Hand-pollinated,
hand-picked,
hand-packed.
MG Pearl exists for one reason: to get properly grown Ugandan vanilla into British kitchens, and to get a proper price back to the families who grow it.
The second most expensive spice on earth — for good reason.
Vanilla is an orchid. In Uganda there is no insect that will pollinate it, so every single flower is pollinated by hand. Each bloom opens for one morning, once a year. Miss it and that flower gives nothing.
From that morning it is another nine months before the pod is ready to pick, and several more of sweating, sun-drying and slow conditioning before it develops the aroma you'd recognise. From flower to your kitchen is well over a year of patient, skilled work.
When you understand that, cheap vanilla stops looking like a bargain and starts looking like a question.
Green pods on the vine in Uganda — still nine months from picking, and a year from your kitchen.
From the vine to your kitchen
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Agreed before harvest
We set a fair price with our growers ahead of the season, not on the day of collection when they have least bargaining power. A family knows what their crop is worth before they commit a year to it.
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Cured the slow way
Pods are sweated, sun-dried and conditioned over weeks. It's the traditional method and it cannot be hurried without costing you flavour.
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Graded by hand
Every pod is measured, pressed and smelled. Under 17cm, dry, brittle or dull-smelling pods don't make the cut.
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Packed in the UK
Sealed here in small batches, so nothing sits in a warehouse losing its oils while it waits for a big enough order.
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Sent to you
Posted flat and protected, so what lands on your mat is soft, fragrant and ready to split.
Four commitments we hold ourselves to
Fair pricing
Growers are paid a price agreed in advance, in full, without the layers of middlemen that usually take the margin.
Women in farming
We buy first from women who own and run their own plots, and support them in expanding what they grow.
Education
A share of every order goes towards school costs for children in the communities we buy from.
Clean water
Supporting community water access, so a working day doesn't begin with a long walk to a borehole.
We would rather sell out than sell short.
MG Pearl is deliberately small. We pack what we can grade properly, and when a batch is gone, it's gone until the next one. That means occasional waiting lists — and it also means we have never had to lower the bar to fill an order.
If you're ever unhappy with a pod that reaches you, tell us. We will make it right.
Shop the current batch