If you’ve enjoyed our Vanilla Zen, pastries or parfaits, you’ve probably noticed how quintessentially, deliciously vanilla our vanilla bean is. Matchaful’s noteworthy vanilla bean powder is made by our friends at AGK in Madagascar — a source we met through a Matchaful team member whose family owns an organic vanilla farm. Drawn to Matchaful’s commitment to transparency and organic, this matcharista worked at our cafe while she was in school and introduced Hannah to the company. Hannah was inspired by her family’s farming practices — and the rest is history.

Founded in 1992 in Moroni, Comoros, AGK is a family-owned business with 500 employees. With fully integrated laboratories in their facilities in Madagascar and Comoros, AGK can better control the quality of their vanilla beans. Always pushing for improved quality and sustainability, AGK vanilla bean powder is organic and fair-trade.

What is Vanilla Bean Powder?

If you’ve baked, your recipe likely called for vanilla extract, as opposed to vanilla bean powder. Both are both derived from vanilla beans but differ in form, preparation and flavor. Vanilla extract is made by soaking vanilla beans in alcohol and water, which extracts the flavor compounds over time. The alcohol evaporates in heat to leave behind a warm, sweet vanilla essence.

Vanilla bean powder is made by grinding whole dried vanilla beans into a fine powder, which imparts a more concentrated and complex flavor without any added alcohol. Because it is pure vanilla in powdered form — much like matcha is pure green tea in powdered form —  it retains the deep, floral, and slightly earthy nuances of the bean. While both forms add a signature vanilla flavor, vanilla bean powder elicits a more intense, true-to-bean taste, and that’s exactly why we love it for lattes and pastries alike.