The ultimate vanilla hack is finally here…

Many of you have asked for it and I’m so happy to announce that 100% Pure Ground Vanilla Powder is now available.

Ground Vanilla powder is exactly what it sounds like.

Real Madagascar vanilla beans ground into fine powder so you can use just the right amount you need in your baking recipes but also as a natural sweetener.

Here are my favourite ways to use vanilla powder.

1. Sprinkle on dry baked goods such as chocolate chip cookies or biscuits
2. Add in pastry mix for any baked goods, custard or any pastries as a replacement for vanilla beans or extract (use 1/2 a teaspoon of powder for 1 vanilla bean)
3. Mix with sugar to coat churros, doughnuts or any other fried items
4. In a fruit tart like an apple tart (tip: sprinkle the sliced apples with vanilla powder and let it soak for 2 hours or overnight before you bake it)
5. In a fruit salad
6. Infuse vanilla powder in milk
7. For the DIY’ers, vanilla powder is great to make your own natural hand soap
8. And my personal favourite: Mix vanilla powder into your morning ground coffee. Thank me later

Vanilla powder needs heat for the aroma to develop so it is a great alternative to vanilla extract which typically contains alcohol as a solvent and is liquid.

High heat evaporates the alcohol (and some of the flavour with it).

Vanilla powder can hold its own flavour under the high heat of the oven without adding any additional liquid to a recipe that may throw off you carefully balanced ratio.

Ground Vanilla powder comes in a glass jar for best conservation and contains an extra 2 vanilla pods in it for extra goodness. You’re welcome!

Keep the jar in a dry and cool place away from direct sunlight such as a pantry cabinet and you can keep it up to 2 years.

You can get it from our shop: https://www.madanilla.com/shop

The biggest mistake people make when it comes to storing vanilla is that they keep it in the fridge.

One of the most common questions we get is: “How do I keep vanilla beans?” and “How long can I keep it for?”

In this post, we’ll cover it all.

But first, What’s Wrong With Keeping Vanilla Beans In The Fridge?

A vanilla bean is a real sponge, very sensitive to the external environment, air, humidity, sunlight, odours… Storing vanilla in the fridge would dry out the beans, plus it would absorb the various odours and therefore reduce the vanilla aroma. You want your vanilla pods to stay moist and supple. If the beans dry out, they would lose their aroma. So don’t do that!

Avoid plastic tubes and cork screw lids. Although they look pretty, cork may cause moulding over time. And plastic tubes are not efficiently protecting the beans from outside odours.

So How To Store Vanilla Beans?

Instead, it is best to store them in a sealed glass tube or jar. If you have many pods, you may tie them together with a raphia string to keep them moist.

Ideally, vanilla pods are best kept in a dry place, away from direct sunlight, and in an airtight container at 15 to 20 degrees Celsius.

The most important is to keep them away from the open air for too long to prevent them from drying out. That being said, it is good practice to air them out for an hour or two once a month if you keep them for a long time. Vanilla is a living spice. Its aroma actually develops over time.

If you have a few vanilla pods, you may want to wrap them in baking paper after tying them together in the sealed jar and in the pantry cabinet for best conservation.

If you keep vanilla as above, the beans will stay moist and fragrant for up to 2 years without any issue. Note that vanilla is a spice and doesn’t actually expire but if it is not properly stored it will lose a bit of aroma over time but it will still be usable. That means you may need to use 2 vanilla pods or more to get the fragrance of 1 properly stored vanilla pod.

Bonus tip: If you have a vacuum sealing machine, you can even keep it for years, the beans will stay moist.

Safe to say, you’ll finish them way before that…

Now enjoy!

Today is an auspicious day for all Hindus and Sikhs around the world.

Deepavali or Diwali, The Festival of Lights and Madanilla have a lot in common.

Diwali symbolises:
– Victory of light over darkness
– Good over evil, and
– Knowledge over ignorance

In a similar fashion, Madanilla’s mission is to reduce poverty in Madagascar by preserving and creating agriculture jobs in the vanilla production industry.

Before Madanilla, our Madagascar farmers were exploited by foreign importers in Western countries dictating their purchase price.

How is it fair for a country producing over 80% of the world’s vanilla to still be one of the poorest countries in the world?

After years of cultivation to produce a bean, then 5 months of labour-intensive manual work to produce the flagrant beans for export, we fight against exporters who pocket the profits and keep the actual workers below the poverty line.

At Madanilla, we pledge to invest 10% of our profits back to Madagascar infrastructure, safety and schools to better the living conditions of our vanilla workers, help them provide for their families, send their children to schools and give them more opportunities.

If you’d like to discover how our vanilla is produced in Madagascar, check out this page where each step is laid out: ==> https://go.madanilla.com/story

Once again, Madanilla wishes a happy Diwali to our community and we thank you for being part of our mission.

You might have noticed a tattoo that looks like insect bites on your vanilla beans and wondered “Eeew, what is that?? Is it safe to eat?!”

The short answer is: YES, absolutely, it is safe to eat.

