How Vanilla is Made
From vanilla beans to vanilla extracts
It takes 18 months for a new vanilla cutting to produce its first flowers. The small yellow-green orchid blooms for only a few hours before wilting unless it is naturally pollinated by insects (a rare occurrence) or hand- pollinated by workers.
The pollinated orchid will produce a long green bean pod in a few weeks, but the bean must remain on the vine for nine months to develop. When the beans are harvested, they have neither flavor nor fragrance until they go through an arduous curing and drying process.
Methods of curing and drying vary, but in all cases, the enzymatic process in the live beans must be stopped to prevent fermenting. This is accomplished through heating in ovens or blanching in hot water. The beans are then placed in the sun each morning for weeks, or sometimes months, before being placed in large wooden boxes and allowed to sweat.
The beans will lose nearly 80% of the original moisture content before their more than 250 natural flavor and fragrance components are completely developed. The entire process from pollination to shipment takes about one year.
Vanilla Production Stages
Planting - Vine cuttings are planted. They take 18 months to mature and start flowering and are hand polinated.
Harvest - The green pods are harvisted after growing on the vine for 9 months. The pods are odorless
Killing - The celular tisue of the pods has to be killed to prevent further growth. This is usually done by extreame heating (sun, oven, boiling) or freezing.
Curing - The pods are kept in hot, humid conditions (45º-65°C or 115º-150°F) for 7 to 10 days. This allows the enzymes in the pods to cure into vanillin.
Drying - To keep the pods from rotting, they are dried. This is ussually done by laying them in the sun. By the end of the drying process, the pods will loose 80% of their water weight. When they are done drying they will be arromatic.
Making Vanilla Extract
Once the pods are cured and dried they are submerged in in alcohol.