Is the Vanilla You’re Eating Real?

[longknife]

According to this interesting article, less than 1% of the vanilla flavoring comes from real beans!

As of 2016, a pund of Madagascar vanilla beans was $193 a pound.

So villagers spend day and night guarding against thieves trying to steal their crops.

The robberies are often violent. There have been dozens of murders in Madagascar linked to vanilla. Several communities have tried and failed to get protection from armed police.

Some have taken the law into their own hands. Villagers say in a nearby village, a machete-wielding crowd descended on five suspected gangsters - hacking and stabbing them to death.

The killings have yet to be solved by the police. Locals say there is no will or capacity in the police forces to investigate the vanilla thefts - or the mob justice that sometimes follows.

Much more with lots and lots of pictures @ Fighting the vanilla thieves of Madagascar - BBC News

 

[strollingbones]

mine is cause i order the beans and buy the cheap vodka and make my own....

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Shit aint cheap thats for sure.
The ones I get are around $60 bucks for ten beans.

 

[strollingbones]

last forever you just keep topping it off with vodka....it does take about a year for the infusion to be complete

 

[strollingbones]

i get mine off ebay....and no its not cheap but the real thing never is....now is it?

 

[strollingbones]

in all fairness....i order in bulk for price and then make it as gifts....when my tow guys wife broke her bottle...she made him call and ask me for another one.....they know these bottles dont come easy or cheap...and she is the only one ever to get two....now another friend claims that after a while we need to toss and redo the bottle...she doesnt think the beans stay to infuse for that long...you can add to it ...even then its better than the crap that is overpriced in the stores....real vanilla is made with alcohol...mexican vanilla is good

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

I like making vanilla sugar for my coffee.
It also works great for home made vanilla ice cream along with the bean seeds.

 

[strollingbones]

vanilla sugar is easy but again takes some time...
i love fresh vanilla

 

[waltky]

Mebbe it's chocolate in disguise.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I use real vanilla beans to make my Vanilla Porter. The reason I don't make it often is the cost of the beans.
I will use 3-4 beans, remove the "meat" and soak that and the bean "skins" in Vodka in the fridge for several weeks. Then add that to the fermentor after the yeast have done their thing for an additional 4-6 weeks.
And it comes out amazing.

 

[Dekster]

mine is cause i order the beans and buy the cheap vodka and make my own....

A co-worker used to make me go buy her the cheap vodka so she could do that. She didn't want to be seen going into the package store being a fine upright church lady and all, but her mom had some condition in her gut to where she couldn't have anything with anything, including the gluten in the caramel coloring.