Bio-Verde

Extracts and Essential Oils

Current Product Range:

• Organic hand-made Vanilla

Organic Handicrafted Vanilla
By Milo Bekins Faries, Londres, Costa Rica

• Grown using environmentally responsible analog forestry techniques.
• Organically grown without using any comercial fertilizers, pesticides or fungicides.
• Harvested and processed by hand using traditional techniques for maximum flavor.
• Hand rolled by size, min. of 15cm to 24cm+
• aged 4 months. Splits for extract.

Vanilla, an important and popular flavoring material and spice, is the fully grown fruit of the orchid Vanilla fragrans (syn. V. planifolia) harvested before it is fully ripe, after which it is fermented and cured, these are usually referred to as vanilla beans. The beans and the vanilla extract are used extensively to flavor ice-cream, chocolate, beverages, perfumery and to a small extent medicine. The fragrance and flavor of vanilla beans are due to numerous aromatic compounds produced during the curing operation, among which Vanillin is the most abundant. The flavor of vanillas from different parts of the world varies due to climate, soil, extent of pollenization, and most important being ripeness at harvesting and method of curing. Vanillin can now be produced synthetically, and is much cheaper than natural vanilla flavor. Nevertheless, the flavor of vanilla beans from V. planifolia is far superior to that of synthetic vanillin due to the presence of other flavor compounds in the natural product.

As a lowland orchid vine found primarily in the forests of Mexico and Central America with a variety in northern Colombia and Ecuador. It has been grown for more than 1000 years in Mexico by the Aztecs and other nations. There is only one pollinator, the stingless Meliponia bee, only endemic to Mex. and Central Am. the aborigines knew the secret of hand pollinization, thus the secret of not stressing out the plant by over-pollinating it. Many Western/modern day vanilla growers have lost their production in vanilla due to the greed factor. Cured vanilla beans were considered among the rarer tributes paid to the Aztec emperor by his subject tribes. This lasted until the Spanish conquest and subsequent monopoly which lasted until the 19th century.

Today, using Analog Forestry (AF) techniques, we mimick the original forest in ecological function and architectonic structure; we can restore the forest biodiversity with exotics such as vanilla IF, and only IF they are analogous to the original ecosystems. In Costa Rica there are only 3 micro-climates that are specific enough to meet the requirements of rainfall, altitude, forest cover, and flowering period to be determined by the amount of dry season rainfall. In these areas, Vanilla has been grown for over 30 years by only a few growers who have developed the growing and curing methods, based on the techniques of ancient indigenous growers, Using AF in a strictly forest design pattern, the cured organic bean is put through a process of sweating for 22 hours with sunning of 2 hours everyday for 3 weeks, after which the drying process is continued in the hot air dryer until a bean humidity of 18%, which is ready for the consumer only after 4 more months of ageing. Each curer has his/her secret which if properly cured the vanilla bean will increase the content of Vanillin, but the knowledgeable buyer will know immediately if it is of good quality by her/his olfactory senses.

The "good old boy" conventional vanilla buyers and their companies do not care for these ancient techniques, because time is money for them. For example, they buy average to low quality beans, mix them and percolate with alcohol to make vanilla extract in only one week. The traditional maceration, on the other hand, with alcohol takes over 3 months (up to a year is best) to produce aged vanilla extract. This can be done at home with a good vodka and cured quality beans placed in a warm place and shaken daily. Vanilla sugar used by our grandmothers can be made by chopping up 3 beans in one cm. pieces and placing in your sugar bowl. Keeping the beans covered continually with sugar will "sweeten" the sugar with vanilla aroma for years on end.

For any questions, please contact our BioVerde vanilla grower and essential oil distiller in Costa Rica:
Milo Bekins Faries