Pure Vanilla Sticker Shock

[oneh2obabe]

CALGARY—The cost of ice cream’s biggest flavour boost is leaving one Calgary business in a bit of a sticky situation.
In the past five years, the price of pure vanilla extract has shot up, making ice cream shops and bakeries think twice about using the flavour in their treats.

Billy Friley, owner of the cool treat joint Village Ice Cream, said there may soon come a day when he’ll have to take the sweet treat off the menu completely.

“I think people understand that when a product goes up by 1,500 per cent, it can have an effect,” said Friley. “I don’t think people would think that that’s unreasonable, to take it off the menu.”

Friley said that when he opened his first Village Ice Cream location in 2012, he was paying about $50 U.S. a gallon for vanilla extract. Now, he’s paying around $550 U.S.

More here
https://www.thestar.com/calgary/2018/05 ... ating.html

[GordonH]

Worlds supply of vanilla pretty well comes from 1 area, that being Madagascar and surrounding islands. Bad crop/weather issues and prices go thru the roof, as seen now.

[oneh2obabe]

Madagascar supplies roughly 80% of vanilla beans with Mexico, Tahiti, and some smaller regions supplying the rest. While the price of Madagascar beans has skyrocketed, Tahitian beans are more expensive.

[GordonH]

Madagascar supplies roughly 80% of vanilla beans with Mexico, Tahiti, and some smaller regions supplying the rest. While the price of Madagascar beans has skyrocketed, Tahitian beans are more expensive.

Unfortunately due to weather issues that 80% of the World production, is almost nil. Which is driving price upward on the other 20%.
Apparently growing process is long and intensive, so it could be awhile before Madagascar production is back up & running.

[oneh2obabe]

Tell me about it. Running out of pure vanilla and really don't want to see what they are charging these days. Last 2 473mL bottles cost $39 each 8 months ago.

[TylerM4]

Some people bring back bottles of booze from Mexico, my wife brings Vanilla. 5 bottles last trip!

If you're going yourself or know anyone who's taking a trip, ask them to grab some for you. At least 1/3rd the price compared to buying locally.

[Bsuds]

Whenever there we get Vanilla as well. The real stuff not the artificial crap.

[WeatherWoman]

Some people bring back bottles of booze from Mexico, my wife brings Vanilla. 5 bottles last trip!

If you're going yourself or know anyone who's taking a trip, ask them to grab some for you. At least 1/3rd the price compared to buying locally.

Just be careful. I know people have been scammed by people selling low quality not real vanilla as real vanilla. Make sure if you are buying Mexican vanilla that you buy it from a reputable place.

[WeatherWoman]

Mexico: If you think that quart bottle you bought in Mexico for $1 was a great bargain, think again. (Then dump it down the drain.) Real Mexican vanilla is perhaps the best in the world, and the price of pure Mexican vanilla is similar to other pure vanilla extracts. Labeling laws in Mexico differ than those in other countries, so that jumbo bottle of “Pure Mexican Vanilla” that you bought at the tourist shop is likely a synthetic and contains coumarin, a substance banned in the United States by the FDA since there are concerns about toxicity, like tonka beans. I love pure, true Mexican extract. It’s sweet/spicy scent reminds me of just-churned vanilla ice cream and is versatile for every baking and cooking application.

[TylerM4]

Some people bring back bottles of booze from Mexico, my wife brings Vanilla. 5 bottles last trip!

Just be careful. I know people have been scammed by people selling low quality not real vanilla as real vanilla. Make sure if you are buying Mexican vanilla that you buy it from a reputable place.

Good point! We've definitely encountered fakes - luckily none we've purchased. Read the labels carefully and If the price is too good to be true it probably is! A 500ml bottle should still cost $8+

[alanjh595]

Costco has the best quality and the best price.

[oneh2obabe]

Costco used Madagascar vanilla beans in Bourbon ... not any longer. Now it's vanilla bean extractives, water and alcohol (35%) - no mention of where the beans were harvested - last bottles I bought from Costco were $39.97.

I can get a 32 oz. bottle of Nielsen-Massey Pure Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract for $149.95 or get 4 oz. bottles for $39.25 plus $12.15 shipping charges for the smaller bottles.

I can also get Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Bean Paste for $31.45.

Friends have brought me back Mexican vanilla on numerous occasions and since they aren't bakers the quality wasn't that great.

[Catsumi]

A 30 min discussion of history, growing, harvesting, social problems caused by vanilla with a vanilla purchaser-expert. Also, cooking tips, one of which surprised me, when should you be using an artificial vanilla instead of the real thing

The Current, CBC radio, today

[WeatherWoman]

what I found for the artificial stuff.

Vanillin is an organic flavor compound that’s found in vanilla beans ― it gives our favorite cakes and cookies that classic vanilla flavor. Sadly, most of the 250 taste and aroma components in vanilla are destroyed from the high heats used in baking, so we don’t even taste them. But not vanillin.

Vanillin powers through to satisfy all of our vanilla needs. And vanillin is used to make imitation vanilla. But in imitation vanilla, it’s not derived from vanilla beans, but rather it’s synthesized in a lab. And the latter is more popular than you might think. Less than one percent of the world’s vanilla flavor comes from actual vanilla orchids these days. The rest is mostly synthesized from either guaiacol (which accounts for about 85 percent of it) or lignin.

Guaiacol is a fragrant liquid obtained by distilling wood-tar creosote or guaiac (resin from the guaiacum tree). Yum.

Lignin is a class of complex polymers that give woody plants their structure. (Fun fact: Imitation vanilla derived from lignin used to be made with the pulp waste from the paper industry, though now paper companies produce less waste so this has become a smaller source.)

[oneh2obabe]

Have never used artificial vanilla and don't intend to start now. While the cost seems high for pure vanilla, you can't beat the taste.