Tahiti Vanille sells single source tahitensis beans grown and cured at three different plantations in Tahiti. One of these locations is Raiatea (formerly plantation La Vanillere), the same beans sold by vanillafromtahiti.com. The others are Tahaa and Bora-Bora.

While most Tahiti grown vanilla goes through a central curer like Jean Chan, these guys do it a bit different and are winning big awards.

Alain ABEL sent pictures of the plantation, and this information:

Why Is Terroir Important?
For nearly ten years now, the Tahiti Vanille team has been helping to promote this rare flavouring for discerning consumers, not just by cultivating it, but also by preparing it and exporting it to the four corners of the earth, with love, pride and passion.

The team is made up of four young Polynesians.

The idea came out of a very simple observation: for the past hundred years, almost all of the thousand Polynesian Vanilla growers have no longer prepared their own vanillas (drying); they pick them and sell them to the few preparers active in the territory. The result is that each preparer obtains vanilla from at least one hundred planters spread out over the entire archipelago. All of the vanilla from the various plantations and islands is thus mixed together and prepared at the same time.

Once the notion of terroir was abandoned, the vanillas were no longer distinguishable. “There was a need to recapture the nourishing terroirs of our precious Tahitian Vanilla, differentiate them, identify them, make them known.”

With a constant concern for unparalleled quality, Alain Abel rediscovered these Polynesian terroirs and distinguished them into three Premier Plantation Regions, in order to develop vanillas rich in history, to be sampled and savoured like fine wines.

Premier Plantation Region Raiatea (Cru Raiatea) Please note that “Cru la Vanillère” is now “Cru Raiatea”. [ed: These are the same vanilla beans sold by vanillafromtahiti.com and reviewed here.]
In the deep and fertile valley of Hotopuu, not far from the famous marae of Taputapuatea, the historical cradle of Maohi culture, valued for its location and its exceptional sunlight, the Premier Plantation Region Raiatea came into being.

The product of wild vines gathered in the forest, propagated by cuttings in terraces under shading nets, in a plant compost coming exclusively from coconut palms (trunks, down, palms), the Premier Plantation Region Raiatea offers long and fleshy vanilla beans and develops their delicious caramel and anise flavours in a remarkable, unctuous, sweet-smelling mixture.

Premier Plantation Region Tahaa (Cru Tahaa)
We selected this plantation, located in the superb and untamed island of Tahaa, the sister of Raiatea, for the quality of its mature beans. The plantation is of the traditional type. The vines are planted on hillsides, on shrubs serving as stakes.

The soil is naturally enriched with the leaves of a deciduous tree: the Bourrao.

The beans of Premier Plantation Region Tahaa are fleshy and shorter, and gradually release a rich, fruity, smooth aromatic bouquet, featuring sublime floral notes.

Premier Plantation Region Bora-Bora (Cru Bora-Bora)
It is on the west cost of the island of Tahaa, just opposite the delightfully enchanting Bora-Bora, far removed from human habitation, that we selected this plantation, admired for the quality of its natural humus and its red earth, constantly enriched by the leaves of a tree called Falcata.

The vanilla plants are arranged on hillsides, and sunlight is controlled by pruning the branches of the shrubs by hand. The beans are oily and fleshy. This Premier Plantation Region releases the accents of a rich, tropical volcanic earth, in a constant mixture of the pleasant and gentle scents of prunes, vanilla, liquorice and chocolate.

Awards
March 2008: Vanilla curor Alain ABEL wins the GOLD Medal 2008 at the Concours Général Agricole de Paris, Category: Vanilla Tahitensis.
February 2007: Alain ABEL wins the GOLD Medal at the Concours Général Agricole de Paris, Category: Vanilla Tahitensis.

Note also that we supply some the most famous chefs around the world: Joel Robuchon, Alain Ducasse, Guy Savoy, Alain Senderens, etc..

 

Tahiti Vanille Raiatea, Tahiti Vanilla tahitensis.
Tahiti Vanilla’s primary plantation, Raiatea, grows award winning Tahitian tahitensis vanilla beans that are used by top chefs the world over. Note: “La Vanillère” is now know as “Cru Raiatea” — these are the same vanilla beans sold by vanillafromtahiti.com and reviewed here.

