Source for Gaya (Mexican) vanilla?

Mhays wrote:Um, sadly, I seem to recall Alton Brown saying that some Latin American vanillas are processed with tonka bean, a possible carcinogen that isn't allowed in the US - I can't find the Good Eats page, but here is info from the FDA.

That being said, over the past year we've used an entire half-liter bottle of mexican vanilla extract someone gave us and nobody got cancer, but knowing what I know now, I wouldn't do it again.

Like chocolate, coffee, and tea, vanilla beans have to be cured before they are of any culinary use whatsoever. Step one, a nice hot bath. Step two, spread the beans out on a blanket in the midday sun, and let them sit all day long. When night comes, roll them up in that blanket, and let them just sweat it out through the long evening. Repeat this process every single day for, eh, three to four months. And then, one morning, you'll wake up, and, lo and behold, you're going to have yourself cured vanilla beans, or pods.

Although vanilla is commercially grown all over the tropics and in subtropics from Hawaii all the way to New Guinea, there are three classic growing zones, starting with Tahiti. Now this very, very small, very isolated island actually has its own unique variety. It's called Vanilla tahitiensis, I believe, and the beans are very, kind of delicate-looking and extremely fragrant. That's why a lot of folks think they are the cream of the crop worldwide. I happen to think that their flavor is a little bit vanilla, though, and I don't mean in a good way.

Not true of Mexican beans. Mexican beans I love. Now this is the common Vanilla plantifolia variety. But look at them. I mean they're fat and they're oily. These things remind me of Cuban cigars. They are right down funky. The problem with Mexican beans, though, is getting a good quality supply. They are very erratic. And you never ever want to use vanilla extracts from Mexico because they are often processed with parts of the tonka bean, a filler which tastes like vanilla, but actually contains some rather dangerous carcinogens.

Now 70% of the vanilla that is gotten here in America actually comes from over here, Madagascar. Now these are technically the same beans as in Central America. That's because they were transplanted here in 1840, okay? Now oddly enough, these beans are often referred to as "bourbon" vanilla beans...