Anything but plain: inside the Australian push to grow vanilla outside the tropics

Synthetic vanilla now accounts for 99% vanilla products, but demand for the real deal is high and growingIn the humid jungles of Mexico, the melipona bee flits under the canopy's patchwork light. As it comes across a vine, it pauses at a pale green-yellow flower, an orchid type creature which yawns open its petals for just a few hours a day. Seizing this brief window of opportunity, the melipona's stinger pierces a thin, nearly invisible membrane separating the male and female parts of the flower allowing the pollen to reach the stigma.From this tiny act a long, thin green vanilla bean will form. This is the way vanilla has grown for centuries. Continue reading...