Vanilla is one of the world’s most loved flavours and one of the most labour-intensive to produce. It takes over 12 months to grow, hand-pollinate, harvest, and cure each vanilla bean to develop the rich, aromatic flavour you know and love.
Here’s a quick guide to help you choose the right Queen Vanilla product for your recipe:
Vanilla Bean Pods
The purest form of vanilla. Queen Vanilla Beans are gourmet grade and ideal for special occasion desserts like custards, poached fruit, and crème brûlée. They deliver a strong, authentic flavour.
Vanilla Bean Paste
Made from vanilla extract and thousands of real vanilla seeds. It adds rich flavour and beautiful flecks to cream-based recipes like whipped cream, buttercream, panna cotta, pavlova, and even milkshakes.
Vanilla Extract
Created by infusing vanilla beans in water, alcohol, and sometimes sugar. It’s perfect for everyday baking—think cakes, biscuits, pancakes, slices, and icings.
Concentrated Vanilla Extract
A more intense version of our extract, made from pure vanilla beans. The thick consistency is great for delicate or aerated recipes such as meringues, mousses and sponge cakes.
Single Origin Extract, Paste and Pods
Our Single Origin Vanilla range celebrates the unique flavour profiles of vanilla grown in different regions.
Madagascar vanilla (Extract & Paste) is smooth, creamy, and sweet.
Papua New Guinea vanilla (Pods) is bold, floral, and slightly fruity.
Each origin brings its own character, so you can choose the one that best suits your recipe or taste preference.
Vanilla Essence
We no longer use the term “essence” to describe our vanilla products, as terminology in the food industry has evolved. Essence is now commonly associated with synthetic flavouring. What was once labelled “Vanilla Essence – Flavouring Extract” is now simply referred to as vanilla extract, to help clearly distinguish natural vanilla from artificial alternatives.
Hybrid Vanilla, also known as Vanilla Extract with added natural flavours
While Queen does not manufacture hybrid vanilla products, these can be found in all major supermarkets. Hybrid vanilla refers to a flavouring product that combines both vanilla extract (which is derived from real vanilla beans) , natural flavours (which are derived from natural sources, but not from vanilla itself) and sometimes colours, or caramelised ingredients. They are used to enhance or “boost” the vanilla flavour without increasing the amount of pure vanilla extract. Hybrid vanilla is used to create a consistent vanilla flavour in recipes, often at a lower cost than using pure vanilla extract alone.
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