"Splits" are often preferred by large producers of vanilla extract because they usually have a higher vanillin content. Splitting can occur during growing or curing. They are not "used" beans. Non-split beans are known as whole beans. These beans are excellent for making vanilla extract. For cooking, where you want to split the beans and/or scrape out the caviar, you should use Grade A Gourmet vanilla beans. Our beans are traditionally cured over several months to ensure that the full flavor of the vanilla bean is developed. We do not sell quick cured vanilla beans where the beans are cured in 7 to 10 days. These vanilla beans are triple inspected. The first inspection takes place during packing and is for smell, appearance, and mold. The next inspection takes place during vacuum sealing and is for mold and appearance. The final inspection takes place before shipment to ensure that the vacuum seal is intact and that there is no mold. Some facts about vanilla beans: - Bourbon refers to the formerly named Bourbon Islands (now Reunion) off of Madagascar. Bourbon alcohol is not used in vanilla beans. - Vanilla beans are the second most labor intensive spice after saffron. - They originated in Mexico. - Vanilla beans must be hand pollinated outside of Mexico because the pollinator, the Melipona bee, cannot survive outside of Mexico. - When the vanilla orchid blooms, it must be pollinated within 24 hours or else the boom dies and no vanilla pod is produced for that bloom. - Vanilla is an orchid, and the beans are the fruit of the orchid. - It is the only orchid fruit that we eat. - There are over 200 organic compounds in vanilla. Artificial vanilla (vanillin) cannot capture the complexity of natural vanilla.