The US FDA standard for vanilla is .83 ounce of vanilla to 8 ounces of at least 70 proof (35%) spirit for single fold. By the time you take an ounce and snip the ends off, you will have .83 ounce, so for shortcut, people say single fold is 1 ounce beans to 8 ounce spirits. Double fold is 2 ounces of vanilla in 8 ounces of spirit and triple fold is 3 ounces of vanilla bean to 8 ounces of spirit.

You should never count beans for making vanilla. 1 ounce of beans could be 1 and a 1/3 bean (yep there are some amazing .7 ounce beans out there) but the average is about 5-7 beans per ounce. There are also different grades of beans, and the same bean a grade a bean could be 5 beans to the ounce, a grade b bean could be 10 beans to the ounce.

• Reply