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If you’ve never experienced pure, authentic vanilla, you’re in for a treat. Genuine vanilla extracts will spoil you for the weaker supermarket substitutes many of us grew up using.

No one understands this better than Patricia Rain, who’s known as the Vanilla Queen in tropical regions where the spice is cultivated. Patricia’s interest in vanilla started with culinary curiosity. She wrote Vanilla: The Cultural History of the World’s Favorite Flavor and Fragrance, a book that weaves the history of vanilla – which is the only fruit of the orchid family — with period recipes and folkloric tales.

Patricia’s curiosity grew into a passion for protecting the people who cultivate vanilla and promoting greater awareness of the socioeconomic challenges in tropical regions where it’s grown — primarily Mexico, Tahiti and Madagascar. One way she’s doing that is by supporting fair trade farms that pay appropriate wages. Through her venture, The Vanilla Company, Patricia offers pure vanilla extracts and sugars that celebrate the unique local characteristics of each area’s crop. For instance, Madagascan bourbon vanilla has the traditional flavor that we associate with vanilla ice cream and flavored beverages, while Tahitian vanilla is sweeter and fruitier with a high heliotropin content that makes it a good stomach calmative. Mexican vanilla is creamy and spicy, and it’s especially good in desserts made without heat or with a short cooking time.

We heard about Patricia from Daily Grommet friend Kathy Long, who’s a huge fan of her vanilla-infused sugars (these add a delicious flavor to coffee or tea, or when sprinkled on fresh fruits and pastries). “Patricia gave me a sugar sampler as a gift one year, and I was sold,” Kathy says. “I use the vanilla sugar in anything and everything, and I consider it the magic touch to my chicken curry.”

Patricia’s pure vanilla extracts and sugars are an affordable luxury that will make a difference not only in your baking and cooking, but also in the lives of the people who cultivate them.

— Ann

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  • Patricia Rain became the Vanilla Queen due to her passion for vanilla and for promoting fair trade vanilla farms which pay fair wages.
  • Pure, authentic vanilla extract contains 35% pure cane sugar alcohol
  • Madagascan Bourbon Vanilla Extract has the traditional flavor that we associate with vanilla ice cream and other vanilla flavored desserts and beverages. Although Bourbon vanilla extract contains alcohol, it is not made from Bourbon whiskey.
    • Ingredients: Purified water, sugar cane alcohol (35%), premium vanilla bean extractives, sugar (3%). No artificial ingredients. Gluten-free.
  • Mexican Vanilla Extract is a very smooth, creamy, spicy vanilla. It’s especially good in desserts made without heat or with a short cooking time. Dark chocolate, cream desserts, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, ethnic foods, wild game, poultry or meat, all benefit from Mexican vanilla.
    • Ingredients: Purified water, sugar cane alcohol (35%), premium vanilla bean extractives, sugar (3%). No artificial ingredients. Gluten-free.
  • Tahitian Vanilla Extract is sweeter and fruitier and has less natural vanillin than Bourbon or Mexican vanilla. It has a cherry-like, licorice, or “raisiny” taste and floral fragrance. Tahitian vanilla is especially nice in fruit compotes and desserts, as well as in sauces for poultry, seafood and wild game. Tahitian vanilla’s high heliotropin content makes it a good stomach calmative.
    • Ingredients: Purified water, sugar cane alcohol (35%), premium vanilla bean extractives, sugar (3%). No artificial ingredients. Gluten-free.
  • Vanilla Pure Grain Sugars can be sprinkled on pies, cookies, scones before baking and also on fresh fruit and in coffee/tea.
    • Vanilla Sugar: Raw washed sugar, ground vanilla beans, vanilla bean pieces.
    • Chocolate Sugar: Raw washed sugar, natural unsweetened cocoa powder, ground vanilla beans. The chocolate sugar is recommended on strawberries, french toast & pancakes.
    • Cinnamon Spice Sugar: Raw washed sugar, Ceylon cinnamon, Grenada nutmeg, ground vanilla beans. This sugar is recommended on any apple desserts.
  • Vanilla: The Cultural History of the World’s Favorite Flavor and Fragrance, is the first book ever that tells the story of vanilla from early Mesoamerica to the moment. Each chapter includes recipes based on the time period or the various countries and cultures that cultivate vanilla worldwide. The book concludes with great tips and recipes for using vanilla in sweet and savory dishes.
    
    Get a free copy when you spend $50 or more on Rain’s vanilla products.
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