Adding vanilla beans to your recipes is a wonderful thing as you will love the sparks of vanilla flavor and scraping the pure concentrated form of vanilla seeds out of the aromatic beans. However, the last thing you would want is to throw away the scrapped pods. Well, there is no need to do it as there are many ways for using these spent beans that still contain huge amounts of delicious vanilla flavor.

The flavor of whole vanilla pods is more complex than that of processed vanilla products like vanilla bean paste and vanilla extract. You can make great recipes with intense flavors that have the unique aroma and flavors of each vanilla bean variety, growth season, and region of origin by using the pods in your cooking.

For buying vanilla beans bulk, get in touch with Essence Food and Beverage, the online bulk store of vanilla beans and vanilla powder. This California-based store has been supplying the best quality vanilla beans for commercial purposes at wholesale prices.

They have been holding strong farmer relations for 25 years hence, there are no middlemen involved. Contact this vanilla specialist today for buying high-quality vanilla beans in bulk at low prices.

Using spent vanilla beans

There are plenty of ways to use discarded vanilla beans.

Vanilla sugar

The store used vanilla beans in a container of sugar to give it a faint vanilla taste. This vanilla flavor-infused sugar is perfect for adding to baked products, coffee, tea, and tart fruits.

Vanilla powder

Let the vanilla pods dry before grinding them into powder either in a spice grinder or a coffee bean grinder. Use this powder to enhance the taste of baked items with vanilla flavor.

Vanilla syrup

Add the vanilla flavor in a simple vanilla syrup by boiling sugar, and water, and using vanilla beans. Store this syrup in the refrigerator and pour it over fresh fruit or iced tea.

Vanilla extract prepared at home

Preparing homemade vanilla extract can be done by just soaking used vanilla beans in bourbon or alcohol. Continue adding used beans to the bottle as you keep using it and you will get a real vanilla flavor after a few months.

Vanilla bean paste

This is a happy medium between vanilla extract and vanilla beans. It consists of vanilla bean pods, water, sugar syrup, and some kind of thickener. With vanilla bean paste, you can receive all the intense flavor and aroma of vanilla beans for less than the cost of one or two beans.

Vanilla bean paste offers the convenience of just using a teaspoon to scoop them out instead of scraping the pod and unavoidably leaving some of those priceless little black dots adhered to your knife or fingers. Moreover, the taste offers you all those lovely little flecks of vanilla beans that are indeed quite satisfying.

1 vanilla bean is equal to 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or bean paste. If stored properly in a cool, dark place, vanilla bean paste has a longer shelf life of up to 3 years. Buy yourself some high-quality vanilla beans in bulk for your next feast and make use of spent beans to keep getting the real essence of vanilla flavor till the last drop.