Vanilla!!!

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

We went to the only vanilla factory in the United States. It was incredible. I cannot say enough good things about it.

We stopped at McDonald’s on the way for breakfast to try the Hawaiian big breakfast – eggs, rice, Portuguese sausage, and Spam. Keith loved it.

Sometimes there are dogs on the roof.

We signed up for the tasting session and tour at the vanilla plant. Zak is the manager and was our guide. We had lemonade sweetened with vanilla sugar. Gary and Julie had lemonade mixed with black tea. Zak demonstrated how to make our first tasting – shrimp cooked in butter and vanilla garam masala spice mix served on crostini with vanilla pineapple chutney and a glaze of something vanilla on a bed of red alaea salt. It was freaking amazing.

Next course, was roasted pepper and tomato bisque soup with vanilla herbs de Paauiol spice rub garnish with greens with vanilla honey pepper pecans, feta, vanilla raspberry balsamic vinaigrette. Oh my. Oh my. Oh my.

Next – puff pastry with brie, caramelized onions, and vanilla mango chutney; puff pastry with roasted red bell pepper cream cheese and vanilla pepper jelly; vanilla lilikoi pound cake with vanilla lilikoi curd topping; vanilla banana bread with vanilla maple syrup topping.

Last, we had delicious vanilla ice cream commercially produced using vanilla from the farm. Here’s a picture of the tables which I loved.

Then we started to learn. We heard so much new information it was amazing. The most important thing we learned is that vanilla has 250 (?) vanilloids that each bring something different to cooking. In order to get the vanilloids out of the vanilla bean, you have to mix it with fat, alcohol, or acid. Zak’s tip was to mix your vanilla into one of those three things early, so it has time to get flavor out of the seeds before adding heat and changing everything. Also, vanilla is for savory things too!!

Vanilla comes from central America, primarily Mexico. Originally, it wasn’t used as food, but as jewelry. The beans and seeds were woven into intricate jewelry worn by the rich and royal, so it was deemed valuable. There is evidence that later the royalty drank dozens of glasses of a beverage that contained vanilla seeds – but they weren’t there for flavor, but just for status. Now in Mexico they use cocoa trees as the supports for the vanilla vines, linking vanilla and chocolate. Mmmm.

There are 105 varieties of vanilla – none of them are called French. French vanilla is an ice cream flavor. There are only three vanillas that fruit. Panifolia accounts for 90% of vanilla, Tahitian is a cross, and Pomona is not grown commercially. Vanilla only grows within 25 degrees north and south of the equator. Hawaii is the only part of the US that lies within that range (Key West is 25.5 degrees).

Commercial vanilla is planted and grown for 3-4 years. It will not flower until it thinks it is going to die – so farmers need to stress the plant. In most places that means reducing its water, but that doesn’t work in the tropical climate in Hawaii. Rain comes. In Hawaii it is planted high on the mountains where the temperatures can drop to 55 and stress the plants. Vanilla is a member of the orchid family and the only one that produces edible fruit. Once it flowers (flower is pale and scentless) it has to be hand pollinated. It makes sense that in the past something had to pollinate it, but it is long since gone and no one knows what it was. Each bud blooms only once a year, and for only 6 hours. It has to be pollinated during those 6 hours. To pollinate, a person takes a toothpick and lifts the central petal, finds the pollen sac, squeezes it, and the flower sucks the pollen back in and pollinates itself. It takes 7-9 months to grow a bean. When it starts to turn yellow, it is harvested, washed, and laid out to dry, then bundled up and stored overnight. Repeat that for six months!!! Until it is dried out, it is poisonous.

They now have a commercial dryer and can process the beans in only 2.5 months. They are encouraging small farmers to grow beans that they will buy and process. They are up to 6-8 acres of growing between 24 farms. They hope to keep expanding until some day they have 40 acres. At that point they believe they will be able to start to export. Go, Zak, go!

Zak’s title on his nametag is The Vanilla Evangelist. We were just swept away by his enthusiasm for trying new things and making delicious food.

We rested in the afternoon and headed to Lava Lava Beach Club for dinner on the beach. While we waited for a table on the beach, the sun set. We watched the waves break was out in the ocean, then again, and again, and again before hitting the shore. None of us had ever seen so many waves on the ocean. Super cool.

Dinner was great. My bun had a brand! We looked for stars from the beach afterward, but the moon was too moony.