How to Make Vanilla Extract
An easy to follow guide to making vanilla extract in your own kitchen
Why Buy Real Tahitian Vanilla Beans At Slofoodgroup?
Exotic Floral Aroma
Tahitian vanilla beans offer an unparalleled, delicate floral fragrance with notes of cherry and spice. Their unique scent and flavor profile make them a prized choice for gourmet desserts, handcrafted beverages, and luxury skincare products.
Hand-Selected Premium Quality
Each bean is carefully inspected and selected to ensure exceptional freshness, size, and oil content. These premium-grade beans are sourced directly from Tahiti, ensuring authenticity and superior quality for culinary enthusiasts and professionals alike.
Ideal for Infusions
Unlock intense flavor with Tahitian vanilla beans, perfect for infusions in spirits, syrups, and extracts. Their higher moisture content and bold flavor make them ideal for creating rich, aromatic vanilla infusions.
Sustainably Sourced Luxury
Our Tahitian vanilla beans are ethically sourced from small farms, supporting sustainable practices. When you choose these beans, you enjoy a luxurious product while contributing to environmental conservation and community development.
Technical Specifications
| Origin | Tahiti, French Polynesia |
|---|---|
| Species | Vanilla tahitensis (Tahitian Vanilla) |
| Grade | Gourmet, Grade A, Extra, Prime |
| Moisture Content | 50-55% |
| Size | Avg 15 cm and Up |
| Certifications | Kosher, GMP |
| Harvest | Hand-Pollinated, Sun-Cured, True Tahitian, Single Origin |
| Aroma | Floral, Fruity Orchid Perfume, with Notes of Ripe Stone Fruit |
| Flavor Profile | Floral, Fruity, Sweet, Anisic |
| Tasting Notes | Cherry, Anise, Licorice, Tropical Fruit, Floral |
| Uses | Ice Cream, Pastry Cream, Custards, Cold Desserts |
| Pairing | Tropical Fruit, White Chocolate, Cream, Citrus |
| Packaging | Vacuum-Sealed, Food-Grade |
| Shelf Life | 12-18 Months Properly Stored |
Grade A Gourmet Tahitian Vanilla Beans from Tahiti and the Islands of French Polynesia
Gourmet Grade A Tahitian vanilla beans, authentic vanilla from Tahiti, one of the world's rarest and most desirable vanilla beans. Beautiful brown to black bean pods that are fuller, plumper, and more broadly shaped make up vanilla from Tahiti. The aroma of vanilla from the Tahitian islands is a floral and fruity orchid perfume, with soft notes of ripe stone fruit lingering gently in the air the moment you smell these beans firsthand. This is exactly why these vanilla beans are among the most flavorful and exotic in the world, but not much vanilla is actually grown in Tahiti, so in most seasons, what's available often costs significantly more than other vanilla origins.
How much vanilla actually comes from Tahiti? The annual harvest of real Tahitian vanilla beans is under 50 tons of gross raw bean weight, before sun-curing, sweating, and massaging each pod from one end to the other over the course of months. Once cured and properly aged, that yield drops to less than 20 tons of usable vanilla beans. Vanilla from Tahiti is prized by industries like perfumery, food and beverage manufacturers, patisseries, and Michelin-starred chefs. Our Tahitian vanilla beans are grown and harvested on a single-family estate, in operation for five generations, and the quality speaks for itself. The soft, pliable touch, plump pods packed with seeds, and rich, sweet floral aroma are truly unmatched compared to other types of vanilla beans.
"Slofoodgroup sells some of the finest gourmet bulk Tahitian vanilla beans online, available to both industry professionals and home cooks alike." — Shawn Gavin, former chef and founding team member at Slofoodgroup
What Does Tahitian Vanilla Taste Like?
Grand Cru Tahitian Vanilla, Real vs. Imposters
What to Know About Our Grand Cru Tahitian Vanilla Beans
Tahitian vanilla beans are incredibly delicate, floral, and intoxicating to the palate. Notes of red wine, cherry, peach, and other stone fruits shine through in this incredible bean, a flavor more subtle in classic vanilla essence than Madagascar or other Bourbon-type vanilla, but perhaps even more desirable for its aroma among many of the world's finest pastry chefs. Authentic Tahitian vanilla is respected for its floral complexity and the depth it can add to a recipe. We recommend letting this bean be the star ingredient rather than just one of many, since its subtlety shines best when it isn't competing with other bold flavors. These beans add tremendous, unmatched flavor to pastries, sauces, gelato, and other sweet and savory treats. Take your cooking and baking to the next level with our 100% pure Tahitian vanilla pods, grown and harvested in the Society Islands.
