Natural vanilla extract

Hi,
has anyone has ever bought natural vanilla extract in Germany?
I am aware of some artificial products sometimes available before Christmas,
but I would really prefer the natural version without artificial ingredients.
Any hints would be highly appreciated.

Vanille-Extrakt

I found some in the basement of Karstadt

using the search function like this:

http://www.toytowngermany.com/search/?q=vanilla+extract

brought me to

Crisco shortening and vanilla extract - Munich

Look for a shop offering organic food ('Bio-Laden' in German). You'll find two sorts of vanilla there:
a) original brown vanilla in form of powder in a small glass
original vanilla pods (usually two or three in one long small glass tube) which you'll have to cut open to take out the vanilla

You can also make your own! I found the tiny bottles of natural vanilla extract in Karstad to be way too expensive - 9,99 for a tiny bottle. So I went to the Turkish market here in Berlin, got ten big vanilla beans for 1 euro a piece. Put the beans in a glass bottle and filled it the whole way up with a full bottle of cheap vodka. A month later, I have 0,7 liters of vanilla extract, more than I will probably ever use, but all-in-all it cost me just 5 euro more than the tiny bottle of extract at Karstad. A good alternative, I think!

off topic, but that post just reminded me of my grandma's vanilla rum - just put a couple of vanilla pods in a bottle of rum with lots of sugar and leave - the longer, the better. Mix with coconut milk and ice for a DELICIOUS summer drink. Hhhmmmm

Vanilla extract experiment... interesting. Maybe she is a TT-er
Mrs Tom34

hmmm, wellllll, the major taste of vanilla is vanillin...

Im sorry to burst your bubble, but natural vanillin and synthetic vanillin are exactly the same thing. I mean literally, they are quantum mechanically identical.

OK, real vanilla extract will have a more complex, and possibly better taste, but that is because of the extra crap that comes through from the beans in the extraction process.

But talking about "artificial ingredients" when it comes to a pure organic compound is just a bit stupid, no?

see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanillin