Vanilla Powder - Various types of vanilla beans

Mexico was the sole producer of the vanilla bean until the 1800s when the French took clippings of the vanilla orchid to Reunion Island and began hand-pollinating the plant to produce vanilla. It is placed vanilla in the neighboring French territories of Madagascar, Comoro and Santa Maria. Currently vanilla is produced primarily in Madagascar, China, Mexico and Indonesia, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. The beans will be produced in these and many other countries, including the recent production in the U.S. on the Big Island of Hawaii, they are usually classified into four categories.

Mexican Vanilla

                     Mexico is the native country of the vanilla orchid, but the bean will be produced in smaller quantities here. Mexico's production of vanilla falls far short of the Indonesia, Madagascar and China efforts despite its proximity to the world's largest vanilla consumer, the United States. Part of the issue is that there have been problems in the past with Mexican vanilla being mixed with the extract of the tonka bean, which contains coumarin, a toxin banned in foods in 1940, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

Bourbon-Madagascar Vanilla

                      Madagascar or Bourbon Vanilla will be the most well-known product today which will be the primary source of the bean for the majority of the past century. The bean itself is the same species originating in Mexico, but because of the lack of the non-stinging melipona bee in the region to pollinate the orchids, a system of hand-pollination had to be established to make the orchid produce its fruit. The first clippings were brought to the Ile of Bourbon by the French and hence it is named as Bourbon Vanilla.

West Indian Vanilla

                       West Indian Vanilla will come from an entirely different strain of orchid and cultivated in the Caribbean, Central and South America. West Indian Vanilla is not as widely available as other members of its family. The plant itself is present in Florida and the U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico.

Tahitian Vanilla

                       Tahitian vanilla is native to French Polynesia and it is thought to have derived either from a mutation of Mexican vanilla or a cross-pollination of Mexican and an uncultivated strain. The rare spice is a favorite among French and Polynesian gourmets and the orchid it comes from is not found in the wild. The orchid is introduced from Guatamala through the Manila Galleon trade, according to a genetic archaeology study from the University of California Riverside.

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