You'll find the best vanilla beans and the best prices at Vanilla Bean Kings-- join their Facebook group Baking and Extract Making and sign up for their co-op sales. They have a co-op sale usually once a month and feature one or two bean varieties at sale prices. I joined three years ago and have never bought store bought vanilla since-- and I've made the best vanilla with beans from all over the world (Ecuador, Madagascar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Comoros Islands, Hawaii, Mexico, Indonesia, Rawanda, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Tahiti, and Sumatra). You do need a much higher ratio of beans to alcohol than what's recommended here, though-- single fold is one ounce beans to one cup alcohol (vodka or white rum work well) an double fold is two ounces beans per cup alcohol. Anything less and it's will be weak and inferior. The other essential ingredient is time-- there are over 300 different flavor compounds in vanilla beans and it takes at least a year (I age minefor two years) to fully develop those flavors. It's a long time but well worth the wait.

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