Nothing plain about vanilla shortage
Bad bean news means less cash for creators and fewer options for ice cream lovers
A global vanilla crisis has turned B.C.’s tastemakers into a bunch of bean counters.
Vanilla beans, the withered wonders behind the staple flavouring found in kitchens worldwide, are a labour-intensive crop requiring hand pollination, precise harvesting and a lengthy curing process. Vanilla is the second-most-expensive spice after saffron.
And after a poor 2015 harvest of the beans in Madagascar — 1,000 to 1,200 tonnes, down from the usual 1,800 — along with a rise in speculators stockpiling them, prices skyrocketed and supply became scarce, cutting into the profits of local businesses and prompting them to hoard.
James Coleridge, CEO and maestro gelatiere of Bella Gelateria in Vancouver, said the shortage forced him to stop production of his No. 2 flavour, Tahitian Vanilla, in early March.
“We’ve been hit hard with the supply,” Coleridge said. ”It’s not so much the price — it’s the lack of availability.”
Each year, Coleridge’s kitchen goes through about 600 vanilla beans from Tahiti, Madagascar and Mexico. They’re infused in milk for two days. Coleridge said he refuses to compromise on flavour by doing it any other way.
But with many customers upset and confused by the absence of Tahitian Vanilla on his menu, Coleridge said he must now make a four-hour trek to a supplier in the U.S. (He dreads the thought of his precious beans getting lost in shipment.)
“It’s that kind of dedication to the vanilla bean that truly makes the difference between a great dessert and an average dessert,” Coleridge said.
Rain or Shine Ice Cream has kept stocked, co-owner Josie Fenton said. But the inflating cost has her wondering how the beans will impact her bottom line.
“I’m worried — should we start hoarding vanilla and ordering lots?” she said. “Because we do go through a ton of it.”
Fenton said Rain or Shine hasn’t yet been hit by the bean-supply problem, but they’re paying roughly 30 per cent more than they did a year ago.
The ice creamery uses whole beans, pastes and pure extracts in the majority of its offerings, particularly the vanilla-heavy London Fog and kid-favourite classic vanilla.
Fenton said she doesn’t expect the crisis to influence Rain or Shine’s menu or prices, but they’re eating the extra cost.
“We’re really conscious of keeping our pricing affordable and not getting too expensive for the customer,” she said.
The global shortage has David Best, owner of Vanilla-blossom Flavors in Victoria, paying close attention to fluctuating prices and the value of the loonie.
Best said that a year ago, he’d buy a kilogram of Madagascar beans for $80 US. Now he pays $250 US.
“I’ve been trying to hold on without raising my prices for seven years, but I had to,” said Best, whose customers include ice cream makers, bakeries, chocolatiers, grocers and protein-shake manufacturers.
“It’s killing me and this Canadian dollar is making it worse.”
But having weathered vanilla-- bean shortages and price hikes in the past, Best believes the market will stabilize over time.
Christine Beard, executive pastry chef instructor at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, said working with ingredient costs is part of the school’s training.
“As a culinary school, shortages in products such as vanilla beans will come and go,” she said. “But it doesn’t affect our curriculum in any way because it’s important for the students to experience vanilla beans and use them in the items that we make.”
Vanilla beans — like flour, butter and eggs — are a key ingredient for pastry chefs. At PICA, they find their way into ice cream, pannacotta and pastry cream, to name just a few items.
So students are taught to make the most of them, Beard said. They’ll soak them in vodka to make extracts, for example.
“We actually scrape the seeds out of the bean and use only the seeds in the product, and then that vanilla pod is available to dehydrate and can be ground up,” she said. “We can use that to infuse other items as well.”
Lush, which has 785 employees in the Lower Mainland, uses vanilla beans in about 40 products such as bath bombs, lip balms and soaps.
Greg Pinch, who works on Lush’s ethical buying team, said direct relationships with producers in Uganda and Madagascar mean the cosmetics firm’s been able to keep a steady supply, though it now keeps four or five months’ worth of beans on hand at its factories.
He said a year ago they were paying as little as $60 US a kilogram, but the cost has crept up to $200 US.
“We’ve seen the prices rise. We’re aware of the shortages,” Pinch said. “Our challenge is even a bit greater because we require fair-trade organic.”