My vanilla phase

[Torsten]

With all my food and drug preferences I always go through phases. Like, I had my acid phase in the late 80's, my MDMA phase in the mid 90's, my hot chili phase in the early 90's, my oral nicotine phase in the late 90's, my kratom phase in the early naughties etc etc. Sometimes they last a few weeks, sometimes a few years, but I usually take things to extremes and then lose interest, and rarely find myself going back.

For the last 6 months or so I've been in the vanilla phase. I have vanilla essential oil, vanilla resin, vanilla extract, and now for the last few weeks I find myself chewing juicy vanilla beans. It's not the usual way to consume vanilla, but when a supplier sent me a bean some months ago I figured the best way to use it would be to put it in sugar, but as I can't eat sugar it was probably going to go to waste. It sat on my desk for a while and one night while sniffing it I decided to take a nibble. Really quite bitter and intense and my mix of appreciation and repulsion reminded me of my very first beer (and look where that led - my beer phase ).

Anyway, since then I have been seeking out better and better vanilla beans. The other day I got about half a kilo of the juiciest beans I've seen for a while. They are soft on the outside and crunchy on the inside.... and full of flavour.

I'll be offering vanilla beans in the shop sometime soon (once I work out how to package them), but I won't be at all disappointed if no one buys them :drool:

In the meantime expect some lovely vanilla flavoured tinctures coming in the next couple of weeks.

[naja naja]

YES,YES!!!

I love my vanilla beans, can't live with-out them. Bit like saffron, If Naja doesn't have his saffron or vanilla beans as a staple in the house, Naja gets very angry indeed!!!!

Down here, we always get shit!!!! In mexico, they get the bomb!! They even do weavings out of V beans. How aewsome would they be and smell. Beans are as fat as ur finger,1ft long and pulpy inside. We are lucky if they are even still moist, when they are there O.K. but there usually dry shit!!6 inches is average length.

Again, like the saffron, at those prices of a few thousand per kilo. $3.50-$4 per bean. I won't be using them recreationally except in my Panna cotta.

I use pure extract every night in my milkshake, so maybe I'm addicted.

If u can get AGED pure extract I'll be into that aswell. You can only get it imported from O/S and for just a bottle or two at a time it hardly seems worth it. They have variously aged extract for various prices. 9 years is the oldest I think. I've been dieing to try some!!

As far as packaging goes, I like the screw top or stoppered test tubes. Sell in 1, 3 and 5 per tube (even 10 if they'll fit). The test tubes should keep them very fresh. Store in the fridge.

If I had to choose between chocolate and vanilla for the rest of my life, I would choose vanilla. Vanilla can have overtones of chocolate, but u never get chocolate with overtones of vanilla. There's also hundreds of other complex flavours in various beans ranging from wam, bam full on vanilla - chocolate - spicy fruitiness any and all of these flavours in combination or standout alone. Absolutely the best flavour on our planet!!!

I go through ~100ml every two weeks.

Stoked as always, keep up the great work T

Peace out

Naja

As bad as this may sound, I rekon man made Vanillin actually tastes better in biscuits. But thats just IMO.

Edited September 16, 2006 by naja naja

[noun]

Beanz, meanz....SAB.

Yum Yum!!

[foolsbreath]

Yes Vanilla, I love it and have had the pleasure of working with pure Vanillin in my uni days

nearly 3% vanillin in some varieties, vanilla is from the orchid family

Vanillin = 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde. other important aroma components are p-hydroxybenzaldehyde (up to 9%) and p-hydroxybenzyl methyl ether (1%). Tahiti vanilla also contains piperonal (heliotropin, 3,4-dioxymethylenbenzaldehyde )

[smogs]

Does anyone know what sort of conditions Vanilla likes to flower? I have a vine growing and I know they have to be massive before they flower and that the flowers have to be hand pollinated (part of why they are so expensive).

Im not sure if it is warm enough in Sydney for it to flower tho

[Tripitaka]

Smogs im further North and cant get my plants to flower either! Speaking with T and I seen to remember that Mullum was not conducive to flowering either.

