They are hand-picked, and workers must hand pick them at precisely the right time for the best flavor. Vanilla beans are the pods that grow on the vanilla orchid 6-9 months after pollination. Hand pollination requires constant monitoring to pollinate the orchid at the correct time. Hand pollination is labor-intensive and time-sensitive. Due to the lack of natural pollinators and the short window of time when vanilla orchids can be pollinated, vanilla orchids are hand pollinated. The vanilla orchid only blooms one day per year, and the flower is usually only open for a few hours. The Melipona bee’s natural habitat is the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Only the Melipona bee evolved in a way that it can access the vanilla orchid. Due to its shape, the flower can’t self-pollinate and is inaccessible to most pollinating insects. Vanilla orchids can only be pollinated naturally by the Melipona bee (a rare, stingless bee). Currently, Madagascar and Indonesia are the leading producers of vanilla, but it is also grown in Mexico, China, and Tahiti. The orchid produces a pod containing vanilla beans used in baking or used to make vanilla paste or vanilla extract.Vanilla orchids are native to South and Central America and the Caribbean and seem to have first been cultivated on the east coast of Mexico. But how much do you really know about where vanilla comes from? Read on to learn more about this ubiquitous baking ingredient. You may even be like me and made the mistake of taking a (very disappointing) sip of vanilla extract as a child.

It is in cakes, cookies, ice cream and much more. Vanilla extract goes along with flour and sugar as one of the most commonly used ingredients in desserts.

Where does vanilla extract come from