12 Award Winning Mexican Vanilla Beans

I used one of these beans to make some fresh vanilla ice cream last Monday night. The recipe came from Season #1 of "Good Eats", Churn Baby Churn. 2 cups of half & half, 1 cup heavy cream, 1 cup sugar, a little pure fruit pectan, and one of these beans. Heat the cream to 170 degrees, mix in your other ingredients well, then kill the heat. You now have "ice cream batter". Pour the batter in a sealed container, and place the container in the Frig for 6 hours. After 6 hours, get out your ice cream maker and churn for about 30-35 minutes. I find longer is better.Alton Brown put up a little notification prior to a commercial break stating that Madagascar beans are the most sought-after despite the fact that the Mexican beans are more flavorful. Regrettably, the only source of vanilla beans in my hood is Williams-Sonoma, and they only carry the Madagascar beans. Those do make for a delicious vanilla ice cream, but I didn't want to pass on the opportunity for more flavor. I decided to test Alton's claim by ordering some these beans.The results are pretty sensational. I pretty much mopped up the floor with some house guests last. They loved the beef bourguignon and the Paella I made, but the vanilla ice cream afterward knocked 'em dead. Let's just say they were flabbergasted.Make some vanilla ice cream. You will like the results.Is Alton correct about Mexican v Madagascar beans? I don't know about that. I think the Mexican bean is the far more familiar flavor. If you are an American, you grew up on the flavor of the Mexican vanilla beans. This flavor has the home field advantage. The Madagascar bean is more exotic. It has a coffee-vanilla kind of flavor. I like them both. I think I will cut half a Madagascar and half a Mexican bean on my next batch, and see what the combined flavor is like.

I live in Kazakhstan and, unfortunatelly, we don't have any type of vanilla beans in our supermarkets. Plus, most of the companies simply do not have delivery to our country. Friend of mine was visiting US and I've ordered the Vanilla Beans from Arizona Vanilla Company to his temporary address. But, unfortunatelly, my parcel hasn't been delivered by indicated time and I've contacted Arizona Vanilla Company for their assistance. They found out that the parcel has been lost and offered to ship new order. I've explained my situation that friend of mine has already left US and that I live in Kazakhstan. Despite the fact that they initially do not ship anything to this direction, they kindly offered to do an exception and ship it to my home address in Kazakhstan! I was soo impressed with such high level of customer care. I've got my parcel and finally can start baking :)Thank you very much for your care and support! I wish you company great success!

Pay close attention if you purchase these. I bought some in the past so I'm a repeat customer. Before they were plump and tall and smelled like vanilla...These smell like TOBACCO!, and are extremely thin and malnourished. I have sent the company a message...so we'll see what they say. And as another reviewer pointed out, there is some kind of oily dark film that has rubbed off on the bag. I used to be a smoker so the fact that they smell like tobacco doesn't bother me but the fact that they should smell like vanilla and they don't, does bother me.So, I just went to their web site and if you notice the size and length of the beans in each category, you'll see that, if you buy 12 beans you get these tiny stick ones but if you buy six, you get the larger, better ones although they are the same gourmet Mexican vanilla beans!Update! This is their response to my email request: The Mexico vanilla crop has suffered a severe drought for the past two harvests. This has caused the beans to be fewer, smaller and more expensive. The current crop, which was just harvested, will be ready for market around March of next year. Our anticipation is that the vanilla will be back to normal.Thanks again for your feedback.Eric Elsberry

Wonderful, fresh and fragrant beans.Using these to make vanilla extract since I got hooked on Mexican Vanilla from some extract bought in Mexico (lots of crappy ones in gift shops, but found a really good one).I think that Mexican vanilla beans have a stronger nicer flavor. I used 750ml (scant 1/4 cup removed, to make room for beans) of vodka, and 12 beans split, steep for a couple months and get lots of great quality vanilla extract.I'll be ordering these again.

Lovely Vanilla Pods, every time I open the cupboard I get the aroma of vanilla in the air.They took a while to get here, it was a few weeks, they do come from Arizona USA.The packaging is basic but it does the job of getting the best Vanilla Pods I have used to my door.The price is very good aswell considering the cost of one usually.Mexican Vanilla Pods are the best so when I run out I'll be ordering more.

My orginal order got lost in the mail (yes it really did). I wrote to the seller and they immedialty sent me another order at no cost to me and sent it express mail. Excellent customer service that we don't see anymore.As for the Mexican vanilla beans, they are of high quality and the taste is a great power punch of vanilla. I used these in Alton Browns "serious vanilla ice cream". The best I have ever had!

I am too cheap to buy a vanilla bean for 3 dollars apiece at the grocery, but many desired recipes called for them and vanilla extract just didn't substitute as well as I would have liked, so I bought these after reading the reviews. They are really wonderful and have allowed me to make some great custard-based ice creams in recent months. I am very happy with this purchase for the taste, quality and price!

I bought these to make vanilla extract for Christmas gifts. They sat on my counter in their plastic bag for a few days before i got to them. Even through the plastic they filled the kitchen with a fragrant aroma. The beans were moist and they are making lovely extract. Even my husband, who doesn't tend to notice these things, commented on how good them smelled. Highly recommended.