All About Vanilla

Want to learn more about vanilla?  Great, you've come to right place!  You can learn about the history of vanilla, the cultivation, types of vanilla, and much more.

Vanilla is native to Mexico.  When it was tried to grow vanilla beans outside of Mexico, it was initially unsuccesful.  It turns out that vanilla beans require the pollination of a small bee (the Melipona Bee) that is native to Mexico.  Unfortunately, the bee could not survive outside of Mexico.

The cultivation of vanilla beans took off when it was discovered how to hand pollinate vanilla beans.  Pollination must take place within 24 hours of the flower blooming, or else the bloom falls off.

Vanilla beans are harvested and then killed.  The killing starts the curing process.  In Madagascar, curing is done by steaming the beans.  Other countries may boil the beans or use smoke to kill the beans.

During the curing process, the beans are laid out in the sun during the day, and brought in every night.  This process takes months.

After the curing process is complete, the vanilla beans are sorted by length and quality.  Some beans split during the growing or curing process and are known as 'splits'.