Whether you're cooking for a household or sourcing for a bakery, café, or manufacturing line, the same four ingredients show up across very different scales. Here's a practical rundown of how to store and use each one, and what changes once you're buying at wholesale volume rather than a single jar at a time.
Storage basics, ingredient by ingredient
Vanilla beans should be kept airtight, away from light, in a cool spot — not the refrigerator, which dries them out. Wrapped well, whole pods keep their aroma for a long time and can even be reused after infusing (rinse, dry, and add to a jar of sugar to make your own vanilla sugar).
Vanilla caviar and paste keep best refrigerated once opened, sealed tightly to prevent the surface from drying out.
Cocoa powder is shelf-stable for a long time in an airtight container away from moisture and strong odours — cocoa absorbs surrounding smells more readily than people expect.
Chili oil keeps for months at room temperature thanks to its high oil content, though refrigeration extends shelf life further if you don't go through a jar quickly. Solids settle to the bottom over time — that's normal, not spoilage — so give it a stir before serving.
Simple ways to use each one
- Vanilla — beans and caviar for custards and creams that benefit from real infusion time; paste for everyday baking where convenience matters.
- Peppercorn — cracked coarsely and added at the end of cooking, not the start, to preserve its brighter, more delicate notes.
- Cocoa — bloomed briefly in hot liquid before mixing into a batter or drink for maximum aroma.
- Chili oil — as a finishing drizzle rather than a cooking fat, so its layered heat and toasted aromatics survive the plate.
For specific recipes, our recipes page walks through a Cocoa Milk Shake, Chili Oil Eggs, Vanilla Custard, Peppercorn Butter Steak Sauce, Vanilla Berry Custard Cups, and a Spiced Chili-Cocoa Hot Chocolate — six starting points that use all four ingredients in different ways.
When you need more than a jar
Home cooking and commercial food production have different needs, and once volume increases, so do the questions worth asking a supplier: consistent quality across batches, documentation (specification sheets, certificates of analysis, batch traceability), and reliable lead times.
That's the gap our wholesale program is built for — manufacturers, importers, distributors, and private label brands sourcing single-origin Madagascar cocoa and vanilla at commercial volume, with the same traceable, direct-from-grower sourcing that goes into every retail jar.
The throughline
Whether you're making one milkshake or sourcing a season's worth of cocoa for a product line, the underlying ingredient doesn't change — only the quantity does. Good sourcing at any scale starts with the same question: where did this actually come from, and can that be traced back to a real place and a real grower?