5 Premium Tonka Beans - Whole Natural Tonka Beans - 100% Raw & Pure Tonquin, Strong Fragrance (Dipteryx Odorata Tonkin Pods). Edible Premium Food-grade Cumaru Kumaru Tonka Beans For Cuisine

I had heard about this ingredient from a YouTube video and was intrigued. I bought this because they seem to be good quality without having to buy a ton of them. I used this to make shortbread cookies, swapping out the vanilla for this. Grated it in the dough like nutmeg with a microplane. I ended up using a whole bean for one batch. I served the cookies at a friend's game night and they were very popular. Everyone loved the flavor! It is a nice change from a standard vanilla or almond plus everyone loves a banned food story. FYI you'd have to eat a hand full of the whole beans to get any kind of negative health effects from this ingredient. The flavor is absolutely interesting. Its like a subtle, musky, almost floral almond extract with vanilla notes and rosy tones. It almost feels middle eastern or Indian in a way I can't explain. The bean imparts more of an aroma than a flavor. The aroma is familiar yet exotic. It is warm yet not too heavy for use in the summer. I absolutely love it!

Tonka bean has an aroma similar to almond extract when freshly grated but when heated gently in a custard the smell and flavor becomes warm and cinnamon-like. It is not at all similar to vanilla but the flavor is compatible with recipes using vanilla so it can be used as an interesting substitute. I personally think tonka bean is an even better substitute for almond extract because it's similar but more complex. It was so good paired with vanilla bean in custard style ice cream that I won't make plain vanilla bean ice cream anymore. Half a tonka bean has similar flavoring potency to one large vanilla bean.

I ended up landing on these after attempting to purchase some directly from France, but I was not disappointed. Definitely a great quality and value for the money, these go a very long way. They add a delicious spice to anything and everything I use it with. Definitely a great option for those who are interested in introducing themselves to Tonka.

Flavorful beans. I made ice cream with one of them. Next will be panna cotta.

I haven’t cooked with them yet, but I want to address the flavor. I read these are used as a vanilla substitute for a lot of people and I’ve become allergic to vanilla. They don’t smell at all of vanilla but they are lovely. To me, they smell exactly like horchata. They look dark in the middle but not the edges but don’t smell burned. They look a bit like dates but they are hard. The smell is not as strong as vanilla pods but it’s similar in level to nutmeg which makes sense as they are hard beans. I will update once I use them but so far I’m intrigued.

It's very nice, it adds a really nice flavor.

"Smells" nice (definitely didnt use for food purposes because the FDA says they're "not safe")

These are great. Fresh. Taste great.