Tahitian Pure Vanilla Extract - Nielsen-Massey Vanillas (2024)

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• Sweet ideas: pastry creams, fruit pies and sauces, smoothies, shakes, puddings, custards.
• Savory ideas: salad dressings, beurre blanc sauce for seafood, sweet potato salad
• Beverage ideas: addition to cranberry juice, martinis, margaritas, gin fizzes
• Chef’s notes: Tahitian Pure Vanilla is a favorite of pastry chefs. Chefs recommend using it only in dishes that will not be exposed to high heat, in order to retain its delicate flavor.

Tahiti, an island which is part of a southern Pacific island chain, has a tropical climate that makes it an ideal location for growing vanilla. In 1848, French Admiral Ferdinand-Alphonse Hamelin brought Vanilla aromatica plants to Tahiti, and, two years later, French Admiral Louis-Adolphe Bonard imported Vanilla fragrans plants. These two species were skillfully crossbred during the next few decades, resulting in the plump Tahitian vanilla beans we know today, known as Vanilla tahitensis.

Tahitian vanilla is cured differently than vanilla grown in Madagascar or Mexico. Mature beans are stacked in a cool place for five to ten days until they are completely brown. They are then rinsed in clear water, a process unique to Tahiti. For the next month, growers expose the beans to the gentle morning sun for three-to-four hours a day. In the afternoon, they wrap the beans in cloth and store them in crates until the next morning, to promote transpiration.

Little by little, the water evaporates, causing the beans to shrink. Throughout this phase, the bean pods are smoothed and flattened by hand between the thumb and index finger. After a month, when the vanilla has received its fill of sunlight, the beans are left for 40 days to dry in a shaded and ventilated spot, which reduces their moisture content.