Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Update: March 2023 After buying 2 more sets, because of Amazon's weird system I ended up receiving old product sold by "Mom and Pop Wholesale". The beans were all brittle and dry as twigs, yet one pack somehow had mold on it. I've tried 3 times to contact them directly to no avail, and this is the first time I've ever experience a dead end on Amazon with a defective product. The moral of the story is always make sure you know who you're buying from on Amz, and make sure to get your vanilla from Native Vanilla, as they seem to have very good customer service. Unfortunately literally anyone can slide in and sell under the same ASIN. ************* Regarding mold; SPEND A FEW MINUTES READING ABOUT VANILLA BEANS and looking at pictures. Natural vanillin grows in crystalline structures. What looks like mold to you may in fact be an exceptionally high quality bean, as vanillin crystals often appear fuzzy/thready or dusty. (It could also be naturally occurring fat- "vanilla butter") Hold it in the sun. If the "mold" glistens, it's actually vanillin. Learn the appearance of vanillin and mold. Use your sense of smell. Vanillin crystals can grow, dissolve, and re-grow on pods as a result of environmental changes (such as opening the vacuum bag). Vanillin and vanilla butter will melt with gentle heating. Hit it briefly with a heat gun (vanillin has a melting point of 178 °F), if the powdery/fuzzy coat melts, it's not mold and the pod is perfectly good. It would be a real shame to throw away a good bean. (Did you know that farmers often tattoo their brand on their vanilla beans? Not every blemish is a defect.) Don't open the package until you're ready to use the beans, or else store them under alcohol. Once the pod is under 80 proof alcohol or better, as long as the pods are totally submerged, there cannot be any spoilage. Any white or slimy substance which may appear will be the oily flavor components and is a sign that you will have an exceptional extract. The review which said the beans didn't even color the extract was probably using straight 190 proof. The components are not soluble in alcohol alone. The ideal alcohol concentration is 40% or 80 proof. No lower, and not much higher. I'm by no means an expert, but these whole beans appear to be of a pretty good quality. For being grade "b" they don't seem particularly dry or gnarly, they're all intact and 6 to inches long, the packs weigh 22 to 24 grams net (0.85oz), and don't appear much different from the grade "A" beans I bought from a different seller.