The Luxury Baking Staple You Can Buy At Costco For Less

Home bakers have a great excuse to visit their local Costco soon. The wholesaler is restocking select locations with the seasonal baking staple, Kirkland Signature organic Madagascar vanilla beans. The 20-count jar has become a hit for its stellar value among shoppers who know that vanilla extract and vanilla beans can get painfully expensive. The jar is selling for $9.69 at some warehouses, translating roughly to 50 cents per bean. To put it in perspective, Walmart sells 11 beans of the same type of vanilla for $12.99, while at Kroger two pods cost $7.99. You don't have to be a mathematical wizard to see that Costco's beans are quite the bargain.

Every seasoned home baker can understand why this is such a great value. The scraped seeds of the vanilla beans can be used in anything that benefits from their flavor, including cakes and ice cream to cookies and custards. The beans can also be used to make homemade vanilla extract, which is one reason Costco shoppers tend to buy more than one jar when they find them.

Costco shoppers wasted no time celebrating the return of the fragrant pods. One Reddit user who spotted the beans wrote, "The price on these [is] amazing! I have to go in now and stock up," while another said, "I personally think this is quite literally the best deal at Costco compared to supermarket prices on comparable goods." The enthusiasm makes sense for anyone who has tried making vanilla extract at home; a project that requires plenty of beans. One shopper said: "What an insanely nice price for that amount of vanilla beans! I've been thinking of making my own vanilla extract, perhaps now's the time!"

Costco's inventory varies by location, and the beans have so far only been spotted at some warehouses, mostly in California. Given that the baking season is around the corner, any savvy home baker should be on the ready to stock up on the beans while they can.