'''Whether you're on exploring a tour of national park in the SAVA region exploring a national park or just travelling through Sambava, the de facto capital of the world's vanilla - agriculture, a tour of a vanilla plantation combined with a visit to one of the countless vanilla plantations as well as a vanilla preparation and export production facility offers will give visitors an insight into the lengthy lenghty and labour intensive transformation process of transforming the green fruits of vanilla orchids into the fragrant black natural vanilla bean spice that is the final product world's favourite ingredient in quality ice creams, pastries and baking ingredient that most people are familiar withcountless other food products.'''
What can be seen depends the time of the year and on the activities that are ongoing during your at the time of a visit. Usually, between Between May and June, the plucking of harvesting green vanilla beans happens is done across plantations along on the northwest coast around Sambava, Antalaha and Vohemar as well as further afield into the countrysideinland, while at higher altitudes, around Andapa and Marojejy, the harvesting usually takes place in July or and early August.
Following After harvesting, the green vanilla beans crops are traded at organised brought by the farmers to vanilla markets across the vanilla producing regions where buyers arrive to place competing bids bid for the yearly harvests offered by farmers and various cooperativestheir produce. A minimum price is set by the farmers and the governmentgovernent each year, which in 2022 was 75,000 Ar per kilogram of green vanilla.
The green vanilla crops are mostly sold mainly to local exporters and producers who will manage the approximately three months-long transforming process transformation of the green beans into black vanilla beans. As the beans into lose moisture and shrink during the drying process, every six kilos of green beans will produce approximately one kilogram of black vanilla beans.
Througout the transformation, also known as the curing process, the beans are graded and grouped into by classifications based on suitability for different end-uses: Grade A being Gourmet Quality, Grade B Extract quality and Grade C which are also known as Cuts & Splits. These classifications, sometimes mistaken for indicators of quality, are based on humidity and thereby suitability for different endn-uses.
The classifications are defined by the level of humidity. Low-humidity beans are suitable suited for large -scale food processing purposes, since dry beans are as they can easily be ground into powder and mixed into with various food products. Grade B, or Extract grade vanilla beans, is a definition for the vanilla beans grade that are is typically intended used for the production of vanilla extracts, while Grade A beans, or gourmet qualitybeans, which have the highest humidity, are selected in part for their appearance. Grade A beans are preferred typically favoured by chefs and for home end-consumers who will split open the pods to scrape out its seeds to mix into various cooking and bakingcreations. Yet, But all grades can be used in cooking and baking. While grade A may have a stronger scent and a better overall appearance, the drier Grade B or even C with their relatively low its lowest moisture content will offer the greatest highest volume per kilogram, giving effectively providing more vanilla and flavour flavouring for the same weightat a lower price than Grade A beans.
In Madagascar, vanilla is rarely used in home cooking or home baking and is almost exclusively sold as cash-crop farmed for exportpurposes. Since the price of black vanilla peaked at around USD 500 per kilo in 2018 and 2019, countless farmers have invested their time and effort efforts in cultivating specifically vanillaas their primary cash crop.
Vanilla beans grow best in light but shaded conditions. Partly and fully grown green vanilla beans can be seen at plantations between March and up until harvesting time.
Apart Historically, the type of vanilla grown in Madagascar is the Planifolia species, also known as Bourbon vanilla or simply Madagascar vanilla. The species originates from Mesoamerica where it grew centuries ago. The "Bourbon" part is a magical flavours added hostorical reference a French owned slave on La Reunion, then known as Île Bourbon, who discovered how to pollinate the vanilla orchids by hand to bear fiuits, since in their original habitat, pollination can only occur by bees native to Mexico. Apart from flavouring sweets, craft ice creams in countless food and cookies as well as countless deserts to drink products, vanilla is also used in essential oils, cosmetics, toiletries and , perfumes as well as in medicines. The medicinal values are ... The price of different vanilla has in part been determinded by its vanillin percentage, the higher the vanillin percentage, the the higher the price, with the Thaitian variety having fetched record prices in recent years while the Mexican variately (Pompona) having had the lowest and the Magascan planifolia usually placed between. However, studies have shown that high values of 2% or more does not necesssarily equate to an improved taste quality. So a high vanillin percentage is something that can just look good on paper. Instead, beans with a vanillin percentage value of around 1.7% were considered to have the most balanced flavour profile and the highest overall score. There are subtle taste differences, which may easily only be distinquisged by a master chef or gourmandise, and while the terroir makes a difference, Planifolia is known for its floral notes, Pompona for having a more subtle flavour and Thaitian being known for its anaise notes and sweetness. As Thaitian is hybrid between Planifolia and Odorata, it may prove difficult to tell the differnce between a Planifolia and Tahitian grown in a same terroir in for example Madagascar. == Videos == Sorting Cuts & Splits * WB-sx4b1JLg