The detailed one (for those who want to sound smart in a dinner conversation with your Valentine) is here.

Those are not insect bites but tattoos that are punched in by some growers. If you look closely, you’ll see letters, those are the initials of the grower. On the above photo, you might read “BOR” initials on the right bean.

Why do they initial their beans, you ask?

Well, the Madagascar Black Gold as they refer to vanilla has reached unprecedented high prices which is more valuable than silver that currently trades at around USD 504/kg. This attracts vandalism, thieves and murders in the SAVA (the north eastern region of Madagascar where most of the vanilla is grown). In order to prevent (or limit?) vanilla robbery, growers tattoo their then green beans (before harvesting) with their initials to mark where they are from.

This doesn’t affect the quality of the beans but remains visible after the curing process.

At Madanilla, we are committed to supplying you with the best vanilla from our growers in Madagascar directly.

If you’d like to bake something sexy for your Valentine, place your order here. We’ll deliver within 24 hours in Singapore so you can be ready on time.

Secret tip: Do not throw away your used vanilla beans after you scrape the seeds. Wash them, dry them out and blend them to make vanilla powder that you can reuse in your tea, coffee, bath salt, soaps or candle light… Just sayin’!

Aren’t you tired of Wishes…? New Year Wishes, Chinese New Year Wishes…

Wishes sound passive to me… As in you wish for things to happen to you?

What if the Year of the Pig was the Year we “Make” things happen for us? What if the lunar new year was the time you decided to commit to have the best year you’ve ever had in all areas of life, spiritually, financially, emotionally, physically, bakingly…?

That is my only Wish for you all, vanilla lovers, distributors, bakers, chocolatiers, pastry chefs, home bakers, executive chefs, ice cream markers, food and beverage manufacturers…

Thank you for shopping with Madanilla and supporting tens of vanilla worker jobs in Madagascar to provide you with the highest quality vanilla. That’s our promise to you.

Keep It Real.

Madanilla

If you’ve been storing vanilla without airing it out for a while, you may find a white thick web on the edge of your beans and think to yourself “Eww, Mold, gross!” Well, don’t get “Mad” (see what I did there?), hang on a second before throwing away money in the trash.

If you see similar thick white frost at the edge of your beans, do not mistake it as mold. It actually is crystallisation of the vanillin contained in the vanilla bean. Vanillin is the main compound component in the pod responsible for this iconic rich flavour and smell. Over time, when drying out, the vanillin can crystallise and form a shiny frost. Do not fret, this is 100% safe for consumption and edible. A high vanillin content is actually a sign that the beans were mature and ripe when harvesting so it is often said to be a good sign of a good quality bean.

What to do? 
Just air it out at room temperature for a while or wipe it off with a tissue.

Tip of the day: If you beans have dried out: You can re-hydrate them in milk or warm water for a while and they will be back to black and shiny

Grade A Grade B vanilla

Let’s start by stating that there’s not one vanilla but multiple “vanillas” out there. While Madagascar is the World Champion of vanilla, producing over 80% of the global supply each year, other countries like Mexico, Uganda, Indonesia, India, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia are also producers with their own kind of vanilla and curing processes.

Today, we’re narrowing it down to the Bourbon vanilla planifolia from Madagascar. There’s typically Gourmet Quality (Grade A), Grade B or TK Vanilla and Red Vanilla. Red vanilla is mainly only used for extraction by industrial fragrance and food companies.

So what’s the difference between Grade A and Grade B? Which one is best? 

If you’re a baker, Grade A Gourmet quality is the top notch quality vanilla. The smell and taste is fully bodied and ’round’ with an iconic sweet after taste. It is best used in pastries, cakes, ice cream. That’s the type you want ot get the most flavor out of your vanilla. The look is gorgeous, sleek, dark and moist. The bean is fleshy and supple. You can easily tie a knot with it without breaking it.

Grade B, aka Extract vanilla or TK vanilla is not a ‘lower’ quality vanilla. It is drier and a bit more reddish or brown than Grade A. It is perfect for making extract or arranged rums. Great for baking or savoury sauces as well. Because it contains less water than Grade A, it is lighter too. While 250g of Grade A vanilla might give you around 70 to 80 beans. 250g of Grade B vanilla will account to over 100-110 pods. The money is not in the water though. Grade B still has a rich vanillin content (which is what matters). However, because it’s been dried under the sun longer, it has more of a smoky flavour.

So which one is best? It depends. For baking, Gourmet is always the top notch go to vanilla. But it is also rarer and hard to produce. So Grade B is also a great way to get more beans per weight so a good catch nevertheless.

Grade A is very rare as it is very hard to produce. We currently have limited stock available. You can get some on www.madanilla.com/shop.

In vanilla preparation, the enemy is quick curing. Madanilla supports traditional methods and we only work with growers and producers who don’t quick cure. We don’t fear the hundreds of battles against inferior vanilla beans.

