XL Vanilla Bean

At the beginning of June 2025 I stopped by the Parisian boutique of my very good friend, master chocolatier Jean-Philippe Casteuble (fifilapraline.com). I came by at a good time because it just so happened that a young man, recently hired by a company specializing in very rare ingredients from the Island of Madagascar, was standing at the counter giving out samples of honey - honey of passion fruit, lychee and something else that has now escaped me.

I enjoyed tasting the honeys when JP (Jean-Philippe) said "Justin, you missed seeing his vanilla!".  Right then the young man, pulled out the biggest vanilla bean that I have ever seen in my life - almost 30 centimeters long (just under a foot).

Though I was about to fly back to the USA in a couple of days, and didn't plan on traveling back to Paris from home in the suburbs before leaving the country, I decided I couldn't leave France without bringing back some of those vanilla beans.

These beans are slightly smaller than the specimen Paul (the young man) showed me initially, but they are still 4 times the weight of the vanilla beans commonly found (4-5 grams), weighing in at a whopping 20g each, and measuring 20 to 25 cm long (8-10in, approximately).

I only brought back about 40 of them, so get yours while my I still have some!