The Banned Beans Chefs Still Secretly Sneak Onto Menus

Can banning something make it more delicious, or more tantalizing? Maybe. The tonka bean has been banned in the U.S. since 1954, but it remains a sought-after ingredient thanks to its description as the best tasting thing anyone could ever consume. There's just one problem: if you eat too many, they'll kill you. Though this isn't exactly a unique feature of tonka beans, considering the many ways your food can kill you.

Tonka beans contain coumarin, an organic compound that's actually found in tons of plants; including lavender and commonly used cinnamon powders. At high enough concentrations, and with prolonged, consistent exposure, it can cause liver and heart damage — though no one has yet died from coumarin poisoning.

As a flavoring agent, tonka bean can impart distinctive herbaceous, floral, stone fruit, spice, and licorice notes; it's also sweet and honeyed. A little goes a long way, as tonka beans are packed with complex flavors and aromas. In fact, by some estimates, a single tonka bean can be used for enough food to serve 80 people. But this is exactly why it's popping up on dessert menus, particularly at Michelin-starred restaurants: it's just so damned delicious.

Unlike a variety of foods that are toxic if improperly cooked, tonka beans really could kill you if you eat several handfuls of them. (Though, again, no documented cases exist.) Given that it's still banned by the FDA, I wanted to know how easy it might be to obtain the forbidden bean. Apparently, it's as simple as having an internet connection! I'll forgo the sharing of websites, because I don't think I should encourage anyone to break the law, and you can look it up for yourself. So, I guess what I then wanted to know was: why is it so easy to get banned food?

There are several stories of people selling tonka beans in their little spice shops, particularly in New York City. Or you can simply order them online, like chefs do. One journalist straight up shipped 50 tonka beans from Venezuela, via Amazon. Who knew the world's largest retailer would have issues with compliance. Unlike other stories I've read about spice shops being raided for Sichuan peppercorns (which were also illegal until 2005, and can really amp up your cocktails), there seem to be no dramatic, "Law & Order"-type raids on tonka bean sellers, or chefs (Except for an outlier bust at Chicago's future Michelin-starred restaurant Alinea, back in 2006). As for the rest of us little guys, if you really want to taste the forbidden bean, apparently no one is going to stop you.