Technological progress and this human need to endlessly want things “faster” and “now” often leads to beneficial innovation, but sometimes, the effect can be wholly negative and detrimental to everyone but the person who makes the fast buck. Today, there are more and more cases of vanilla curers using quick curing to “mature” vanilla beans faster, to get that quick dollar. So what is quick curing, and why does it produce beans with inferior quality?

The major problem with quick curing is the lack of time drying and sweating naturally in the sun. We have replaced Mother Nature with an industrial oven. The reduced time in the sun inhibits enzyme production and the natural development of vanilla’s complex aroma and flavour. We’ll explain more below.

Quick curing is the process of quickly drying green vanilla in industrial ovens. Green beans aren’t sorted by hand to determine quality, thickness and length – they are roughly machine-chopped and oven dried. It is very easy for unripe, immature and low quality beans to mix with higher quality ones. The time spent drying in the sun is reduced by at least half. This process increases the risk of mold (machine sorting not as precise as experienced human curers) and it means the product doesn’t have uniform quality. You’ll pay more for an inferior product, while also contributing to unemployment. The quick curers peddle it as having no effect on quality – where have we heard that before? The benefit is only for their pocket.

Let’s compare this to traditional Madagascan hand curing methods. It takes about three to four months to cure the green vanilla. The vanilla beans are inspected and separated by hand daily, ensuring consistent size, weight, moisture, quality and the inhibition of mold. The beans are dried in the sun. At night, they are also sweated under hefty coverings to retain moisture and heat. This slow, natural process encourages the development of that intricate vanilla aroma and flavour. Curers also believe that the physical interaction with the beans helps to produce a superior bean  – just like when you hand massage the cabbage in the salad, or the squid in the sushi. Foodies know what we are talking about! There really is no substitute. It is a quintessential slow food and the traditional trumps the technology.

Valentine’s Day. The perfect opportunity to do something memorable for that special someone in your life. Most of us mere mortals take the path well trodden – a bouquet of flowers here, a little chocolate there. So why not make 2018 the year to do something a little more unique? Here are some tips to make your own natural bourbon vanilla extract, which, well, can also be turned into a Valentine aphrodisiac!

Now that we have your attention, let’s talk a little about why vanilla was the Viagra of the ancient world. Firstly, natural, high-quality bourbon vanilla simply possesses an aroma that is unique, sensual, alluring and seductive (just like durian, but you know… the opposite way). The Totonacs, Aztecs, Mayans and early Spanish all recognised the ability of the bean itself to change and enhance the ambience of festive situations – most notably Aztecs used it to add some pizzazz to their chocolate drinks. Of course, mankind always finds ways to innovate, and it wasn’t long before vanilla extract was created.

Vanilla extract allowed vanilla to be concentrated, preserved and utilised in many different and easier forms. Chief among this was the ability to be added to creams and other lotions that could be applied to the skin – as a perfume or massage ointments. Many studies have pointed to piperonal – also known as heliotropin – in the vanilla bean, as one of the key natural compounds that so appeal to our senses. The smell is often described as floral, spicy, sweet and with hints of cherry… and when combined with its close cousin vanillin, well, let’s just say it has the ability to boost the birth rates of many OECD nations.

We could go on and on, but we’ll pause and simply add that as well as being sexually stimulating, vanilla also has antioxidant abilities, anti-inflammatory properties and it could even lower your cholesterol. We’ll let your blood pressure go down before we give you that info! For now, be sure to check out our store for our latest prices on the best, natural vanilla from Madagascar.

Get something special for your Valentine this year. You can do better than Chocolate and flowers. So in the words of Russell Peters:

Science can be great. Just ask Jesse Pinkman – Yeah science, b!tch! Science has driven us further than we’ve ever been, through innovation in physics, health, robotics, ICT…and, well…. Chemistry. Ah, chemistry. It brought us Breaking Bad but it also brought the possible harbinger of natural vanilla death – synthesised vanillin. Being too popular comes with a price, well, just ask Kim post-Paris jewellery heist. And so it is with vanilla. Only about 1% of vanilla flavouring (vanillin) comes fully from the natural source, the real vanilla orchid. The other 99% is not. So what exactly is in it?

The main ingredients in synthesised vanilla comes from the petrochemical precursor guaiacol. The majority of the remainder is from the spruce tree lignin, but contributing sources also range from eugenol (found in clove oil) to ferulic acid (rice bran) and corn sugar.

Hampshire College Professor of Chemistry Nancy Lowry notes some commercial vanilla also has compounds such as coumarin, a poisonous substance used in blood thinning drugs and also known as the “smell of new-mown hay”. But that’s not even the best part. Mother Nature is infinitely more complex.

Synthetic vanillin only has 1 compound, compared to more than 170 different compounds in the natural stuff. As Professor Lowry states:

“The difference between natural vanillin and synthetic vanillin is that the synthetic form lacks the 169 (and more) other chemicals that round out the deeper flavor of natural vanilla.”

Why mess with nature? If you too are a 1 percenter, here at Madanilla, we only provide real vanilla beans.