Unlike a traditional brûlée served in a ramekin, Mason’s tonka bean version is cooked in a tube and retains the cylindrical shape when unmolded. It’s served with tart cherry sauce and cherry streusel. The crunchy caramelized sugar coating may be the only thing you recognize from the original version.

As for tonka beans, they’re actually a seed from a tropical tree grown in the northern part of South America. The beans are soaked in alcohol, dried, and fermented to create a distinctive bitter, nutty flavor, with an intensely aromatic scent reminiscent of spice and vanilla. Tonka beans, often used to scent pipe tobacco and snuff, are a favorite ingredient of perfumers, showing up in fragrances by Burberry, Marc Jacobs, and Jean Paul Gautier.

However, as with many great things, the tonka bean comes with a warning label. The aromatic and flavor qualities of the bean come from a substance called coumarin—an anti-coagulant that can be harmful in high doses. Mason uses a cautious amount in his dessert, but tonka beans may not be for the faint of heart.

If your dessert palate seeks adventure, try a dessert tasting at wd~50 and look forward to not only the tonka bean crème brûlée but also parsnip cake with coconut-cream cheese sorbet, manchego cheesecake with foamed pineapple, or possibly an appearance of mustard ice cream. —Alina Martell

wd~50
50 Clinton Street
(212) 477-2900
www.wd-50.com.