Re: Tonka beans.

On Wed, 16 Apr 2025 4:40:57 +0000, Mike Duffy wrote:

I recently ordered a shipment of on-line spices.
I had run out of "Grains of Paradise", and in
order to get free shipping, I added some mundane
things easily found locally, (Coriander seeds,
Muntok white pepper, Telecherry black pepper,
Chipotle chili pepper), plus a few items more
esoteric (Annatto, Cassia, Selim seeds.)
>
But I was really piqued by the description for
Tonka beans, especially the part that advised
that it is illegal for them to ship Tonka beans
to the USA. So I ordered 2 35g bags, which
cost me $28 Cdn and got me 64 beans.
>
Of course, I did some reading on the web.
About 30 or so beans would be enough to kill
an adult ('coumarin' poisoning), but the
flavour is so strong that even the smallest
bean is enough to flavour enough food for
an entire meal for several people.
>
Despite the ban on culinary use in the USA,
the USA *is* the number one consumer of
Tonka beans for use mostly as cigar & pipe
tobacco flavouring, as well as perfumes and
potpourri mixes.
>
Does anyone have suggestions? I'm thinking
of shredding some of the bigger beans,
perhaps with a burr-type coffee grinder,
and making an extract with 100 ethanol.
>
The smaller beans seem brittle enough to
just use vice-grips to crush them into
pieces small enough to put into a
smaller pepper mill; I should probably
get one dedicated because the taste is
so unique.
>
It is one of those ingredients that seems
to make everything else in the food taste
better. There seems to be some sort of
'buzz' about Tonka beans in international
culinary circles outside of the USA.

Tonka trees are highly resistant to being killed by lightning strikes
despite being repeatedly being hit by lightning. Some people think it's
because the tree has a high internal electrical resistance. I think it
could be the opposite of that i.e., it matches the impedance between the
lightning and the ground and the lightning's current easily flows
through the tree into the ground. It's nature's lightning rod.