Tahiti Vanille Tahaa, Tahiti Vanilla tahitensis.
This is the shortest of Tahiti Vanille’s three vanilla origins. They are extremely moist both inside and out — a floppy, soft, and very supple vanilla bean. The skins are brown in color, and are not overly greasy/shiny because they were not vacuum packed. The beans are very plump, but not as full as Tahiti Vanille’s Raiatea grown vanilla beans.

Inside, the vanilla beans contain a plentiful amount of caviar for their size. The texture of the caviar is very interesting; it is extremely gooey, stringy and moist but at the same time does not stick well to other clumps of caviar. The aroma is strong and sweet, with a spicy undertone.

These are beautiful, single-source Tahitian vanilla beans. While these beans are not quite nice as those from Tahiti Vanille’s primary plantation, Raiatea, they are still top-quality and are good examples of a distinctive, single-source vanilla bean.

 

Tahiti Vanille Bora Bora, Tahiti Vanilla tahitensis.
This is the longest of the three Tahiti Vanille varieties. The vanilla pod is supple, black in color, and moderately plump. The vanilla beans are pliable and flexible, but not floppy.

While the aroma of the Tahaa variety had a sharper, slightly more acidic aroma, the Bora Bora beans have a soft and buttery scent. The caviar is super goopy, but less wet than the Tahaa vanilla beans. Gooey strings run through the caviar, leaving sticky fingers after handling. The beans yield an average amount of caviar for their size.

These are beautiful, single-source Tahitian vanilla beans. While they are not quite nice as those from Tahiti Vanille’s primary plantation, Raiatea, they are top-quality examples of a distinctive, single-source vanilla bean.

 

Most vanilla growers sell raw vanilla to curing houses, where is it mixed with vanilla from other farms and cured. Tahiti Vanille (formerly La Vanillere) cures their own vanilla. Farm-curing usually means a super high quality boutique product with strong sense of place (terroir). I call it “first world vanilla”. This is the approach favored by vanilla growers in Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, and a few plantations in Tahiti. These beans will always be more expensive than commercially cured, third world vanilla beans.

The beans were packaged in a zip-top bag.

Tahiti Tahitensis Grade A 6.3″/16cm - $44.95 per 100 grams (~1/4 pound), or 20 for $64.95 (~5 oz)
These beans are fantastically plump, fragrant, and uniform. Easily some of the nicest beans I’ve ever handled. The skins have a wonderful soft texture.

The aroma is much sweeter and ‘cleaner’ than the PNG grown tahitensis beans I’ve reviewed. No chocolate component. Clear, floral, and above all, sweet. The floral aroma hit me every time I walked in my house, even with the beans stored in two layers of zip-bags. People much more important than me say it has a “prune dominance”…ok, maybe.

These beans presented a bit of a challenge to cut. I couldn’t get a clean bisection — the skin was too soft and pliable, it stretched and frayed as I cut it. I use the same knife in all the reviews, extract to gourmet, and never have a problem getting a nice slice. A razor might be more effective. Not a negative, just use the proper cutting equipment.

Inside, the beans are even more amazing. Sticky strings formed, stretched, and broke between the two halves as I pulled them apart — check out the picture. Super gooey and sticky caviar. Moist to the point of being gooey. Heavy caviar yield for only six beans. The oiliness of the bean was apparent when my fingers made the same strings as the beans! See the picture below.

Peter at vanillafromtahiti.com said these beans weren’t intended for extract. He’s right. I think the moisture content is very high — but thats ok! These beans are intended for five star deserts, not extract bottles. But that won’t stop us. So far, the extract is fantastic. After only 4 hours the extract was darker than others after a month. If you intend to make extract with these beans, use a bunch — according to the FDA you need to compensate for the extra moisture (above 25%) with more beans.

Six medium beans weighed in at about 40 grams, 6.5 grams each. vanillafromtahiti.com also sells mini, short, and long beans. Beans are sold by quantity, rather than weight, but these beans were all consistent in size, weight, and plumpness. At the time of this writing, a 100 gram (nearly 1/4 lb) bag of medium beans is available for $45.

