I had never ever heard of tonka beans until recently reading about them here. no idea as to what they were. Since I am always goofing around trying to come up with some way of dressing up my half pound of so of w e GARETTE SWEET snuff i have gathered to myself over the yrs. i was intrigued by using tonka beans as a way to do this. Some of the best snuff i have tried is some i made myself using garrett sweet snuff and flavored coffee beans from a local coffee shoppe. HAZEL’S here in St. Joseph, missouri…they are a great place to go for a cup of joe. they have lots of flavored coffees and my favorite one is JAMAICA ME CRAZY. it gives a nice scent to snuff, pretty much a caramel, toffee kinda scent. long lasting and very pleasant to whiff. Since i am disabled and home all day, i wondered if tonka beans could be grown here (zone 5 )…i am from a place west of chicago originally about 60 miles and here anything grows like crazy in the summer and spring, fall too. I wondered if it were similar to castor beans which grow to about 8 ft tall here. never having seen a tonka bean growing, I DONT HAVE A CLUE…imagine that. any info would be appreciated…where to buy, how to, how much etc. thanks
It comes from a tropical tree called Coumarou.
You can get tonka or tonquin beans easily on ebay.
I doubt they would grow there. They’re native to the Orinoco river area in South America (tropical). Also coming from a tree and not an annual bean vine like many beans, you may have to wait several years to see fruit, even if it would grow in this climate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonka\_bean I bought a nice sized bag of them, dried, a few years ago for about $4.00. Enough to last a long time. It came from here http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/ My local health food co-op sourced it for me, but you can order direct.
@xander thanks for the link; unfortunately they are out of stock atm. I’ll look around for additional sources or just wait, I’ve been looking for tonka beans, too–I love what they do to SG 1792 pipe tobacco.
With the right set up[Green House] you can grow anything. There is a green house near me , they have banana trees with fruit and all type of tropical plants. If your into that sort of thing. I would just buy the beans.
Vanilla beans are my favorite for putting in with my Levi Garrett. Definitely are a recommendation.
Perhaps some vanilla oleoresin? might be easier and faster than the beans, just a thought…