[Rev]

Isabelle shipard claims they set fruit just fine on the sunshine coast

[Torsten]

brisbane seems to be the minimum for flowers. warm pockets might even get some fruit. I don't believe anyone on the sunshine coast would get a good harvest, but might get the occasional (probably rather unworthwhile) fruit. A glasshouse could obviously change that.

[smogs]

Mine is actually on vacation down the south coast with my dad at the moment... not sure how well it is doing now.

I might just get rid of it if it wont flower.... save that space for something more useful

[Stonehenge]

I'm not sure I understand. Do people use vanilla for psychoactive effects or just for the taste? What is the effect like?

[Alice]

Yes Vanilla, I love it and have had the pleasure of working with pure Vanillin in my uni days

nearly 3% vanillin in some varieties, vanilla is from the orchid family

Vanillin = 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde. other important aroma components are p-hydroxybenzaldehyde (up to 9%) and p-hydroxybenzyl methyl ether (1%). Tahiti vanilla also contains piperonal (heliotropin, 3,4-dioxymethylenbenzaldehyde )

we used vanillin last year in a medicinal chemistry course at uni as a precursor for a combinatorial chemistry exercise. that was a fun course, another interesting lab was the extraction of piperine from black pepper. they're pretty keen on the natural products chemistry, makes the lectures all the more exciting

[elzar]

mmm vanilla. just a few weeks ago i made a vanilla vodka from a fresh pod and 1 L of 40% ethanol. It was quite tasty and went well with many of the other mixes i was making.

I also recall a fellow saying each year he kept about half a pound in a litre of ethanol. He aged it for about a year and used it in cakes and such. Quite a worthy process.

MM and they burst with flavour when fresh. The vanilla pod was refridgerated and heavily wrapped in cling wrap.

[transDiMenTional]

I'm not sure I understand. Do people use vanilla for psychoactive effects or just for the taste? What is the effect like?

The effect is: mmmm yummy :drool:

[DreamingNagual]

mmm vanilla. just a few weeks ago i made a vanilla vodka from a fresh pod and 1 L of 40% ethanol. It was quite tasty and went well with many of the other mixes i was making.

Vanilla Vodka is one of the most beautifull things I have ever consumed :drool:

This time I will be constructing a Vanilla Vodka Watermelon :drool:

I cant wait to get my hands on your Beans Torsten

[Stonehenge]

So it's the flavor alone and nothing else.

[noun]

The VVW (the Vanilla Vodka Watermelon) sounds interesting. I'm considering trying a VBLV (the Vanilla Blue Lotus Vodka) ....Why dont I just go the whole hog, The VWBLV...the Vanilla Watermelon Blue Lotus Vodka

Torsten, any idea when Vanilla pods will be available. Making a plant/seed order next couple weeks and was hoping to grab some.

[Torsten]

I am waiting on a delivery of haitian vanilla to put up at the same time as the bourbon.

stoney - sorry, just for flavour. however, it can mask many really disgusting ethnobotanicals.

[naja naja]

I like using a bean like a dipper. Walk around dipping it in castor sugar and lickin it off.

Panna cotta:

300ml milk

300ml Dble cream

2 teaspoons of geletan

2 tablespoons of water

6 tblespoons of vanilla castor sugar

1 vanilla bean

6 X moulds

[SaBReT00tH]

hey Tort,

I'd LOVE to try some of ur vanilla beans!!

[noun]

I am waiting on a delivery of haitian vanilla to put up at the same time as the bourbon.

I have been able to find plenty of info regarding Bourbon and Tahitian, but little to nothing on the Haitian variety. Anyone have any info/link?

[naja naja]

I think he just meant tahitian.

[noun]

Yeah, thought that could've been a possibility . Was able to find out that vanilla is grown commercially in Haiti, but no more info than that.

[Torsten]

LOL. yeah, Tahitian is what I meant. Those two places must be a night mare for lysdexics