the Comores.

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Q: How does Bourbon vanilla differ from Tahitian vanilla?

A: Bourbon vanilla beans come from the fruit of an orchid plant of the variety, vanilla planifolia, and are rich in the chemical compound vanillin, which, along with more than a hundred other organic compounds, contributes to its unique flavor profile. It's the flavor most associated with vanilla, that is used in ice creams and vanilla desserts.

Tahitian vanilla beans actually come from a completely different orchid plant variety, called vanilla tahitensis, which has very little vanillin content but is high in certain “anisyl” compounds, which impart a more fruity or floral flavor to food. Many pastry chefs like to use Tahitian vanilla in recipes such as fruit tarts because of its lively, exotic flavor.

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Q: What does it mean when a website simply says its vanilla beans are “organic” or “grown organically,” but doesn’t say they are “certified organic” or display the logo of an organic certification organization on their site?

A: As it happens, vanilla beans are “functionally” organic, in that they are grown, cultivated, harvested, cured and dried organically. In the first place, because vanilla beans have no natural pest enemies, pesticides are not necessary during the growing season. And because vanilla beans grow on an orchid vine in a jungle environment, chemical fertilizers are also unnecessary—not to mention that they are generally too expensive for the average third-world vanilla farmer to afford.

Moreover, the curing and drying process involves, first, boiling the harvested green beans in water, and then exposing them to a months-long regimen of drying in the sun during the day and nightly “sweating“ in blankets on racks set up in a dark, sealed warehouse. ^† These are obviously “natural” processes, involving no chemicals or any additional substances of any kind that might affect the “organic”” nature of the beans.

With all that being said, in order to protect the integrity of the term “organic,” the U.S. Federal Government adopted the “National Organic Program (NOP)” ^†† to set up accreditation and certification requirements, along with rigid, uniform standards for determining whether a product is eligible to be labeled as “certified organic.” This is a rigorous process, which requires every company that is a link in the product chain to prepare and maintain substantial documentation and undergo an annual inspection by an independent certification organization, in addition to paying a not-insubstantial annual certification fee. Since then, in the U.S., Canada and virtually all other international countries under their own versions of that law, a company is not allowed to market or sell a product as organic, or for that matter even use the term “organic,” unless the product and the company itself are fully “certified organic.”

So if you see a seller making a claim that their beans are organic or “grown organically,” but not specifying that their beans are certified organic and showing the logo of the NOP or a third-party certification organization, they may well be in violation of the law. They would also doing this to the disadvantage of legitimately-certified companies that have gone through the laborious certification process and paid their annual fee. Unfortunately, this illegal practice has become all-too-common on the web, where there is little policing done for product claims, even on large, established e-commerce portals.

^† The labor-intensive nature of these efforts is one of the biggest reasons for the high cost of vanilla!
(See: Vanilla Facts)
^†† Prior to adoption of the NOP in 2000, the “organic” label was being used on products in the U.S. that may or may not have conformed to then-international standards concerning organic agricultural products (promulgated by an international organization called IFOAM). For that reason, like the term “natural” in common vogue, at that time the label “organic” conveyed no useful information and was therefore essentially “meaningless,” except as a marketing tool to unaware buyers. The NOP was adopted to establish uniform standards for use of the label “organic” in the U.S., along with an accreditation mechanism for third-party NGOs who, in turn, assure conformity to the IFOAM standards.

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Q: What is single fold vanilla extract vs. double fold vanilla extract?

A: The vanilla extract that can be bought on the supermarket shelf is called single fold extract. The government (through the FDA) actually regulates the amount of vanilla beans that must be used in order for a product to be labeled as Pure Vanilla Extract.

In the case of single fold vanilla extract, it's a little more than 3/4 pound of vanilla beans per gallon of alcohol - that's right, vanilla extract is 35% alcohol, or 70 proof!

Double fold vanilla extract, used more by commercial bakeries, contains double the amount of vanilla beans per gallon of alcohol. It is more expensive, but you get more vanilla flavor for the amount used.

Click: Pure Vanilla Extracts for a further description of Amadeus' exclusive, private-label Certified Organic Pure Vanilla Extracts.

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Q: What is the best way to test or compare the quality of vanilla extracts?

A: When testing or comparing the flavor of vanilla extracts, it is highly deceiving if you try to smell or taste it right out of the bottle. You'll get a strong odor and taste associated with the alcohol, which overwhelms your olfactory senses and taste buds. Test it by putting a dash in a few ounces of whole (homogenized) milk or a few drops on a sugar cube. You will immediately experience the difference betweeen good extract and, for example, artificial vanilla extract.

