Rich, creamy and unmistakable, Madagascar Bourbon is the vanilla most of us fell in love with first. Ours are Grade A gourmet beans from the vanilla heartland of north-east Madagascar, chosen for their moisture, their seed and their depth of flavour. You can buy vanilla pods from a pouch of two up to 250g.
Where the world’s vanilla comes from
Most of the world’s natural vanilla is grown in Madagascar, much of it in the lush north-east of the island. Here, small family farms grow Vanilla planifolia on vines that climb shade trees in the humid tropical heat.
The vanilla orchid flowers for just a few hours a day, and every one is pollinated by hand. The pods then ripen on the vine for around nine months before they are picked.
The name “Bourbon” comes from the traditional curing method, first developed on the neighbouring Île Bourbon, now Réunion. The beans are briefly scalded in hot water, then sweated in blankets. Over the following weeks they are dried in the sun by day and wrapped by night. Finally, they are rested for months while their flavour deepens. It is slow, skilled work, and it is what turns a green, scentless pod into vanilla.
Flavour profile
- Aroma
- sweet, warm and creamy
- Palate
- rich and rounded, with notes of cocoa, dried fruit and a hint of spice
- Beans
- Grade A, supple and oily, full of seeds
Madagascar Bourbon is naturally high in vanillin, the compound behind that deep, familiar vanilla flavour. That richness holds up beautifully under heat, which makes it the backbone of professional baking.
How to use it
This is a true all-rounder, as at home in the oven as it is in the fridge:
- Cakes, cookies, enriched doughs and viennoiserie
- Custards, crème brûlée, crème pâtissière and ice cream
- Chocolate work, caramels and ganache
- Sauces, syrups and drinks
Chef’s tip Split the pod lengthwise, scrape out the seeds and add both seeds and pod to warm milk or cream. Leave it to infuse for at least 20 minutes, then remove the pod. Afterwards, rinse and dry the pod and bury it in sugar to make vanilla sugar.
The details
- Origin
- north-east Madagascar
- Variety
- Vanilla planifolia
- Sourcing
- a sustainable collective of 7,000 farmers
- Grade
- Grade A gourmet beans
Traceability
How to know it’s genuine Madagascar vanilla
Our Madagascar pods come through a sustainable collective of around 7,000 farming families in the north-east of the island, with full traceability from the vine to our London warehouse.
- Grade A Bourbon pods are 20cm, dark, supple and oily, with a moisture content of around 32–35% and natural vanillin of around 1.2–2.4%.
- They should bend round a finger without snapping and smell rich and sweet, never smoky or musty.
- Every pack is repacked in our SALSA-audited London unit and can be traced back to the shipment it came from.
- Each product has a written specification covering origin, moisture and vanillin, and confirming the vanilla has not been treated to change its natural vanillin content.