Day 23 - Vanilla Tour

We had nothing but great things about this "food tour". Stace and I both thought it sounded different and were hopeful. Overall, it was pretty informative. But it definitely was NOT anything like water rafting! The kids were fairly entertained and interested, especially when they go to taste the food. It's crazy how much work goes into making vanilla!
We checked out the area where they dry the black and white peppercorn, tumeric and cocoa beans. They have to dry in the sun for 7 weeks.

Katie wanted to show us her cinnamon mustache. Did you know cinamon is just a second layer bark?? I was pretty interesting.

This is a close up of the vanilla bean. The farmers have to fertilize the flower to create the bean and then wait 8 months before they are ready to be picked. From there they wait months before they can be sold.

This is what pepper looks like before it is made BLACK. Black pepper is made by picking pepper before it is ripe. They dry if for many weeks...thus the wrinkly outside.

White pepppercorn is made by waiting for the pepper to ripen. The farmers pick it, put it in a mesh bag and hang it in river water. After a few weeks they take it out to dry and the outer shell had fallen off.

At the end of the tour we got to taste some food made with REAL vanilla. The kids really like the vanilla cheesecake and ice cream, but who wouldn't. Actually they were excellent.

Brody and Stace during the tasting. I think this was after the "real" hot chocolate, which was quite bitter, not tasty!