If you want to compare two types of vanilla extract, do a “blind taste test“ by having a friend or assistant put a dash or a few drops of each one in milk or on a sugar cube, as described above, but don't let you know which is which. [Of course, they should have some way of labeling or otherwise identifying them to know!] Different people have different tastes, just like with fine red wine: one person may prefer the flavor of vanilla extract made with our our more traditional Madagascar “Red Split“ Extract vanilla beans, or others may prefer the subtle flavor notes of our Ugandan “European TK” extract beans, while still another may prefer the taste of extract made with our Premium Indonesia Grade B extract beans.

Remember also that a prudent amount of vanilla extract adds flavor and a minimal amount of color to a dish, but too much may impart a bitter, unpleasant taste (which is again associated with the alcohol base). “Use sparingly for best results!”

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Q: How much pure ground vanilla should I use in my recipe?

A: First, it is important to remember a teaspoon of ground vanilla is a "dry" measure, whereas a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract is a "liquid" measure. So there is already not an exact equivalence between the two.

We have received anectodal information over the years that folks who are using ground vanilla in recipes calling for a certain liquid measure amount (say, ¼ or ½ tsp.) of pure vanilla extract find they get the same effect from a roughly equivalent amount of ground vanilla. But we believe that is just useful as a "rule of thumb," because the amount of vanilla flavor imparted to a recipe by ground vanilla will vary based on what other food and spice ingredients are included in it, and what type of baking/cooking (method and time) is involved - or if the recipe doesn't call for heating at all (for "raw food" advocates).

Remember also, Amadeus' pure ground vanilla is a very high quality product, made from only Grade 1 extraction-grade beans, so it has a lot of flavor in it. Most ground vanilla on the market is made from leftover or damaged beans that could not be sold as whole beans -- either "gourmet" or extraction-grade -- and so can be very low in flavor components such as vanillin, the principal flavor component that gives most vanilla its characteristic flavor. (Click here for more information on our pure ground vanilla.)

We recommend you experiment a bit and satisfy your own taste, and then keep a record for future use. If you have any anecdotes to share with us on your use of our pure ground vanilla, please contact us!

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Q. What is that white substance that I see on the tips or surface of the beans - is that mold?

A. Unfortunately, it might be mold, but do not throw your beans away - they are still good!

While vanilla beans historically have rarely been susceptible to mold issues, we regret to report we have recently been experiencing some instances of mold appearing on our gourmet vanilla beans and even sometimes on our extract-grade beans. From the best information we can gather from long-time colleagues in the vanilla business, this is most likely due to over-pollination of the vanilla vines in the field, thus weakening the root stock, and making the beans more susceptible to infestation. The growers and collectors have also apparently been picking the beans too soon and not curing/drying them properly, which can also promote mold growth.

Needless to say, we do our best to put all the vanilla beans we receive through a Quality Assurance inspection, and will not ship any beans before visually examining them. It does happen, however, in spite of our best efforts, that the mold doesn’t appear until the beans get into the hands of a customer, sometimes within just a few days, and sometimes as much as a few weeks or months later -- and even if they are stored in ideal conditions.

Here is the best information we have gathered from reliable sources regarding the white vanilla mold we have been seeing recently:

• The mold just grows on the outside of the beans and doesn't really affect the beans themselves.
• The mold comes from the source country - it does NOT develop just from the surrounding air, as bread or cheese mold does.
• Also, unlike bread or cheese mold, it does NOT make the vanilla beans stale or unusable.
• To the best of our knowledge, this mold is not harmful (we have not even heard of any allergic reactions to vanilla mold, and in fact the mold may be actually related to the same mold that is used to make penicillin!) and it does not affect the flavor of the beans.
• First and most importantly, separate any beans showing any evidence of mold from the rest of your “good” vanilla beans. You may want to put your good beans in a new package or container, in case mold spores have attached themselves to the surface of the original package/container.
• Next, remove as much of the visible mold as possible by wiping the beans off with a terry cloth (like a kitchen or “gym” towel) -- preferably moistened in vodka (which is essentially "drinking alcohol"); alcohol will help clean the beans and kill the mold.
• You can also spread them out on a drying rack (like an oven rack) in a sunny window (or, better yet, outside in direct sunlight) for a couple of hours after wiping off the excess mold.
• Sunlight and heat will kill the mold and also absorb any excess moisture in the beans that the mold seems to proliferate in.
• If you are using the beans to make home made extract, this is perfect, since you are putting the beans in the vodka itself (i.e., alcohol) that will get rid of the mold at the same time.
• Since heat also kills mold (like the sunlight treatment we recommend), using the beans in a recipe for cooking or baking, after wiping off the excess, will also do the trick.
• Click here for our other recommendations for storing your vanilla beans.

