Do You Really Know Your Vanilla?

Many people buy their vanilla from Mexico because they think it is a more superior product. Due to a falling vanilla market, Mexico, Central American and the Caribbean began selling a synthetic vanilla containing coumarin (a known carcinogen to the liver banned in the US since the 1950s) to boost the flavor equivalent to pure vanilla. You probably will not find coumarin as an ingredient listed on the label either as Mexico does not enforce their label laws as we do in the US. Therefore, you cannot be sure of what you are buying.

Below is an excerpt from Wikipedia (a trusted source of accurate information)

* Mexican vanilla, made from the native V. planifolia, is produced
in much less quantity and marketed as the vanilla from the land of its
origin. Vanilla sold in tourist markets around Mexico is sometimes not
actual vanilla extract, but is mixed with an extract of the tonka
bean, which contains coumarin. Tonka bean extract smells and tastes
like vanilla, but coumarin has been shown to cause liver damage in lab
animals and is banned in the US by the Food and Drug Administration.[15]"

* Bourbon vanilla or Bourbon-Madagascar vanilla, produced from V.
planifolia plants introduced from the Americas, is the term used for
vanilla from Indian Ocean islands such as Madagascar, the Comoros, and
Réunion, formerly the Île Bourbon.

Click on the link and read entire article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla

Watkins uses premium grade Bourbon-Madagascar Vanilla. In 1928, Watkins Vanilla won the Grand Prize with a Gold Medal for the Highest Quality at the International Exposition in Paris.