Stock Up On Vanilla Now, Because It Might Be Hard To Find Soon

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If you bake or cook at all — or you just love a good pastry — it’s likely you love vanilla. We don’t know anyone who doesn’t. But we’re now facing one of our biggest fears: a vanilla shortage is on the horizon.

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Delish reports that because more people are opting to eat natural, vanilla supplies are growing scarce.

Before the natural foods craze, most pre-made items used synthetic vanillin, causing vanilla farmers to scale back on production. Now that everyone and their mother wants to avoid processed foods as much as possible, the same farmers can’t keep up with the demand.

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On top of the predicament, harvesting vanilla is very difficult and labor-intensive. About 75 percent of the world’s vanilla comes from Madagascar, where the orchids that vanilla beans come from have to be pollinated manually with a stick.

It’s not looking good for our favorite sweet flavor. We plan to stock up now while supplies last.