One last comment: the white substance that appears on beans is not always mold. Sometimes, due to temperature and humidity conditions, or how the beans are stored, the vanillin in the beans (vanillin being the principal flavor component in vanilla beans that gives them their characteristic vanilla flavor) will actually crystalize out to the surface of the beans. You can see this in the picture of vanilla beans we have at the top of our website: see the white spots and lines on the beans on the far right side of the picture? This is a good thing—it shows the high quality of the vanilla beans that they have such a high vanillin content! So if the white substance appears more “crystalline,” than “fuzzy,” or “spongy,” it is probably just vanillin, and the beans are just fine. If you warm the beans up a bit, the vanillin will usually melt back into the beans. But you can use them just as they are, as well.

If your beans do go moldy within a short time after your purchase, please contact us to let us know, and, if you wish, we will process an exchange or refund. [We cannot guarantee the freshness of your beans past a reasonable amount of time, however, so no claims will be accepted more than 30 days after purchase, or if your beans show any evidence of prior use, alteration or adulteration.]

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THREE FAQ's About Our Extract Grade Vanilla Beans (for Making Homemade Extract)

Q1. I just got my order of Extract Vanilla Beans from you and they are all dried out, shriveled and kind of brittle. They look terrible - not anything like vanilla beans I've gotten from the store or online. Is that the way they are supposed to be?

A. Other vendors often sell less-than-nice "gourmet-grade" beans as "extract-grade" beans – when they have dried out to the point they can't really sell them as the best-quality gourmet- (or “prime”-) grade vanilla beans any more. They often call them “Grade B” beans on many of the websites we have seen recently, which is why we just started using the same term to avoid confusion.

The top-quality extract vanilla beans we sell are “true” extraction-grade beans – that is, they have been cured and dried specifically for making pure vanilla extract.

So the “short” answer to your question is, “Yes, the way you got them is exactly how they are supposed to be!” [Click here to read the description we give on their specific page on our site.]
Click on the photo at right to enlarge; click the "x" in the upper right-hand corner to close.

Q2. Okay, maybe so – but I got a bunch of pieces of beans – and not that many “whole” beans with my order. Is that normal?

A. For any particular order, it is certainly possible you will get more “pieces” than whole beans. Because the beans are sometimes quite brittle (due to how dry they are), they may have broken into pieces during the shipment from the source country to us, or when we packed and/or shipped them to you.

The important point is, that what they do not lose when they break into pieces is their flavor! That is created by the flavor components in the beans, which are chemical compounds that "extract out" into the alcohol when they are used to make vanilla extract. That's why these beans are great for making homemade vanilla extract—not what they “look like” or how much water is in them (which makes them look better and gives that “oily” sheen to the surface of gourmet-grade beans). The longer beans or pieces will actually degrade in the same way as shorter pieces during the extraction process, so you would find little difference there, either.

In fact, when we do a commercial extraction, we actually chop up the beans into smaller pieces before we begin the process – it's like “small ice cubes” vs. “large ice cubes” – the extraction process actually goes faster with the smaller pieces. So that's actually somewhat of an advantage of your getting the smaller pieces than larger ones!!

Q3. But these are so dry I won’t be able to split them open and scrape out the “caviar” inside. How am I supposed to follow the recipe I’ve gotten off the internet (or out of my favorite cookbook) for making home made vanilla extract?

A. Splitting these beans open and scraping the insides is actually not necessary (or even desirable) when you are using extract-grade beans to make homemade vanilla extract. You may want to refer to our recipe for making homemade vanilla extract, which you can get to by clicking here.

As you can see, you merely need to place the beans in with the vodka “just as they are” and the flavor will extract out of them just fine! In fact, as I indicated above, the extraction will actually go faster with smaller pieces.

As for the caviar—you really only get that in “gourmet-grade” beans. It is just a mixture of the seeds inside the pod with the moisture (which is just water) from the bean, mixed with the other flavor/chemical compounds inside the bean. Because there is very little moisture (i.e., water) left in these beans, the seeds are dried into the pod (just like with raisins vs. grapes). If you only used the scraped-out insides of the beans to make your extract, you would be wasting all the flavor that is contained in the outside pod, of which there is plenty!

We hope this additional information helps. We can virtually guarantee that if you will put aside your disappointment at what any of our really great extract-grade vanilla beans “look like” and use them in your vodka to make vanilla extract with them, you are going to be very pleased with the result (just as our other customers have been who write us all the time – you can read what they have to say on our testimonials page).

With all that being said, if you are not happy with the beans you received, please feel free to return them. We can exchange the extract-grade beans for nicer looking gourmet-grade beans, or if you prefer a refund, we can arrange that, too. We want EVERY ONE of our customers to be happy with the vanilla you buy from us! So if you want to exercise either of those options, please contact us by telephone at our office (our contact information is at the bottom of this page) or click here and fill out the Contact Request form. We will do our best to accommodate you.

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