If the only thing soda was good for was being a sugar delivery system, we wouldn’t have so many types of it, nor would we have such strong allegiances to particular brands. Sure, the bottled stuff ...

It takes vanilla beans six to eight months to mature and cure ... workers periodically fold off the high parts of the plant downwards to make it accessible. The vine has to be six feet in length.

It's called for in virtually every baking or dessert recipe, and it's probably the only type of vanilla flavoring you ever think about. But the extract is made by steeping vanilla beans in alcohol.

Grade B beans are commonly used for extracting vanilla flavor for use in syrups, perfumes, and other products where ...