Vanilla beans take an epic journey before they reach you and satisfy your olfactory system with its heady fragrance and flavour. Follow its journey below.
February 2019
Cuttings are taken from the parent plants and struck to form new vanilla plants.
The young vines are planted in compost below a tree or other support to allow them to grow vertically.
The vines are nurtured for 3-5 years before they mature to flowering age
Blooms begin to appear on the vine in late summer. Each flower stays open for 24 hours.
The flowers are pollinated by hand–up to 2500 flowers a day.
Fruits begin to grow from the pollinated flowers.
The fruits take 9 months to mature into into long pendulous green pods.
After 9 months of growth the pods reach maturity and begin to yellow at the ends. It is its final days on the vine that the vanillan content develops in the pods.
The pods are picked by hand before they fully ripen to prevent splitting.
The green beans are dipped in boiling water to ‘kill’ them. This stops them from continuing to ripen.
After ‘killing’ the pods are dark, oily and pliable.
An initial grading occurs to sort the beans according to length
The beans are dried in the sun for around ten weeks until they have shrunk to about 20 percent of their original size.
They are again sorted for size and quality.
The graded beans are tied into bunches, wrapped in oil cloth and then stored away for a month or two more until they reach their peak flavour and fragrance.
April 2019
Once cured, the beans are ready for sale. Price varies depending on the grade of the vanilla pods.
Grade-A pods are used whole in cooking, processed into perfumes and vanilla paste.
Grade-B vanilla pods are used to make vanilla extract, vanilla powder, vanilla sugar and infusions.
Eventually our vanilla pods make it to your plate and palate in your gourmet culinary creations.
