Issue 28: Vanilla Farming in the Daintree

Vanilla has a mixed reputation when it comes to chocolate. Native records suggest that vanilla was added as a flavour in chocolate in Mesoamerica. Today, it is most often added to lower quality chocolate. The reason is that vanilla has an interesting effect on chocolate. It smooths over some (often undesirable) flavours but it can also intensify other more desirable ones too. This is why you will find vanilla added in as an ingredient in most chocolate you buy at the supermarket but hardly ever in fine chocolate.

Consumers are used to tasting vanilla but most of the time what they are tasting isn’t real vanilla but synthetics. Real vanilla is more expensive, more time consuming to make, and more delicious. It originated in Mexico. According to the legend, vanilla, which is a type of climbing orchid, was born when princess Zanat fled to the forest with her lover after her father forbid them from marrying. There they were captured and beheaded, and the vanilla vine grew where their blood had touched the ground. Today it is grown in many countries around the world including in Australia.

I wanted to learn more about vanilla, so I contacted George and Josette Gonthier from Daintree Vanilla & Spice who have a farm in the beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Listed Daintree Rainforest. George is a storyteller and over a cup of tea and some cakes we listen attentively.

What to do in the Daintree

• Immerse yourself in the Daintree Rainforest

• Go looking for cassowaries, a large bird that looks like a dinosaur and that is deadly. The Dubuji boardwalk is a great place to spot them

• You must must must take the Cape Trib Farm Fruit Tasting Tour

• Taste the best ice cream you will ever have at Daintree Ice Cream

• Spend a day on the Great Barrier Reef with Ocean Safari

• Camp where two UNESCO World Heritage Sites meet at Noah’s Beach

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This Week’s Hot Chocolate News

I’m off to Paris and planning to try all of these hot chocolates (ok, maybe not all…lots)

I’ve been reading Le Livre Du Chocolat published by Flammarion. Beautiful book.

Coles and Yumi’s have just release hummus with chocolate and hazelnuts…just because

Cocoa and chocolate companies agree to share farmer data with Invorian and Ghanian authorities to further traceability

Quality Street is changing their brightly coloured plastic wrappers after 86 years to a more environmentally friendly option

Mars just released its Cocoa for Generations report about its sustainability focused activities.

A guide on what to do with cocoa nibs

The hunt is on for New Zealand’s best chocolate

I found this article on temporarily rebranding a chocolate company with a Maori name in New Zealand interesting.

I so want to try this Attica x Koko Black Chocolate Degustation (its $449 so I probably won’t be sadly)

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Thanks for following and have a great week!

Giselle

Chief Chocolate Sipper at www.ultimatehotchocolate.com. Follow on Instagram @ultimatehotchoc