Tahitian vanilla ◆

Vanille de Tahiti

What it is

Admiral Hamelin landed the first cuttings in Tahiti in 1848, and what grew there turned out to be a separate species — a natural hybrid, low in vanillin and heavy instead in anisaldehyde and heliotropin. That is where the prune, cherry and liquorice come from; it is not Bourbon vanilla done differently.

In the kitchen

Its aroma compounds are more fragile than Bourbon’s, so split the pod into cold cream or a finished sabayon and leave it twelve hours in the fridge instead of boiling it. Scrape the seeds, then keep the pod: the sheath holds as much aroma as the caviar.

Goes with

Cream Mascarpone Peach Coconut milk White chocolate Dark rum

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