Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner has spent over a decade working as a writer in New York City. She currently covers all aspects of food, dining, travel and lifestyle trends and the intersection of culture, ...

There are so many different forms of vanilla: You have the dried, leathery fruit pods packed with thousands of tiny black ...

Let's face it: Vanilla beans are pricey. Each is priced at $3, $4 or more, and some vanilla extracts can run nearly $4 an ounce. Vanilla beans can last for years if stored properly, but they can dry ...

Plunking a scraped and spent vanilla bean into an aliquot of alcohol is a good idea. (Those beans are expensive, and you might as well eek out that last bit of flavor.) Buying whole, pricey pods for ...