"As many as 5,000 pounds of vanilla beans from Madagascar, Tahiti, Mexico and other tropical countries are shipped weekly to the family owned Nielsen-Massey Vanillas plant in Waukegan [Illinois, US].
The beans are ground or milled into smaller pieces, processed into pure vanilla extract, bottled and shipped all over North America, mostly to gourmet and fine food stores and to ice cream makers. Most "vanilla" used today is artificial. Nielsen-Massey makes only the pure product sought by gourmet cooks, bakers and confectionery makers. Connoisseurs maintain the pure nectar is dramatically different from artificial vanilla. Vanilla has become a synonym for bland. However, in its pure form it's anything but bland, noted Matt Nielsen, chief of operations for Nielsen-Massey. Vanillas from different regions have distinct aromas and flavors. Madagascar Bourbon vanilla "is considered the highest quality," Nielsen said. "It has a deep, sweet, rich creamy flavor." Vanilla originated in Mexico and Mexican vanilla, grown in the Vera Cruz area, is creamy, too, but is known for its somewhat spicy almond or nutmeg-like flavor, Nielsen said. Tahitian vanilla has a "fruity, floral" flavor, Nielsen said. Indonesian vanilla has a "woody" flavor and "isn't as sweet or creamy as Madagascar vanilla," he said. The vanilla bean is the fruit of a tropical orchid, a vine once cultivated only by the Tononaco Indians in the Vera Cruz region of Mexico. It was used with cacao beans, another Mexican product, to make a chocolate-vanilla drink. Hernando Cortez wrung the secret of vanilla from the Aztecs in the 16th century but it took 300 years to figure out how to make the plant produce beans they look like big green beans outside Mexico. A tiny, specialized bee found only in Mexico pollinated the orchid. Finally, in the 1840s, a former slave on Reunion discovered a way of fertilizing the flower by hand using a thin strip of bamboo. The method is still used today and because of that laborious process and a lengthy, sometimes months-long curing process, vanilla is considered the most labor-intensive crop in the world. Pure vanilla extract, is the only flavoring with a U.S. Food and Drug Administration "Standard of Identity" of its own. It must have a 35 percent alcohol content and contain only alcohol, water and vanilla beans. A 2-ounce bottle of pure Madagascar Bourbon vanilla can cost $8 or more" source : http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/state/14892995.htm?source=rss&channel=belleville_state ********* Regards, VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) orchids@orchidguide.com http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