Flavor profile of Vanilla tahitensis: sweet summer cherries, ripe fruit, licorice, caramel, and star anise.
Authentic Tahitian vanilla is consistently the most expensive vanilla in the world. Here at Slofoodgroup, we offer the best pricing and quality on real vanilla from Tahiti online. Other sellers may claim to sell Tahitian vanilla, but in most cases, that's actually Tahitian-type vanilla from Papua New Guinea or Indonesia. We carry those too, and they're good beans in their own right, but don't be fooled: they're not the real thing.
Curious why vanilla from Tahiti costs more than vanilla from other countries? Take a look at this article for a little insight.
These gourmet vanilla beans from Tahiti are certified kosher by EarthKosher. View all kosher ingredients here.
When choosing to buy authentic vanilla beans from Tahiti, you're supporting both a cultural and culinary treasure unlike any other vanilla in the world. The plump, aromatic vanilla grown across the islands of Tahiti is the result of an artisan skill passed down through generations of Polynesian and French farming families.
Tahitian vanilla has a notably higher moisture content than other vanilla-growing regions, typically 50-55%. Vanilla tahitensis beans are visibly plump, juicy, and full-bodied, with ample amounts of vanilla bean seeds, also known as vanilla caviar. The average length of each gourmet vanilla pod is 14+ cm (5.5 inches), though some can reach up to 18 cm or more. Because of their natural size and high moisture content, there are approximately 60-90 vanilla pods per pound, depending on average pod length.
Tahitian vanilla beans are also easier to clean and scrape than other varieties, even easier than gourmet Madagascar vanilla beans. Check out this short video to see how. As is true for all our vanilla products, these beans are vegan, gluten free, and non-GMO.
How to Use Gourmet Tahitian Vanilla Beans
Tahitian vanilla from Tahiti can be used for everyday cooking and baking, making pure vanilla extracts, pastes, vanilla essences, soaps, lotions, scrubs, and of course, pastries, among many other uses. To use these plump vanilla beans, cut off the tip of one end of the pod. From the opposite end, take the back of a knife and slide the blade up the length of the bean, watch as the vanilla seeds slide out easily, almost like a piping bag. You can also watch a video of how to remove the seeds from a Tahitian vanilla bean here.
A tip for using the empty pod after removing the seeds: dry it out and grind it into vanilla bean powder. The pod itself contains just as much flavor as the seeds you scraped out. Tahitian vanilla powder is great for ice cream, custard, chocolate, vanilla-flavored liqueurs, vanilla sugar, and Tahitian vanilla extract. Looking to make your own extract? Check out our extract Grade B Tahitian vanilla beans.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Boasting a unique, exotic flavor, gourmet Tahitian vanilla beans are delicate and sweet with distinct floral undertones and notes of red wine, licorice, cherry, peach, and other fruits and spices. Top chefs around the world favor Tahitian vanilla for its bold, distinct flavor and juicy pod.
- Tahitian vanilla beans are used for everyday cooking, baking, or making pure vanilla extract. They're great for chocolate, ice cream, custards, and vanilla sugar, and pair beautifully with fruits such as berries, peaches, and coconut.
- Yes. Tahitian vanilla beans are one of the highest-quality beans in the world, prized for their distinct, rich flavor profile. If you haven't tried real vanilla from Tahiti, it's genuinely worth experiencing.
- Vanilla planifolia, the most common vanilla orchid species, is grown in places like India, Indonesia, Mexico, and Madagascar, with a potent, sweet, creamy, and rich flavor, the classic vanilla taste most people know. These beans are also thicker and longer than Tahitian vanilla beans. Tahitian vanilla, grown in the South Pacific, has a more delicate, sweet, floral flavor with notes of red wine, peach, and cherry, and is commonly used in fragrances due to its aroma. These beans are shorter and plumper than Vanilla planifolia.
- No, and it's worth knowing the difference. Much of what's sold as "Tahitian vanilla" is actually Tahitian-type vanilla (Vanilla tahitensis) grown in Papua New Guinea or Indonesia, not genuine French Polynesia-grown vanilla. Both can be good products, but they aren't the same as true, authentic Tahitian vanilla.





