During my work in one Food Company I’ve discovered Bourbon Vanilla sugar!

That’s a flavor! Most of us in our households use Vanilla sugar or extracts, but they are (in 95%) synthetic origin and they can’t compare with real and pure vanilla flavor.

Then I’ve started to digging all over to see, what is it about? From where comes that magnificent flavor?

Curiosity will kill me one day :) In this case, it was not so dangerous, and actually it was very useful…

I’ve discovered that my future travel destination will be Madagascar :) and I’ve discovered a very interesting story what I didn’t expect and it has  taught me to respect this spice more.

Vanilla is the world’s second most expensive spice (after saffron). The most popular type of vanilla is Bourbon vanilla from Madagascar. Madagascar supplies more than 60% of the world’s vanilla.

Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla is named for the Bourbon Islands off the coast of Africa and not the whiskey! A lot of people still thinking, when they hear “Bourbon vanilla” that is about something with whiskey…

Bourbon natural vanilla is extracted from the seed pods of an tropic Orchid variety called Vanilla Planifolia. How amazing! Have you ever thought how that wonderful flower also can give you that wonderful flavor?

Bourbon beans have a creamy, sweet, smooth and mellow flavor.

Vanilla flavor is still the world’s most popular flavor for different kind of desserts (ice cream, puddings, salad dressings, cakes…). A lot of people think it’s a chocolate…

The process of converting vanilla into a spice is very long (4-5 years) and complicated (the most labor intensive). Pollination is only possible through manual manipulation, because the flower is open less than one day (and we can not afford to wait for bees to do that…). So, if you know that, it’s not wonder that’s natural vanilla is so expensive…
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(Read more:
http://www.myvanillashop.com/Madagascar_vanilla_cultivation.php)
First photo: http://www.faqs.org/photo-dict/photofiles/original/591/986vanilla_beans.jpg