A curveball appears here on our adventure into beans as I turn to the mighty, the aromatic, and the expensive vanilla bean. This bean has a special place in our diet as for nearly a dozen years now we’ve been using our own homebrewed vanilla extract. Back in 2009, September 20th to be exact, I chopped up a bunch of rather dry vanilla beans and divided them between two 750ml bottles of vodka, and then set them to the side. I opened the first bottle after about 6 months and we started using it. It took us years to use it all. The second bottle was opened earlier this year after aging for more than 10 years; we are using that now. This aged vanilla is so amazing that I couldn’t imagine ever running out of it so it was time to make more.

Luck was on our side because the people behind Vodka 360 are still using the same type of bottle. This particular bottle was key for me as its old-fashioned, swing-top porcelain closure offers a great solution for using the same cap on the bottle for years. I found one store about a dozen miles away that had limited stock on hand; two bottles were soon on their way home with me. Next up I needed to find some Grade B Madagascar vanilla beans. From the Slo Food Group available on Amazon I picked up 25 whole vanilla beans for $62. I couldn’t remember what I paid back in 2009, but this felt expensive, nor do I remember exactly how many beans I’d purchased, so 25 beans for two 750ml bottles appeared to be enough.

I say “enough”, but that’s for a single-fold vanilla extract, not a double-fold. So on Sunday as Caroline and I cut and split the beans before dropping them into their 80-proof homes for the next decade, I was already thinking I should have ordered more beans. And that’s just what I did. Those vanilla beans arrived this afternoon and before they had the chance to cool off from being the back of the UPS truck, they were being cut and split so I could double up on the beans in our bottles. I knew the beans were oily as after opening the clear vacuum-packed container there’s a brownish residue on the plastic; be sure to smell this bag as it is incredible. As I was mid-cut I started wondering just what the beans in the pods looked like so I tried getting a photo.

In the kitchen, the pods look almost black, and getting my macro lens focused on the inside of it under that lighting proved impossible. Outside I was getting better results, but I wanted to be lazy about getting the tripod out and was determined to snap a photo while hand-holding the camera. This wasn’t easy and the results are not stellar, but I felt the accompanying image was just good enough to show the little black beans inside the woodsy pods. These 23-28% moisture content beans look like caviar to me. Had you asked me prior, I would have told you that the actual vanilla beans are flecks of bean each smaller than a grain of sand. I was surprised and felt I now needed to share this culinary story and it was about beans so it fits my series!

So with two $13 bottles of vodka and $124 of vanilla beans you might be thinking this is rather expensive vanilla. Well, to buy 50 ounces of a double-fold vanilla extract made with Madagascar beans that would NOT be aged for 10-years would cost about $330. Quite the bargain when you think about it and when the beans are finally done doing their work we can collect them from their alcohol host and use them in something like vanilla bean whipped cream or maybe vanilla bean coconut quinoa pudding. But I don’t need to worry about that right now as I have some years to wait before that day arrives.