Vanilla Bean Whole - 4 oz - Organic, Mountain Rose Herbs

Description

Impressed, he took sacks of vanilla beans back to Europe with him along with the gold and gems of the defeated Aztec empire. Even so, the bulk of the world's supply of vanilla is provided by only a handful of countries (primarily Madagascar, Mexico and Tahiti). The spent pods can even be used to make homemade vanilla extract and vanilla sugar. Our organic vanilla beans are transcendent in dessert recipes such as homemade ice cream, shortbread, and cakes. After harvest, the pods go through an elaborate process of being killed, sweated, dried, and conditioned in order to maximize the flavor and fragrance. In the wild, vanilla vines (which attach themselves to living trees) may grow to a length of 80 feet or more. Even after the plants have produced their pods, they must be checked daily so that each pod is harvested at just the right time. Although whole vanilla beans have become one of the world’s most expensive spices, they can be worth the splurge for their complexity of flavor. Vanilla may easily be one of the most well-known flavors in the world. The flavor is derived from the ripened fruit of a tropical orchid, Vanilla planifolia, the only orchid in the world that produces an edible fruit. For the next few hundred years, attempts to cultivate the vanilla orchid outside Mexico and Central America proved futile, until a 12-year-old French slave discovered how to hand-pollinate the plant in 1841.

Key Features

• Vanilla Bean Whole - 4 oz - Organic - Vanilla planifolia is a tropical orchid with an exquisite, edible fruit, the vanilla bean.
• Although whole vanilla beans have become one of the world’s most expensive spices, they can be worth the splurge for their complexity of flavor.
• In the wild, vanilla vines (which attach themselves to living trees) may grow to a length of 80 feet or more.
• The spent pods can even be used to make homemade vanilla extract and vanilla sugar.
• Our organic vanilla beans are transcendent in dessert recipes such as homemade ice cream, shortbread, and cakes.
• Vanilla may easily be one of the most well-known flavors in the world.