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Vanilla beans - are these good prices


Jeana

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Do these look like good prices for vanilla beans? They have a large selection.

I've seen the beans run as much as $5.00 a piece before. So I thought this place had some good pricing.

How many does it take to get a strong oil infusion? Anyone use them for perfuming?

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Ok I got my beans. I got a lot of them. I've never smelled one before so I don't know if they are high quality or not. What do you look for?

I've read a few tutorials how to infuse the beans in oil, the shortest time I've seen is 1-2 wks. Some people suggest 6 months. Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions about time frames and ways to make the infused oil really strong.

Can you make a vanilla oil strong enough to fragrance soap on it's own?

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Thanks for the kind words ladies. :)

I have extract and infusion here that has been ongoing for years. I take out what I need and just keep adding more beans and oils or vodka.

What you want to look for is an oily exterior. Not where it is slimy though. They should bend easy without snapping. They should all have a delicate aroma of vanilla along with either a woody, smoke, earth, boozy scent for bourbon and a fruity, floral, sweet, earth scent for Tahitian.

I am so bad at describing scents. :embarasse

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Tammy, you aren't bad at describing their scent. It isn't easy. I thought I would open the bags and smell vanilla. But I smelled vanilla mixed with an earthy smell. The earthy, almost a tobacco like smell, threw me off a little since I've never seen or smelled a vanilla bean live before. The beans were oily and pliable.

I put them in rice bran oil. I use it in almost everything and I think it won't go bad like some other oils.

I did 4 beans in 7 oz of oil. I did the three different kinds of beans. I did the gourmet, mexican, and tahitian to compare them. It only took about 15 minutes to start smelling the true vanilla coming out in the oils. You could really smell the difference between the oils too. The tahitian has a perfume smell to it. The mexican beans have a deeper, rich vanilla, and the gourmet beans have a lighter smell, more of a regular bakery vanilla.

When I was taking out the caviar, the gourmet beans had much more than the tahitians so I thought it would be stronger, but the tahitians are stronger.

A while back I bought some infused vanilla from MMS. I took it out to compare to these oils I am making. There is no comparison, the oils with these beans are so much better.

I am glad I found this place. I am happy with what I got. :smiley2: I love this kind of stuff.

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  • 2 weeks later...
So what do you use infused vanilla oil for? I want something else to get hooked on! lol

In the past I've mainly used infused vanilla for my lip balms. Now that I have access to much more of it, I will be using it for other things too. One thing I really like doing is using it for a body oil. I can smell it all day sometimes. I used the Tahitian for this. I have many future plans for my little beans.

Koala, can you smell it if you use it in CP. And how much is needed if you can smell it in CP?

Edited by Jeana
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Can't help you with that question. I don't make CP soap.

You can take a handful of beans and dry them out then grind them up and use as an additive. This is also good to put in your coffee before brewing a pot. Gives it a real kick of flavor. I have also put ground vanilla in with sugar scrubs.

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