Vanilla is and always will be a top flavour in the food and beverage industry; it is a staple ingredient found in so many products. In terms of consumer preferences, 81% of consumers love or like the flavour (1) and it has been ranked as the favourite ice cream flavour in the UK & the US (2,3). Here are some reasons to choose Plant-Ex as your supplier of vanilla products:
Here at Plant-Ex we offer a range of vanilla solutions for every price point. Our premium grade vanilla is certified, direct from organic and sustainable vanilla farms in Madagascar and is used to make every one of the following vanilla products:
Process
We make every effort to ensure that we are creating a premium product throughout every step of the process. Here is how we do it:
- Sourcing – We Sustainably source our vanilla beans from Madagascar. Our Vanilla pods come from the pods of the Orchid Plant, Vanilla Planifolia delivering the most intense flavour and aroma.
- Pod Distribution – The pods are equally distributed into separate cages in our vanilla extraction tank. This keeps them loose and open to the extraction liquid. Pumping and circulating the liquid around the beans for an extended period of time allows a complete extraction.
- Sterilization – The pods are sterilized by gently mixing in ethanol using an air mixer, so as not to disturb the pods. The cages have holes in the bottom and sides to allow the ethanol to move through and extract the flavour compounds from the vanilla pods. This is done for a minimum of 24 hours (the longer the beans are held in an alcohol solution, the better the final extraction of oil/fat-soluble compounds in the final extract. The solution starts as a relatively clear liquid and gradually develops into a rich aromatic solution, full of all the true notes of Vanilla Beans.
- Pull Aqueous Compounds – Water is added to the extraction tank to pull aqueous compounds from the beans, this adds to the full rounded profile of the finished extract. At this point the extract is left to develop and mature.
- Quality Control – Our Quality Control teams ensure that the product is compliant with our internal standards and passes all the necessary tests e.g. test for brix content (solid vs liquid content) and triangle taste test vs known standard. If the solid content doesn’t meet the standards. We will run the extraction tank for longer to extract more of the flavour compounds from the vanilla pods.
- Filter & Final Products – The extract is pumped out of the extraction tank through the mesh filters. The filter ensures that there are no solids e.g. broken down vanilla beans. The seeds that are captured are dried and sold for the speckled effect in Bakery and Ice Cream applications
Our HPLC Machine
This new investment for us in Q1 of 2024 assists in high-level quantitative analysis and has strengthened our position in Quality. It is a particularly useful tool to ensure quality in our vanilla extract as it measures the active compounds content; the HPLC machine measures the exact percentage of Vanillin in our products to provide verified results of each batch on the certificates of analysis.
High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) is an analytical technique used to separate, identify, and quantify components in a mixture. It is a powerful tool in chemistry and biochemistry, particularly for applications in pharmaceuticals, environmental monitoring, food and beverage analysis, and medical diagnostics.
Some of the advantages of this machine include:
- High Resolution: Can separate complex mixtures with high precision.
- Speed: Faster than traditional column chromatography.
- Sensitivity: Capable of detecting very small changes in the concentration of compounds.
- Quantitative Accuracy: Provides accurate and reproducible measurements.
Flavour Profiles
- Beany Vanilla – A ‘beany’ vanilla has the most intense and authentic vanilla flavour as it is associated with the initial extraction of vanilla from the bean. This vanilla has strong earthy and vanilla bean notes.
- Woody – A woody vanilla is a warm and rich flavour with earthy notes. It is often the vanilla profile that can be tasted in wines and decadent desserts for a rich vanilla flavour.
- Smokey Vanilla – The contrast of rich smoke and delicate vanilla are what makes them pair so well; a smokey vanilla flavour has a profile similar to that of a woody vanilla, but with a subtle smoke top note. A smokey vanilla can give your bakery product a distinguishable flavour to stand out from other vanilla products.
- Creamy Vanilla – A creamy vanilla profile tends to have added fatty notes within the flavour, emulating the feeling of a fatty mouthfeel and therefore delivering creaminess. This is perfect for delivering the perfect creamy vanilla ice cream or custard for that extra sweet vanilla kick.
- Buttery Vanilla – A buttery vanilla has a delicate sweet vanilla taste with extra fatty notes for that melt in the mouth vanilla taste. This buttery vanilla profile is perfect for patisserie applications such as a shortbread or a sweet pastry.
To Request a Sample of any of our Vanilla Products please email sales@plant-ex.com or to request a copy of our Vanilla Brochure please email marketing@plant-ex.com.
Sources:
(1) Datassential – Vanilla
(2) YouGov (2022)- America’s favourite ice-cream flavours: vanilla, chocolate, and mint chocolate chip
(3) Grocery Trade (2023) – It may be plain, but vanilla has our hearts: Tesco lifts the lid on the nation’s ice cream eating habits
