The world’s rarest vanilla?

Now this is wonderful story …

We have taken delivery of a rare, highly fragrant species of vanilla from the jungles of Peru. These wonderful vanilla pods, called ‘sekut’ by the locals, are cultivated by an Englishman in Peru. He grows this endemic heirloom variety at 800m in a jungle area where the Andes meets the Peruvian Amazon. Production is just 600 kilos per year.

Did you know that vanilla is the only edible species of orchid? The beans of this Amazonia vanilla are 7 to 8 times larger than the more common vanilla species (‘Vanilla Planifolia’) and have more caviar. The variety is called ‘Vanilla Pompona’ and has a highly complex flavour profile with notes of aniseed, fig and raisin.

A vanilla pod takes nine months to grow and three months to mature. The process of drying this variety is more complex than the commercial varieties. Vanilla grows in clusters of pods, which commercial growers will pick in one go - when some pods are more mature than others. This Amazonian vanilla is harvested pod by pod as each of them mature.

“It is more delicate and requires more attention to detail. It is all to do with the vanillan content. They only produce vanillan in the last month of maturity – so you can’t harvest early,” explains the grower.