Product Review and GIVEAWAY: Vera Cruz Vanilla

I recently received a package from Vera Cruz Vanilla.  (You might remember them from Cindy’s guest post a couple months back.) They were sending along some vanilla beans for me to try!  Having never cooked with vanilla beans before, I decided to do some research and I’d like to share with you the interesting things I found out about vanilla.  Pure vanilla is the second most expensive flavoring in the world, next to saffron.  What makes it so expensive?  The vanilla bean is produced by a species of orchid that grows wild at the edges of Mexican tropical forests.  The orchid that produces the vanilla pod in which vanilla beans are found has some pretty fussy pollination requirements, contributing to a sort of rarity.  While the orchids have been successfully transplanted to other countries, doing so has changed the pollination protocols and soil conditions in which those vanilla beans are grown, thus altering the flavor.  Only Mexican vanilla possess the distinctive, creamy flavor that people have come to call the “original” vanilla. 

That’s not the only reason Mexican vanilla is special…once the orchid plant flowers and produces the pods containing the vanilla beans, the real work begins.  At Vera Cruz Vanilla, the pods are harvested and put through a months-long process of alternately drying and sweating, whereby the pods are allowed to dry in the hot sun during the day and are then wrapped in blankets, bundled in straw mats and left to sweat throughout the night. When this painstaking process is completed, the pods have developed a frosty surface substance, called vanillin, which gives the vanilla bean their distinctive flavor and aroma. Finally, the beans are allowed to age and develop their flavor, a process that can take up to two years. 

Many people claim Mexican vanilla is the very best.  One must take great care in choosing a supplier of Mexican vanilla, however.  Some manufacturers of vanilla in Mexico have adoped the practice of adding coumarin to their products.  A “vanilla” with coumarin added is actually a synthetic vanilla (imitation vanilla), not pure vanilla at all.  Adding the coumarin, it was found, made the synthetic product taste more like the real product.  You’ll find no coumarin in Vera Cruz Vanilla.  It’s just pure, good stuff.  Furthermore, Vera Cruz vanilla grows their beans with no chemical fertilizers and uses trees to support the vines, just as nature intended.

I couldn’t write this review without mentioning one additional thing.  In my email conversations with Tracy from Vera Cruz Vanilla, I have discovered something about the company that you won’t learn from their website.  I quote an email from Tracy, “The vanilla is only part of a truly wonderful story of our families we have helped as our employees to have a better way of life with housing and education. We are about the people that work with us as much as we are about the premium vanilla we all make together.”  I hope I haven’t betrayed any confidence by including this information in my review, but I thought it was important for you to know what kind of company Vera Cruz Vanilla is. 

Vera Cruz vanilla (which is also marketed as Orlando or Reyna brands - if you’re lucky enough to buying some while vacationing in Mexico) can be found at Northern California Whole Foods stores, or you can order directly from the Vera Cruz Vanilla website.  It’s actually pleasantly affordable.  In fact, having used the product myself, I can tell you it’s a steal.  Yes, it’s much more expensive than the imitation vanilla (blach…pffffffft…ack!) you can find at any grocery store, but I’m promising you that once you’ve used Vera Cruz vanilla, you’ll never think of using that other crap stuff again!

I was so excited to use my vanilla beans, I decided to whip up a quick batch of vanilla bean panna cotta using the recipe found here.

I sprinkled mine with nutmeg because we didn’t have any fresh berries on hand.)
 

I’ve had vanilla bean ice cream before, but I wasn’t sure if the little seeds would be perceptible in the smoothness of the panna cotta.  They were delicate enough to not disrupt the smoothness at all, and they gave a very fresh, deep vanilla flavor to the dessert.  I wish I had used more than the half of a vanilla bean that was recommended.  Next time, I’ll scrape an entire bean because we loved the seeds so much!

Vera Cruz vanilla has very generously offered to provide a giveaway package for each of two lucky Domessticated readers.  Included in the giveaway package will be one bottle of Vera Cruz vanilla extract, one bottle of Vera Cruz vanilla flavoring, and one package of Vera Cruz vanilla beans. 

This giveaway constitutes a (priceless, in my opinion) $25 retail value.  To enter, leave a comment here telling me what recipe you’re most looking forward to using your real Mexican vanilla in (you don’t have to provide the entire recipe – just tell me what it is!)  The winner will be chosen at random from among all  qualified entries. Remember, if you’re a no-reply blogger, your comment has to include an email in order for me to be able to contact you! You have until Tuesday, August 23 at midnight to enter. Good luck!

 

 

We don’t sell Vanilla from all over the world; we make the best Vanilla in the world.