10 Organic Madagascar Whole Vanilla Beans, Grade A Pods, Premium Vanilla Beans for Making Extract & Baking - Cook’s

I don't have that much experience cooking with Vanilla beans. I usually use Vanilla extract. The recipe called for beans. The beans seemed to be very high quality with good aroma. They appeared to be fresh. I had one spice company jar with a single bean in it. That bean was rather dry and brittle. The new beans were much more flexible. Either they are naturally oily, or they packed in a light oil. They cooked up very well in a Creme Brule. I liked the taste of the beans compared to extract.

very good price, and the beans are so moist and supple, the air smells wonderful when you open the vacuumed sealed package.

I wanted to give it a while before reviewing to make sure my extract had time to develop. That way, I feel I can provide feedback that was more complete than just saying that the caviar tasted great (which, it did).Now that it's been a couple of months, I think I can say that without a doubt, these beans are great no matter how you use them. They arrived vacuum sealed; all air had been evacuated to prevent oxidation of the vanillin and other components that make up a vanilla pod. Even before breaking the seal, the smell of vanilla was very strong. I opened the package and was immediately surrounded by that distinct aroma of fine Madagascar vanilla. I threw the bundles on my scale and was pleased to find that I had received a slight excess of the 16 ounces ordered.These were predominantly long pods Very few of the little 4-5" baby pods and lots of the 7-8" ones. They were plump and you could tell they were appropriately dried to the correct amount of moisture. We immediately sliced one down the middle and ran a knife edge across the flattened pod to scrape off the caviar, of which there was plenty.Crème brulee was the ultimate test and no one was disappointed. There's nothing like being able to tell your guest that you used actual vanilla pods in your recipe instead of store bought extract. It works wonderfully in vanilla ice cream as well.Just be sure to save the pods for making your own extract. In my case, I wanted 2x vanilla extract. So into 3.5 liters of inexpensive grain neutral spirits (cheap vodka) we added the partially scraped pods, all 16 ounces of them. This was placed in a cool dark spot to age. We will of course allow it to age longer but so far, after 2 months, the extract is fantastic. The color is rich, the aroma is heavenly, and the taste, even early, is already beyond any store bough extract I've ever had. Knowing that it can only get better is an added benefit.I could go on but for now, Ill leave it at... yes, we are satisfied. I might be easy to please but I'm also fairly critical and tend to write detailed reviews when I am very happy or very unhappy. You wont go wrong here if you order the full pound of pods. I cant speak for ordering by the bean...

These are the best vanilla beans, high quality, excellent packaging, great flavor. Use them frequently for backing and ice cream

These came in really handy for the extract that I needed to make. They SMELL WONDERFUL coming out of the packaging, no mold and not dry. Cut slices into them and add to alcohol of choice to make vanilla extract and that's it! Takes a year to "cure" but well worth the wait!

These smell amazing. No mold. They were oily which was expected. This is my first experience with vanilla beans and I’ll be buying more of these. They are great quality and dark rich color. Only moisture was the oil I am using these to make vanilla extract for the holidays. Will update when it’s done! Only issue was the trimming and slicking. These were not very plump but again my first experience and I look forward to buying again

Excellent vanilla beans! They were soft, oily, scented and packaged to perfection!

Very good! Very aromatic and moist! Even though these were shrink wrapped the wonderful smell of vanilla came through. Would definitely order again.