Discover the Unparalleled Quality of Vanissa

Vanilla is graded, and most of what is grown never reaches the category Vanissa buys in. Gourmet grade, sometimes called bouche or mouth grade, accounts for less than a tenth of annual world production: pods that ripened fully on the vine, were cured without splitting, and were inspected and sorted one at a time by hand. Vanissa buys inside that fraction and then narrows further. Its Madagascar Grand Cru is drawn from under five per cent of the harvest it comes from.

What that selection buys is measurable. The Madagascar pods run 16 to 18 centimetres, which is itself an indicator of full maturity, and are held to a moisture content of 32 to 35 per cent, the range at which a pod stays supple and fleshy enough to split cleanly with a knife. Vanillin sits between 1.6 and 2.2 per cent, with a median around 1.90 per cent. Those are the figures that separate a pod you can scrape a spoonful of seed from and one that has dried into a stick.

What makes Vanissa special

  • Gourmet grade only, the tier that represents under 10% of annual vanilla production.
  • Madagascar Grand Cru pods of 16 to 18 cm, at 32 to 35% moisture and 1.6 to 2.2% vanillin.
  • Four working origins, Madagascar, Uganda, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, plus Tahitian vanilla from Raiatea.
  • An internal Excellence Charter in place of certification, with no chemical inputs and cultivation largely under agroforestry.
  • Packing and dispatch handled from the company’s own premises in Aix-en-Provence.

Nothing in the range grows within four thousand miles of Provence, but the work done in Aix is the work that decides whether a pod arrives in good condition: sorting, grading, portioning into glass and bamboo, and getting it out of the door before it dries.

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The People Behind Vanissa

The People Behind Vanissa

Maxime Clairet is president of Sas Clairet, the company behind the Vanissa brand, registered in Aix-en-Provence in 2019. It is a small operation, a handful of people, which is part of why the buying is as narrow as it is. A team of that size cannot process volume, so it competes on selection instead.

The other half of the business sits at the growing end. Vanissa works directly with producers in each origin country on long-term terms rather than buying on the open market season by season, which is what makes it possible to specify a grade, a pod length and a vanillin range and expect them to be met.

How Vanissa began

The company was registered in April 2019 and built outward from vanilla, a demanding first product: expensive, prone to violent price swings from harvest to harvest, and unforgiving in that the difference between an excellent pod and a mediocre one is visible to anyone who opens the tube.

The range then widened into spices that share vanilla’s characteristics, low volume, hand-gathered and strongly tied to a place. Wild voatsiperifery pepper from Madagascar’s forests, tonka beans, timut pepper, saffron pistils, mace, yuzu peel and dried flower petals now sit alongside the pods.

How Vanissa began

The Excellence Charter

Vanissa does not carry a third-party organic mark. Instead it publishes an internal Charte d’Excellence and buys against it: no chemical inputs in cultivation, agroforestry as the standard growing system, harvest timing set with the producer, curing monitored with vanillin analysis rather than by eye, and sorting done pod by pod.

The reasoning is commercial: certification costs money that ends up in the retail price, and a short chain with a named grower at the far end allows the same standards to be specified and checked directly. It is worth understanding on its own terms, since the standard is self-declared rather than externally audited.

Why this matters

  • Direct, long-running relationships with growers in each origin country.
  • Selection by grade and measurement, not by appearance alone.
  • Curing controlled and verified through vanillin analysis.
  • Agroforestry cultivation with no chemical inputs, under a published internal charter.
  • Short supply chains, with packing and dispatch in the company’s own hands.

“Vanissa’s argument is that vanilla should arrive with a length, a moisture level and a vanillin figure attached, and that a pod bought this way needs no further explanation.”

A Daily Ritual from Aix-en-Provence

Every Vanissa tube and tin is filled and closed in Provence, and the range is built around the way a French kitchen actually reaches for vanilla: a pod split into a pan of milk, a knife tip of seed paste into a crème, a pinch of powder into a batter.

  • Gourmet grade pods, supple enough to split and scrape rather than crumble
  • Bourbon vanilla from Madagascar, with the creamy, cocoa-inflected profile most pastry work is written around
  • Tahitian pods from Raiatea for aniseed, floral and fruit aromatics
  • Vanilla Supreme and pure ground powder for cooks who want the flavour without the pod
  • Glass, aluminium and bamboo packaging, with airtight tins for the Supreme

The pods keep for two to three years in a cool, dark, dry place, so a set bought once will carry a household through a great many custards. Vanissa’s own advice is to use them within two years, while the aromatics are at full strength.

Vanissa: What Sets Grand Cru Vanilla Apart

Vanilla comes from an orchid, and every commercial pod in the world is pollinated by hand, flower by flower, in the single morning each bloom stays open. What happens after that, months of killing, sweating, drying and conditioning, decides almost everything about how the pod tastes.

QualityDescription
GradeGourmet, also called bouche: fully mature, unsplit pods inspected and sorted individually. Less than 10% of annual production qualifies.
Moisture32 to 35% for the Madagascar pods, the range at which a bean stays fleshy and supple. The Tahitian Raiatea pods sit higher, at 40 to 45%.
Vanillin1.6 to 2.2% in the Madagascar Grand Cru, median 1.90%. The Tahitian pods run 0.8 to 1%, which is what allows their floral and aniseed notes to come forward.
Length16 to 18 cm for Madagascar, 13 to 15 cm for Raiatea. Length tracks maturity at harvest and seed content.
OriginMadagascar, Uganda, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and French Polynesia, each with a distinct aromatic signature.

