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Vanilla Beans, Tahitian
According to Old Totonac lore, Xanat, the young daughter of the Mexican fertility goddess, was in love with a Totonac youth. But she was unable to marry him due to her divine nature, so she transformed herself into a plant that would provide pleasure and happiness. She became a vanilla orchid so that she could belong to her human love and his people, forever. To this day the local people still celebrate the Vanilla Festival at the end of the harvest with dances and feasts. |
 Never refrigerate or freeze. Keep in an airtight container, out of sunlight and away from heat. Vanila beans sometimes are speckled with a pale, whitish dust. This is crystallized vanillin, the substance gives them their flavor, and is nothing to worry about! Use pod whole, cut or remove the inner seeds. The easiest way to obtain the inner seed is to split the bean lengthwise, open the bean up flat, and scrap from top to bottom with the edge of a knife. One vanilla bean is equal to 1 tbsp. of extract. We carry 3 types of vanilla beans, these Tahitian vanilla beans, Mexican vanilla beans and Madagascar “Bourbon” vanilla beans.  Vanilla is native to Mexico, where it is still grown commercially. |
The History of the Vanilla Bean
Originally from Central America, vanilla beans are the seed of the climbing orchid, Vanilla planifolia, the only orchid of the 350 known varieties to produce an edible product. When the Spanish arrived in Central America, the Aztecs introduced them to the flavor of vanilla as well as cocoa. Of coarse once they tasted these flavors they had to have them for themselves.
Finding a place to start their plantations wasn’t a problem; they knew that like many spices they needed to be grown very close to the equator. And they grew them only to find that they would bear no fruit. They eventually discovered that they were missing the little bees to pollinate the orchids. This problem was solved when a man from the Reunion Islands realized that using a pointed bamboo stick could lift away a membrane and hand-pollinate the orchids. Then the vanilla boom was on, the French moved in as well and started planting the orchids on many of their tropical islands. To this day those former colonies produce about 80% of all vanilla beans.