Location: INDIA, MUMBAI PORT

Vanilla .
Vanilla is the fruit of an orchid plant, which grows in the form of a bean pod. In order to produce the fruit, the orchid flowers are laboriously hand-pollinated at a very specific time of the day when the flowers are open during a short one-month flowering period. The fruit is not permitted to fully-ripen, since this will cause the beans to split, thus losing commercial value. Hand-harvesting occurs four to six months after the fruit appears on the vines. Once harvested, the green beans go through a treatment process lasting another six months where the beans are soaked in hot water, rolled in blankets to "sweat," dried on flats in the sun to evaporate the water, and then stored in a ventilated room to slowly ferment and produce their unique aroma and flavour.