Bye bye vanilla ice cream?

[pat c]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/vanilla-prices-village-ice-cream-calgary-1.4655135


A spike in pure vanilla extract prices has forced bakeries and ice cream makers to reconsider the world's most popular flavour. ..........


Well that sucks.

 

[BaileyCatts]

 

[Vash01]

NO!!!!! It is my favorite.

 

[clairecloutier]

Yes we noticed the spike in vanilla prices a while ago. Not just for vanilla ice cream, but for vanilla extract.

 

[Peaches LaTour]

No!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[rfisher]

Vanilla is so vanilla. So many other options are so much more interesting and

 

[purple skates]

 

[annie720]

Vanilla is the only ice cream I eat with cake or pie.

 

[BittyBug]

Noooooooooooooooooo!

Just polished off a pint last night.

 

[BaileyCatts]

Don't you need vanilla to make all the other ice creams??!!!

 

[pat c]

Bakers use vanilla extract, not the artificial stuff, for all baking. So, it's not just vanilla ice cream. It's cakes/cookies/icing .....a variety of baked goods.

 

[BaileyCatts]

ur killin' me!!!!!!

 

[meggonzo]

Don't worry, there's always almond extract.

 

[TheGirlCanSkate]

I've been making my own extract this year. It's about 7 per bean. The costs have just risen too much to buy it any other way.

 

[myhoneyhoney]

Yup, I know many bakers in a bind because of the price hike.

 

[Vagabond]

Vanilla is so vanilla. So many other options are so much more interesting and

Heretic!

 

[Lara]

 

[genevieve]

That article is frustrating, as it only touches on the reasons for the price hike - poor crops in the world's main producer, Madagascar, due to climate change and politics, and some lip service to prices being set by large companies rather than small businesses and home bakers, which I'd really, really like to know more about.

It's about so much more than ice cream.

As a prolific home baker, I always bought several bottles of vanilla extract when it was on sale. I think I gave away like 5 bottles of it when I left.

 

[Buzz]

Say isn't so!

 

[pat c]

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-44006176

The main reason for the high price is that there was a cyclone in Madagascar last March which damaged a lot of the plantations," said Julian Gale, a commodities analyst for IEG Vu.

"And despite hopes that the price would have eased by now, it's still holding on the high side because demand is so strong."

The BBC's Tim Healy in Madagascar says that in addition to this, market watchers conclude that commodity speculation by a few large buyers is forcing prices upwards.

 

[clairecloutier]

That article is frustrating, as it only touches on the reasons for the price hike - poor crops in the world's main producer, Madagascar, due to climate change and politics, and some lip service to prices being set by large companies rather than small businesses and home bakers, which I'd really, really like to know more about.

At least the article does explain why the price is rising.

My husband first noticed it about 6 months ago, because he usually does our BJ's shopping, and that's where we were getting our vanilla. BJ's stopped selling their own brand of vanilla extract, and they still had the McCormick's vanilla extract, but it was like double the price.

It's kind of ironic this is happening, because I feel like there's been a trend in baking recipes over the past few years to significantly increase the amount of vanilla used. I feel like in the past, I'd rarely see a recipe that called for more than 1 tsp. vanilla, but nowadays, even a lot of chocolate cake/dessert recipes call for 1 tbsp. vanilla, or something like that.

 

[pat c]

another link:

https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2018/03/economist-explains-4

 

[Skittl1321]

I've been making my own extract this year. It's about 7 per bean. The costs have just risen too much to buy it any other way.

I can't remember what recipe it was, but recently we had something that called for 4 vanilla beans. No way! For that we can probably just go eat in a restaurant.

 

[Spun Silver]

This is the first time I realized that stuff in the bottle wasn't real vanilla. Bump in the road. Some other country will grow vanilla. It will taste all the sweeter if we have to wait a couple years.

 

[TheGirlCanSkate]

I can't remember what recipe it was, but recently we had something that called for 4 vanilla beans. No way! For that we can probably just go eat in a restaurant.

LOL, was it a "scrape the beans out" recipe? Like panna cotta or creme brulee? I can get one flask of vanilla from 3 beans and one weaker flask of vanilla from a second running.

 

[annie720]

Hubby did make creme brulee a couple of weeks ago for dinner guests and I saw him scraping the beans. It was yummy, but now I wish I could go back to that time and really appreciate it.

ETA: I just asked him how much the vanilla beans cost and he said it was about $6 U.S. per bean.

 

[Japanfan]

This is the first time I realized that stuff in the bottle wasn't real vanilla.

I never thought about that either.

I don't bake much - a coffee cake or cornbread once in a while. There's vanilla in the coffee cake. I've always used the bottle, and been happy my coffee cake, it's very yummy.

 

[vesperholly]

This is the first time I realized that stuff in the bottle wasn't real vanilla.

Some of the bottled stuff is real vanilla. There's vanilla extract and then there's imitation vanilla extract.

https://www.cooksillustrated.com/taste_tests/455-vanilla-extract

 

[bardtoob]

I am going to drown my sorrows in this pint of Haagen-Daz Java Chip.

 

[genevieve]

Here's a 2016 article about how vanilla, coffee and cocoa are at risk of disappearing (while getting more expensive on the way out) due to climate change:

https://www.foodmanufacturing.com/a...ng-its-flavor-3-spices-may-disappear-kitchens