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How To Store Vanilla Beans - Native Vanilla
How To Store Vanilla Beans - Native Vanilla
Intro
Shelf life
Unlike vanilla extract, beans don’t last forever. If stored correctly, vanilla
beans can last anywhere from six months to three years without losing
potency. While perfectly safe and usable, the quality in aroma, flavor
and supple texture has been known to diminish after a year.
Unpacking
The time has come! Your order has just arrived. You can smell the
heavenly scent of our tropical vanilla through the packaging. That’s
because our packaging is just as special as the vanilla itself. All of our
products come to you in our industry-leading, earth-friendly packaging
solution. All of our bags and labels are 100% bio-degradable. That
means you can add them to your garden compost instead of throwing
them in the trash.
Storage
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Air and moisture are the two things you want to avoid when storing your
vanilla.
Step 1
Remove the vanilla from all packaging and wrap it in up in wax paper..
Step 2
Step 3
Temperature
Think of Goldilocks when storing your vanilla — not too hot and not too
cold. Beans are most comfortable when the temperature ranges from
60 degrees F (15.5 C) to 85 degrees F (29 C). Excessive heat or cold
will dry out the pods, sucking all the goodness and flavor out of the
seeds.
Never keep the beans in the freezer or refrigerator! The cold will dry
them out and rot, and it could even produce mold.
Airing
:
Do not store your Native Vanilla pods in the open or a vented container.
Instead, you should remove your beans from their container and let
them “breathe” once every eight weeks (and every four-six weeks in
hotter months). This is to ensure that the beans are not “sweating” in
their container. Moisture is bad for beans — it can lead to mold. Open
the container, remove them from their cling wrap and allow both to
“breathe” for 15 minutes, away from direct sunlight. Rewrap the beans
and put them back in their cool, dark place.
Our vanilla may develop small vanillin crystals. They can sometimes be
confused with mold but we assure you, the crystals are a good thing!
Take your pods outside int he sunshine without removing them from
their glass storage. If they look hard and glitter in the light like Edward
Cullen, then you have superior quality beans. Those crystals are gems
of pure flavor and are completely edible.
If the beans don’t glitter in the light, smell bad and have a whole
powdery substance — then it’s mold. But don’t panic. You can save
your beans, especially if the mold hasn’t reached all the beans.
Separate the moldy beans from the clean ones. Wipe the moldy ones
with a paper towel or clean cloth, then wipe them down with a cloth
that is damp with high-proof alcohol. Allow them to dry completely and
then store them separately from the unaffected beans. If the mold
reappears, or has permeated the bean’s surface and is growing inside
the pod, then you should throw them out.
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What to do with dry vanilla beans
Even beans that look like they have dried out completely will rehydrate
when put in a warm liquid, like heating in milk or warm water for a few
hours before you cook/bake with them. But don’t expect miracles from
rehydrating. We recommend you use the beans as fresh as possible for
the best experience.
You can also use dry beans to make good quality extract as the alcohol
will rehydrate them. Super dry beans are not a complete loss either,
they can ground up in a coffee grinder, remember to remove the hard
tips at each end.
After vanilla beans have been scraped and all of the seeds have been
used, you can submerge the empty pod into your sugar container. It will
infuse the sugar with a delicate vanilla flavor.
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