I do a lot of baking with vanilla bean paste, so I'm always thrilled when it pops up at Trader Joe's now and again. 

Recently, Trader Joe's revamped their vanilla bean paste. It comes in a cute little glass jar with a pretty label. This one is called Bourbon Vanilla Bean Paste. Don't worry...there's no bourbon in it. It's another name for Madagascar vanilla beans. 

Here are what the previous bottles of Trader Joe's vanilla bean paste looked like:

What is vanilla bean paste?

If you've never used vanilla bean paste before, it's a great way to add those gorgeous vanilla bean flecks to your baking without needing to buy and scrape vanilla beans. 

You can substitute vanilla bean paste for vanilla extract in a 1:1 ratio. Vanilla bean paste is a little thicker than vanilla extract, but it is not actually a paste like toothpaste. 

Some of my favorite recipes using vanilla bean paste:

• vanilla bean cut-out cookies
• vanilla bean cream cheese spread
• salted oatmeal chocolate chip latte cookies
• slow-cooker applesauce
• queenies cookies
• frosted five-spice snickerdoodle cookies

Trader Joe's Vanilla Bean Paste comes in a 4-ounce glass jar and costs $4.99.

Trader Joe's Bourbon Vanilla Bean Paste Review

REVIEW (Bridget): While this vanilla bean paste is perfectly fine for baking, I think it's a downgrade from Trader Joe's previous vanilla bean paste offerings. The paste is quite thin and lighter in color compared to other vanilla bean pastes I've used. There are lots of vanilla flecks, but not as many as I'd expect. The vanilla bean specks also didn't seem to distribute evenly throughout the liquid. I'm not sure why. Also, the lid is a little fiddly. 

Overall rating: 3 out of 5 stars (compared to previous editions and other brands)

Will we buy it again? Likely not this version. I will look for Trader Joe's to bring back the Organic or regular version, though.

Trader Joe's Bourbon Vanilla Bean Paste: just fine for baking, but we've used better.