Bottom line — “cleanest”, strongest, sweetest tahitensis aroma I’ve encountered. This is real farm-cured Tahitian Vanilla, and vanillafromtahiti.com has it at the best prices I’ve seen.

Tahitian Vanilla Extract - $9.95 for 2 ounces (59ml)
I think Peter was a bit appalled that I was going to cut up these fantastic beans to make extract — he also sent along their own extract made with Tahiti Vanille/Raiatea (formerly La Vanillere) vanilla beans.

This extract is more like my hand crafted extract than any commercial extract I’ve seen. Its a bit murky and light in color, unlike most dark translucent commercial extracts. Its not cut with sweeteners, an adulterant commonly used to reduce the alcohol smell.

The aroma was wonderful, just like the beans. I made icing and creme brulee with this extract to evaluate the flavor. This extract is highly faithful to the bean, and could be an acceptable substitute to making your own :)

 

Arizona Vanilla Company has a webstore and listings on eBay. The beans were packed in bags.

Arizona Vanilla Company (AZVC) was the last major multi-origin US vanilla bean vendor to be added to this site. AZVC advertises their Mexico planifolia beans as the recipients of a Gold Star Award from Sante` Magazine in 2006. When the Mexican beans went on sale, I couldn’t resist adding them to the site.

I bought 15 Mexico origin 8″ vanilla beans on eBay. Additionally, I ordered one Madagascar bean and one Tahiti grown tahitensis. The beans arrived super fast, but there were only 14, 7″ Mexican vanilla beans. Eric at AZVC explained that the most recent crop from Mexico was 7″ instead of 8″. He offered a replacement order or a refund. I ask for a replacement.

I’m not the only one to experience missing items in my order. An Instructables member, though very satisfied, e-mailed about missing items in their order.

Eric sent an additional package of 15 larger Mexico beans and 5 Madagascar beans. He explained that the first Mexican beans were from the 2006 harvest, and the second shipment are the current 2007 harvest. According to Eric, “The 2007 harvest was not very good due to the 2 hurricanes that hit the Mexican vanilla growing region in 2007. About half the harvest was destroyed…” –Eric C Elsberry, email, April 8, 2008.

Mexico planifolia, first shipment (crop of 2006).
I received 14, approximately 7″ Mexican vanilla beans. The beans are dark brown, shiny, and oily. They have the characteristic woodiness of Mexico origin vanilla.

The beans are beautifully flexible, but quite thin. The aroma is moderately strong. An above average yield of nice, airy caviar, despite being thin beans.

 

Mexico planifolia, second shipment (crop of 2007).
The second, replacement shipment of Mexican vanilla beans is fairly disappointing. These beans are longer, but browner, dryer, and woodier. A couple of the beans are quite scrawny and disfigured. Even though they are exceptionally water-dry, they are still very oily — even greasy.

Cutting them is like cutting extract grade beans. One bean snapped in two places when flexed.

Dry broken vanilla bean.

They have a low caviar yield for so many beans, though some were so scrawny and thin that it was nearly impossible to cut them open and remove the caviar. Airy, normal caviar, but a bit on the dry side.

Scrawny vanilla bean.

 

Madagascar planifolia
AZVC’s Madagascar vanilla beans are very oily and flexible. An advertisement for these beans says they can be tied in a knot - I was able to do this without damaging the bean. They are fairly short beans, and black to black-brown in color.

Several beans are plump, some are very thin. The first bean I received has a visible tattoo. The caviar is airy, though cohesive. Yield is below average.

 

Tahiti tahitensis
This is a real Tahiti grown tahitensis vanilla bean. It has a nice aroma and excellent cure. I think it’s from general island growers, probably through Jean Chan, and not a specific plantation, like Le Vanillere.

The bean I received was not nearly as plump as the Tahitian vanilla previously reviewed. This image shows that, despite being very wide, this bean is only moderately thick.

Caviar yield is above average, but very dry and spongy. This caviar isn’t at all gooey or muddy, like the previous Tahiti tahitensis vanilla beans I reviewed.