Natural Vanilla vs Artificial Vanilla

It would be much easier for me to just tell you that vanilla beans or pure vanilla extract is heads over heels better than artificial vanilla extract. Having said that, I know my business professors would cringe, but the truth of the matter is when we are comparing between natural vanilla vs artificial vanilla, it is much more complicated than what it seems to be. The complexity of the issue on hand has to be explained from the cultivation level to the final consumer. In a later post I will write an in-depth article on how vanilla is produced and how vanillin is formed during the process.

However, in the meantime, the main difference between vanilla beans or pure vanilla extract and imitation vanilla extract is simple. Vanilla beans or pure vanilla extract consists of over 300 different types of ingredients all blending in with each other to produce the scent and taste that we love so much. Imitation vanilla on the other hand derives its vanillin, the main chemical that makes vanilla smell and taste like vanilla, from non-vanilla sources, mainly as byproduct from the wood pulp industry or from petro chemicals.

The reason I am hesitant in saying that natural vanilla is heads over heals better than artificial vanillin is that though the harshness apparent in artificial vanillin can be detected by sensitive palates, when baking, some of the advantages inherent in natural vanilla are lost due to the heat. Making it hard for untrained palates to differentiate between the two. However, when it comes to recipes that are heatless or recipes that applies the vanilla after the heating process such as puddings, pastry cream, butter-cream frosting and ice-cream; natural vanilla outshines the competition.

All in all most chefs around the world still prefer natural vanilla over the imitation. Many site health reasons and our natural tendency to avoid artificial food ingredients when possible, but I believe that the reason is one and the same with people still looking for single origin coffee, single origin chocolate and wine from different parts of the world. In the same way people look for different vanilla beans from around the world. It is the 300 plus components latent in the soil and the weather that give natural vanilla its character and its allure. Something that man cannot fully copy, nature.

Cocoa, Vanilla and Coffee

Covanee…