Ice cream and dairy
Specks that show, aroma that survives the freeze
In ice cream, vanilla is judged twice: once by the tongue and once by the eye. A customer who does not see the specks assumes there is no vanilla, whatever the analysis says.
What decides in your trade
Visible seeds are a product decision
Whole pods scraped in-house, ready-to-use seeds and caviar do not give the same visual result, the same labour or the same cost per litre. Seeds give the most reliable speck density; scraping pods gives more aroma but a variable count.
Pasteurisation takes its share
Aroma compounds do not all survive the heat, and what you smell in the pod is not what ends up in the tub. This is why a base is usually infused rather than simply mixed, and why the vanillin content on paper matters less than what is left after the process.
Cost is per litre, not per kilo
The figure that belongs in your costing sheet is the cost of vanilla per litre of finished product at your target speck density. A cheaper kilo that requires a higher dose is not cheaper.
Fat carries flavour, and changes the dose
A dairy base carries vanilla differently from a sorbet or a plant-based one. The dose that works in a 10% fat ice cream will read as thin in a water-based product.
What we supply for this use
Volumes
Regional ice cream and dairy manufacturers usually order between 50 and 300 kg, two to four times a year, timed on the season. Ordering ahead of your own peak avoids buying carry-over stock at the moment you need the widest choice.
Questions we get asked
Seeds, caviar or whole pods for ice cream?
Seeds give the most consistent speck density and the least labour. Caviar, a scraped paste, doses precisely and carries more aroma. Whole pods give the best result when you infuse and scrape in-house, at the cost of variability and time.
How much vanilla per litre of ice cream?
It depends on the format, the fat content and the speck density you are after, so a single figure would be misleading. Tell us your base and your target, and we will come back with a dose and a cost per litre rather than a price per kilo.
Does the origin change the taste in a dairy base?
Yes, but less than the process does. Curing, moisture and how you infuse move the result more than the region. This is why we start from what you make rather than from where the beans grew.