Grade A and Grade B vanilla beans are siblings from the same vine. Same plant, same harvest, same curing yard. The difference is water, and what the water is worth to you depends entirely on what you are making.
Grade A: the one you let people see
Grade A (you will also see it called gourmet or prime) is the supple one. It bends around your finger without cracking, splits clean under a paring knife, and gives up its seeds in one glossy scrape. That suppleness is moisture, and the moisture is the point: these are the beans for custard, crème brûlée, pastry cream and ice cream, anywhere the seeds end up somewhere people can admire them.
Think of it as the bean with table manners.
Grade B: the one doing quiet work in the jar
Grade B (extract grade) is drier and leaner. It looks a little weathered next to its sibling, and it does not care, because nobody sees the pod in a bottle of extract. Less water means more vanilla per pound of bag weight, which is why extract makers buy it on purpose rather than as a consolation prize. The same logic powers the market for vanilla bean splits.
A drier bean is not a lesser bean. It is a bean with a different job.
The part most guides skip
Two honest footnotes. First, vanilla grading is a trade convention, not a law; no official body certifies it, so one seller’s Grade A is another’s gourmet. Read the spec, not just the label. Second, the grades overlap more than the names suggest: Grade A makes excellent extract too. It simply costs more per pound of flavor, because you are paying for water and good looks the jar will never appreciate.
Which bag goes in your cart
- Crème brûlée for people you want to impress: Grade A. The seeds are the show.
- A jar of homemade extract: Grade B. More vanilla per pound, and the pod works out of sight.
- Vanilla sugar, infusions, steeped cream: either. Grade B if the pod gets strained out, Grade A if it starts in a custard first.
- One bag that does everything: Grade A. It scrapes for Sunday’s custard and still makes a fine jar.
- Baking at volume: samples first, then decide with your own recipes.
The short answer
Buy by the job, not the letter. Grade A where the seeds show, Grade B where the pod steeps. If you are still torn, fifteen beans of either is enough to settle it in your own kitchen, which is the only ranking that matters.