Madagascar Vanilla Beans — Grade A Bourbon

Grade A Bourbon vanilla beans from Madagascar, 6 to 8 inches — the gourmet grade, plump and pliable with a high moisture content and a visible oil sheen.

On length, because it matters and almost nobody states it: gourmet Grade A typically runs 5.5 to 6.3 inches. Ours run 6 to 8. A longer pod carries more seed and more usable caviar per bean, which is why bakers count beans rather than weigh them.

What Grade A means: gourmet-grade beans run roughly 30-35% moisture, which is why they bend rather than snap and why they are the grade bakers reach for. Lower grades are drier and shorter, sold by the hundred for extract work where appearance does not matter. Ours are whole pods, hand-selected.

Madagascar produces the classic Bourbon profile — deep, creamy and sweet, with the rounded vanillin character most people picture when they think of vanilla. It is the standard the other origins get compared to.

Use: split the pod lengthwise and scrape the seeds. One bean is plenty for a custard or a batch of ice cream, and the scraped pod still has plenty left — bury it in a jar of sugar. For extract, count on several beans per cup of alcohol and a long, patient wait.

Stored airtight, cool and out of the light — never refrigerated — they keep for a year or more.