Vanilla beans are seed pods of the orchid planifolia and are categorized according to the region from which they are cultivated like Mexican, Tahitian, and Indonesian. The Madagascar vanilla is called Bourbon vanilla because the island of Madagascar was previously called Bourbon Island.

It takes about a year to cultivate and grow vanilla beans and requires extensive human labor in terms of hand pollinating each vanilla vine to produce flowers that bear the vanilla bean pods after a few hours blooming which remains in the vine for nine months. Ripened vanilla beans are still green in color and still odorless.

It is after harvesting that the vanilla beans are cured and processed. The curing processes of vanilla beans also vary from country to country and should be done 7 days after the beans are harvested, but generally, the process involves the exposure of the vanilla bean pods to extreme heat. Ways of heat exposure could be in the form of submerging the beans in boiling water, exposure to sunlight, or placing the beans over fire with the use of mats. The heating process is intended to stop the ripening of the bean pods.

The beans are exposed to heat everyday during the day and are alternately brought into shade at night and covered to allow the beans to sweat for 48 to 72 hours; exceeding this time frame will cause the beans to rot. This process is done for several weeks. With the repeated curing process, the vanilla beans will eventually dry and start to develop natural vanillin. Vanillin is the natural extract of vanilla beans that gives vanilla its unique and enticing flavor and aroma. With proper curing, the vanilla beans turn into dark brown and begin to show wrinkles.

After the curing process, the beans are slowly dried. By this time, they now have heavy longitudinal wrinkles and become sinuous with a leathery feel. The dried beans are then classified according to length and are bundled, tied and conditioned by pacing them inside the metal or wooden boxes that are lined with wax papers for 60 days. After two months, the bundled vanilla bean pods are then wrapped in wax papers and sealed in containers that do not allow air circulation and made ready for market distribution.

The overall curing process of the vanilla has to be done with utmost care because the condensed moisture of the bean pods is ideal for bacterial and fungal growth that can damage the product. Constant checking of the been pods is recommended to monitor and detect infestation and infection.