Handbags   (The sad, the bad and the ugly. Non-productive stuff here.)

Vanilla pods (costly)
or
Vanilla Essence (less so)

I have not used the latter, though I guess a lot of people do, as supermarket bakery isles always seem to carry stocks of it.

Reading the ingredients list on some of the things which I buy, I see they have gone for both vanilla, and vanilla extract (I assume that is similar product to essence.)

I got to wondering how different they are to the palate.

Of course, you are not going to be tasting them neat are you.

Can you tell the difference in flavour?

Is it variable, the less costly option flavouring some food/drink better than it does other?

Or are the pods always going to deliver (at some cost) a superior taste?