Madagascar Vanilla
Sweet, creamy vanilla with a warm, slightly woody, caramel-like richness.
You may know it from Vanilla extract in baking
Where it comes from
Cured pods of vanilla orchids grown in Madagascar.
Worth knowing
It usually means vanilla from Madagascar, not a separate vanilla species.
About madagascar vanilla
Ask how much of the world's vanilla comes from Madagascar and the sources give different answers. One group of them says the island produces more than 70% of the supply. Another, working from production figures for a single year, comes out lower. Whichever number holds, Madagascar is the origin the "Madagascar" and "Bourbon" vanilla labels are built around.
A perfumery guide from Horace calls this vanilla the most common kind and describes it as sweet and creamy, with caramel and dried fruit notes. The same guide sets it beside Tahitian vanilla, which it calls more floral and more delicate, with anise and hints of cherry and plum.
The money side is unsteady. Madagascar has a single annual harvest, so a year's pods arrive in one season. Cyclone Enawo caused a spike to $500 a kilogram in 2017, and one trade blog puts the price above $600 a kilogram in 2018. Over the stretch from 2013 to 2018, international vanilla prices climbed until vanilla traded at prices higher than silver.
Accords it shows up in
How many of the fragrances listing Madagascar Vanilla in our catalogue also carry each accord. We counted this ourselves.
Often paired with
The notes that appear next to Madagascar Vanilla most often in our catalogue.
Well-known fragrances with Madagascar Vanilla
Fragrances that list it in their notes, most-rated first.
Houses that use it most
Ranked by how many of their well-known fragrances list Madagascar Vanilla.