Organic Tahitian Variety Grade A Vanilla Beans

Vanilla is the only orchid flower in the world that produces an edible fruit; it is very labor intensive to cultivate and produce in large amounts, which is why it is normally so expensive! Vanilla keeps indefinatley and actually gets better with age, a lot like wine. It does not require refrigeration. The vanilla bean is 6-7 inches long and contains roughly 60,000 small and edible black seeds, raw, sun cured and grown in Papua New Guinea.

How To Use Whole Organic Vanilla Beans

Do not refrigerate whole vanilla beans. Like wine, they will get better with age and keep for a very long time if stored properly, even though they are always freshest when used right away.

1. Split the bean in half with a knife or peel it open. Scrape all the seeds out into a dessert, smoothie, or any other dish that would taste good with vanilla. One bean is usually adequate to flavor one dish. This is one of the easiest and most popular ways to use vanilla.

2. Grind the whole bean in a coffee grinder, blender, or spice grinder to make vanilla powder. Since the husk of vanilla beans are very rough and fibrous, it’s important to make sure you powder the bean fine using this method. Then use the powder to flavor things.

3. You can make vanilla tea by soaking whole vanilla beans in water for several days until it rehydrates and puffs up to it’s original fresh size (the water turns tan). It is a very cooling beverage to drink in the summer. Refrigerate vanilla, if keeping this water for a long time.

4. Also make vanilla tea by grinding the whole bean into a rough powder that can be boiled and strained in a tea bag. Or scrape vanilla seeds into tea and shake it in a container to add vanilla flavor.

5. Make your own body care products, essential oils, etc. Vanilla is said to be an emotional tonic when used here.

6. You can make an alcohol extract using an alcohol like vodka, or preferably an organic grain alcohol. It is best to use glass bottles for this rather than plastic. Alcohol extracts are usually regulated to be at least 35% alcohol, but I imagine any ratio would work. Alcohol extracts are usually made with Grade B beans.

7. If you have a strong blender such as a vitamix or a k-tec blender, you can blend half of a whole vanilla bean right into smoothies, ice creams, or desserts. Most blenders are not strong enough to grind a fibrous vanilla bean into an edible form, which is why a coffee grinder works great if you want to make use of the husk of the bean on top of the seeds.