![]() Beware of the sidewalk vendors and tourist markets and stick to reputable merchants. Be wary of purchasing products outside the USA and do some serious investigation when buying in Mexico. Coumarin is a toxic substance especially to the liver, and has been banned in the USA since the 1950’s. Apparently, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean began to sell the cheap synthetic vanillas with great success and profit! By adding coumarin to synthetic vanillan, the flavor was a little more like pure vanilla. It was soon discovered that a synthetic product named vanillan could be made from paper pulp and coal tar. Meanwhile, synthetic products were developing in Germany as cheaper alternatives. Growing vanilla became even more difficult. On the heels of the revolution, development by petroleum companies in the gulf region began stripping the natural forestation. This was further complicated for the Mexicans by the Mexican Revolution. By the early 20th century, competition from heavily vested French plantations nurtured for decades in other tropical climates began to gain control of the world vanilla market. Vanilla pods (beans, sticks) grow from the most beautiful flowering orchids. Business prospered in the vanilla growing regions on the Gulf of Mexico. Until the latter part of the 19th century, Mexican vanilla enjoyed a monopoly. Now my quest for the truth became a true challenge. One of my sources went as farĪs to say that “more than 99% of all so-called vanilla extract bought in retail venues in Latin America is imitation vanilla.” This statement seemed much exaggerated. If the label on the bottle does not say that alcohol is an ingredient then it cannot be the true extract. In fact real vanilla extract can only be made with the use of alcohol. However, finding a truly natural vanilla extract is much more complicated.įor some long-forgotten reason, I had also acquired a predetermined mind-set that real vanilla would not contain alcohol. Of course the imitation product is what it claims to be. Simple! But this may not be the case at all. The other product would state ‘imitation vanilla’ on the label. It’s Mexico! For me, the real product would state that it is natural vanilla on the label. In my mind it was a simple task to purchase vanilla, especially here in Manzanillo. I was not expecting to find so much conflicting information regarding what ‘is’ and ‘is not’ real vanilla. ![]() Researching this article proved to be a true conundrum. If that’s your goal, this may be worth having on hand.By Manzanillo Sun Writer from the May 2015 Edition That tells me that if you wanted to bake this into a cake, you may end up with something that tastes richer and butterier than you’d get with other extracts. Every taster agreed that the cookies made with this vanilla were “ultra buttery” as if “you used some really fancy European butter” and one taster even said, “they’re like eating exceptional vanilla ice cream, but in cookie form.” Since I used the exact same butter in every single test, the only differing factor here was the vanilla. In the pudding test, tasters were generally happy with the rich, earthy vanilla flavor, though some commented that it was “really, really strong vanilla flavor, almost too much.” What was really interesting, though, was how the vanilla performed in the cookie test. I was especially excited to try this “Elixir” which is a double-fold extract-that's an extract made with double the vanilla beans for super-concentrated vanilla flavor. I was already a fan of Villa Vainilla’s Pure Vanilla Extract-I buy a few bottles of it to give as gifts every time I travel to Mexico.
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