Those signatures are genuinely different. Madagascar Bourbon is creamy and cocoa-leaning, Uganda deeper and more intense, Papua New Guinea woody and vegetal, Indonesia caramel and floral, Raiatea aniseed and blossom. The eight-pod, four-origin set exists precisely so the differences can be tasted side by side.

Daily Use in the Pastry Kitchen

Vanilla rewards patience: the aromatics are fat-soluble and slow to move, so an infusion left to stand will always give more than one rushed over heat.

UseHow to Enjoy
InfusingSplit a pod lengthwise, scrape the seeds into warm milk or cream with the pod itself, and leave it off the heat for at least twenty minutes. The base for crème anglaise, ice cream and pastry cream.
Vanilla SupremeSeeds blended with Bourbon vanilla concentrate, ready to use with no infusion. A knife tip flavours a preparation; roughly 2 to 3 g per litre is the working dose for yoghurts, custards and ice creams.
Ground powder100% ground Madagascar pod, nothing added. It disperses into dry mixes and batters, and gives pale preparations a light brown fleck and tint.
Savoury and cocktailsThe larger Madagascar pods, with their notes of ripe fruit, blond tobacco, caramel and sweet almond, carry into shellfish, poultry sauces, and rum and whisky drinks.
Second lifeA scraped pod still holds aroma. Dry it and bury it in caster sugar, or steep it in rum, and it will keep working for months.

Store pods in their tube or a sealed jar, somewhere cool, dark and dry, and never in the fridge, where condensation encourages mould. A pod that has stiffened can be softened by a short soak in warm liquid before splitting.

Sustainable and Ethical Practices at Vanissa

Sustainable and Ethical Practices at Vanissa

At Vanissa the sourcing model and the quality model are the same thing. Buying directly from growers on long-term terms is what makes it possible to specify how a crop is grown and cured, and to pay for the extra labour that gourmet grade demands.

Under the Excellence Charter, cultivation takes place without chemical inputs and largely within agroforestry systems, where the vines climb support trees inside standing forest rather than in cleared monoculture. The wild voatsiperifery pepper is gathered by hand from Madagascar’s forests, a crop that exists only where the forest does.

Their approach

The premise is narrow: buy only gourmet grade, buy it directly from named producers, verify it with numbers rather than adjectives, and handle the packing yourself so that nothing sits in a warehouse losing moisture. In practice that means curing checked by analysis, pods sorted one at a time, and glass, aluminium and bamboo packaging designed to keep the aromatics where they belong. Vanissa sells to pastry chefs, restaurants and fine grocers as well as to households, and stocks its range at Printemps on Boulevard Haussmann in Paris.

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A House Built on Grade Rather Than Volume

Vanissa has no third-party certification to point to and does not claim one. What it has instead is a published standard and the numbers to go with it: gourmet grade only, Madagascar Grand Cru drawn from under five per cent of the harvest, pod length, moisture and vanillin all specified and checked. Publishing the grade and the figures is the distinguishing move, and it invites the buyer to check the pods against the claim.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Vanissa

  • What is Vanissa?

    Vanissa is the brand of Sas Clairet, a company registered in Aix-en-Provence in April 2019 and led by Maxime Clairet. It sells gourmet grade vanilla from several origins along with a small selection of rare spices, packing and dispatching everything from its own premises in Provence.

  • Where does the vanilla come from?

    Madagascar, Uganda, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia for Vanilla planifolia, and Raiatea in French Polynesia for Vanilla tahitensis. The four-origin gift set brings together two pods from each of the first four.

  • What does gourmet grade mean?

    It is the top commercial grade, sometimes called bouche or mouth grade: fully ripened, unsplit pods with enough moisture to remain supple, inspected and sorted individually. It accounts for less than a tenth of annual world production.

  • Is Vanissa certified organic?

    No. The company works to its own published Excellence Charter instead, which specifies cultivation without chemical inputs, largely under agroforestry, with curing monitored through vanillin analysis. This is a self-declared standard rather than an externally audited certification.

  • How do Madagascar and Tahitian vanilla differ?

    They are different species. Madagascar Bourbon is creamy and cocoa-leaning, with vanillin between 1.6 and 2.2 per cent. Raiatea’s Vanilla tahitensis is fleshier, holds more moisture and carries less vanillin, which lets aniseed, floral and light fruit aromas come through.

  • What is Vanilla Supreme?

    A ready-to-use preparation of vanilla seeds blended with Bourbon vanilla concentrate, made entirely from Madagascar beans and sold in airtight tins of 15 g and 125 g. It needs no infusion: around 2 to 3 g per litre flavours a custard, yoghurt or ice cream base.

  • How should vanilla pods be stored?

    In a sealed tube or jar, somewhere cool, dark and dry, and not in the refrigerator. Stored that way pods stay in good condition for two to three years, and Vanissa recommends using them within two.

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JOURNAL

Know What You’re Tasting

The Journal is where we go deeper into the stories and knowledge behind the collection, so you can understand what makes a product distinctive before it ever reaches the table.

It is a place to understand the details that matter, and the reasons a product earns its place with us.

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