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Tecul Vanilla in all it's glory
This is one of those rare moment when you are invited to go behind the scenes of a real operation. Tecul vanilla invited me(and family in tow) out to their plantation to see what REAL vanilla is like.
I can only tell you that it was truly an eye opening experience. I learned things about Vanilla that I never knew. For example, Real Vanilla is actually nearly clear. Coloring is added to make it more visually appealing. Also, Real vanilla extract it actually not sweet at all but extremely potent and borderline spicy. Just one drop on my tongue made it feel like like it was sizzling a little bit.
The process is long and laborious . Vanilla beans actually start out green, and the entire couple 'o dozen 
acres or so are picked by hand. The beans are then cleaned and stems removed. They are washed in tub of water, then they are left out in the sun to dry off on big cotton blankets. Once they are completely dry they are wrapped in cotton blankets and put in a furnace for drying. After several hours in a stone wood burning oven they come out black. They are t
hen taken to a wood building and laid out to dry a couple more days. Wood is the material of choice because it absorbs humidity. A concrete building would trap humidity in and cause the beans to grow mold.
Once they come out of the final drying building they are hand polished with a cotton mitten. This removes any that may have stuck to the bean in the process and shines up the outer coating of the beans.
They are now ready for the extraction process. Depending on the type of extract you want, you would process it accordingly. For your generic extract the each bean is dipped in alcohol and hung. Over the following day the alcohol will seap into the bean and drip down into container waiting to catch this little gift of heaven on earth. The mere smell of it just makes want to eat a batch of cookies. I was given a sample at that point and dabbed a little on by arms and rubbed it in. It's one of the best smelling perfumes I've ever known. It's almost like an afrodesiac and am not sure if it trigger a dream of being chased by the Pillsbury dough boy. So be warned.
