02 Relationships
Madagascar dominates the world in pure vanilla. Growing and curing methods here are little changed from the 19th century. Each bean is hand-pollinated by small farmers and sun-cured by artisans. The old way. The best way.
Fig 1. Madagascar Rainfall
03 Cultivation
Cultivation
The vanilla orchid is an epiphyte that draws nutrients from the air. It is propagated from cuttings laid on the ground under support trees and mulched from surrounding vegetation. As it grows, each vine is repeatedly looped over its support tree.
Vanilla beans grow only on a descending vine. Looping the vines keeps them in reach and increases the number of pods. Farmers work continuously with machetes to clear, mulch, and loop the vines and prune the support trees. It takes three years for a vine to produce beans.
Fig 2. Vanilla Planifolia Cutting
Vanilla, the only orchid to produce edible fruit, needs a rainforest ecosystem to grow.
04 Polination
Pollination
Each springtime morning, the vanilla farmer searches for blossoms hidden within the vines. An experienced farmer can pollinate 1,500 blossoms using a tiny sliver of wood. If not pollinated by noon the day it blooms, the blossom will fall off the vine.
Over-pollination damages the vine and produces tiny beans. Madagascar’s skilled vanilla pollinators know how to strike the right balance. When it comes to vanilla, you cannot be greedy.
Fig 3. Vanilla Planifolia Flower
Outside of Mexico, home of the melipona bee, all vanilla must be pollinated by hand.
05 Harvest
Harvest
Nothing is more essential to great vanilla–or more difficult to achieve–than a ripe harvest. Because vanilla is so expensive, keeping it on the vine is always a struggle. But like any fruit, an unripe vanilla bean has little or no aroma.
Fig 5. Mature Vanilla Pod
The telltale sign of ripeness is a yellow tip. Each bean matures in its own time, so each should be picked individually. If beans are picked all at once, many will be immature.
The secret to great vanilla is simple: harvest when ripe, and harvest each pod at its peak.
06 Curing
Curing
The curing of vanilla is where the artistry truly begins, especially in Madagascar. After harvest, the pods are “scalded,” dipped in hot water to halt photosynthesis. An expert curer can assess the proper water temperature by feel, and knows how long to dip each bean: long enough to prevent rot but short enough to prevent overcooking.
Fig 5. Enzymatic Reaction
The beans are then slowly dried in the sun on bamboo trays, just a few hours at a time before getting rolled back into blankets to maintain their warmth. If they get cold, the enzymatic process stops. Seasoned curers know how long to keep them in the sun, as the slower they dry, the better, gradually developing their flavor compounds.
After scalding, beans must be kept warm under blankets for three days as they turn from green to black. This heat is the literal catalyst to flavor development, beginning the enzymatic reaction that changes the plant’s structure into the hundreds of flavor components found in fine vanilla.
Fig 6. Cured Vanilla Pod
The beans are then hand-bundled, wrapped with cotton string or cured raffia to prevent mold. They’re placed in wooden crates lined with paraffin paper to begin the conditioning process, getting resorted and rebundled throughout. Once in their final bundle and packing, if everything’s been done properly, the vanilla beans are ready for export.
Curing is an art performed by highly skilled artisans who develop their expertise over a lifetime.
07 Extraction
Extraction
We capture over 300 flavor compounds with a direct, cold extraction over the course of two weeks. This gentle process necessitates we use only quality vanilla beans, in order to extract their full bouquet without destroying any of the delicate nuances with heat or pressure. We then age our vanilla extracts like wine, for a smoother, rounder, more integrated flavor profile.
In order to be considered pure vanilla, 35% alcohol is required. We exceed that, because we find it extracts more flavor from each bean. We add nothing else, no sugar or caramel color, because we don’t need it.
Cook Flavoring Company was founded on “Bean to Bottle” quality. We’re proud to continue this legacy.
