Beans around 15-20% humidity, being very brittle and hard and shrunken - but bursting with flavour! These beans may be deceptively empty in smell because they have dried and closed all of the pores on their skin and cannot "breathe," so it can be difficult to tell before using, if they are good Vanilla with lots of Vanillin per weight, or if they are very old, or even worse, extracted or low-quality Vanilla.
