How is vanilla transported

The vanilla orchid is native to Mexico and the vanilla genus is home to more than species of vanilla plants, but only a handful are cultivated commercially. The vanilla planifolia species is the most common type and it is the variety grown in Madagascar and Mexico. Another popular variety is vanilla tahitensis , a unique hybrid vanilla bean variety from Tahiti. This is also exactly what makes a high-quality vanilla bean so special.

Floral, sweet, earthy, undertones of dried dark fruits, oak and leather all at the same time! Madagascar vanilla has higher concentrations of vanillin than beans from other countries, another reason why Madagascar vanilla beans are so richly flavored.

While vanillin is the dominant flavor compound, there are more than other compounds found in real vanilla beans, often conveying nuanced spicy, floral, and fruity flavors. Artificial vanilla flavoring is made from synthesized vanillin and frequently extracted from wood pulp!

Since artificial vanilla excludes the other organic compounds, its flavor falls flat in comparison to the mysterious bouquet of pure vanilla extract. We exclusively carry vanilla extracts made from real, high-quality vanilla beans. Even though pure vanilla extract captures the rich flavors of vanilla, there is something more intense and intriguing about the flavor of a whole vanilla bean.

Madagascar vanilla beans are considered to be the gold standard for quality vanilla beans in the spice world. The plentiful rainfall and fertile, loamy soil create optimal conditions for these delicate plants. While vanilla growing conditions in Sava, Madagascar are nearly perfect, it is the people of Madagascar that make this regional spice so special.

The art of growing and curing quality vanilla beans is completely done by hand. Vanilla grown outside of its native country, Mexico , has no natural pollinators. Each vanilla orchid flower must be delicately pollinated by hand. The pollination technique used in Madagascar was discovered in on the nearby island of Reunion. A year-old slave named Edmond Albius figured out how to carefully join the male and female parts of the flower together using a whittled stick, thus allowing the prized vanilla bean to grow.

It takes almost three years for a new vanilla orchid vine to begin producing flowers. When vanilla orchids finally form, they are in bloom for less than 24 hours. Farmers must observe their vines closely during the blooming period and work quickly and carefully when a flower bud opens, often in the late morning.

From there, a single pollinated flower will produce just one vanilla bean. The beans grow green on the vine for roughly six months before they are ready for harvest. Growing vanilla vines is one thing, but curing the beans is the most important and challenging part of the process.

The expert vanilla bean curing skills of Madagascan farmers might explain why their vanilla has the highest vanillin content in the world.

MUST vanilla is a family-run vanilla exporting business, located in Madagascar. Green vanilla beans have no flavor or aroma when they are harvested. It is the enzymatic reaction caused by the curing process that allows flavors to develop. Silk Routes: Heritage, Trade, Practice. Gabrelle, Fabienne. The Flavor of Spices. Paris: Flammarion, Ecott, Tim. New York: Grove Press, Hill, Tony.

The Contemporary Encyclopedia of Herbs and Spices. Rain, Patricia. New York: J. Each fruit ripens on its own time, requiring a daily harvest. To ensure the finest flavour from every fruit, each individual pod must be picked by hand just as it begins to split on the end. Overmatured fruits are likely to split, causing a reduction in market value.

Its commercial value is fixed, based on the length and appearance of the pod. If the fruit is more than 15 cm in length, it belongs to a first-quality product. The largest fruits, greater than 16 cm and up to as much as 21 cm, are usually reserved for the gourmet vanilla market, for sale to top chefs and restaurants.

If the fruits are between 10 and 15 cm long, pods are under the second-quality category, and fruits less than 10 cm in length are under the third-quality category. Each fruit contains thousands of tiny black vanilla seeds. Vanilla fruit yield depends on the care and management given to the hanging and fruiting vines. Any practice directed to stimulate aerial root production has a direct effect on vine productivity.

A five-year-old vine can produce between 1. The harvested green fruit can be commercialized as such or cured to get a better market price. Curing Several methods exist in the market for curing vanilla; nevertheless, all of them consist of four basic steps: killing, sweating, slow-drying, and conditioning of the beans.

Killing The vegetative tissue of the vanilla pod is killed to stop the vegetative growth of the pods and disrupt the cells and tissue of the fruits, which initiates enzymatic reactions responsible for the aroma.

The method of killing varies, but may be accomplished by heating in hot water, freezing, or scratching, or killing by heating in an oven or exposing the beans to direct sunlight. The different methods give different profiles of enzymatic activity. Testing has shown mechanical disruption of fruit tissues can cause curing processes, including the degeneration of glucovanillin to vanillin, so the reasoning goes that disrupting the tissues and cells of the fruit allow enzymes and enzyme substrates to interact.

In scratch killing, fruits are scratched along their length. Frozen or quick-frozen fruits must be thawed again for the subsequent sweating stage. Sweating Sweating is a hydrolytic and oxidative process. Traditionally, it consists of keeping fruits, for seven to 10 days, densely stacked and insulated in wool or other cloth. Daily exposure to the sun may also be used, or dipping the fruits in hot water. Fruits may be laid out in the sun during the mornings and returned to their boxes in the afternoons, or spread on a wooden rack in a room for three to four weeks, sometimes with periods of sun exposure.

Drying is the most problematic of the curing stages; unevenness in the drying process can lead to the loss of vanillin content of some fruits by the time the others are cured.