Valrhona Selection has announced the expansion of Norohy, its first-ever premium, organic vanilla range. Norohy represents the highest in quality and traceability, as well as the brand’s commitment to making the vanilla industry more ethical, responsible and respectful of both people and the planet.
Madagascar is a choice terroir for growing the world’s finest vanillas. In addition to a warm, humid climate, the island’s northeastern regions boast a soil that is rich with organic matter, making it ideal for growing vanilla plants. In order to ensure quality and traceability, Norohy partners with organic farmers to purchase unprocessed green vanilla beans harvested straight from producers in two specific regions, Maroantsetra and Mananara. Norohy’s vanilla beans are organic, not only out of a desire for a certification that would reflect its ethical commitments, but also to trace every bean right back to individual planters and raise producers’ awareness of environmental and horticultural issues around managing plantations.
After being harvested and selected, the beans are then processed and refined using traditional techniques. It takes over six months for these black non-split vanilla beans to attain their excellent quality, and they are monitored with the utmost care throughout every step in the process. Traditional skills are used to sort beans into similarly sized bunches and bind them with raffia. Norohy is the only vanilla brand which packages its vanilla on-site in Madagascar to ensure the local community benefits from as much of the value chain as possible.
These vanilla beans are also available for retail and additionally can be ordered directly from Valrhona’s online boutique, which offers a smaller format of the Madagascar beans (3 beans per tube) and also a Tahitian variety (2 beans per tube). The Tahitian vanilla is grown on the island of Tahaa by 200 farmers and prepared on the island of Raiatea by our partner. Just like in Madagascar, Valrhona has chosen short supply chains in Tahiti that allow it to work closely with vanilla growers in keeping with its philosophy of pursuing quality and traceability.
In addition to offering Organic Black Non-Split Vanilla Beans from Madagascar and Tahiti, Norohy is sharing its newest innovation in Vanilla: VaniFusion Organic, Whole Bean Vanilla Paste. For the first time in the market, Norohy has combined all the Vanilla Bean components into an organic, clean and easy-to-measure paste. Most Vanilla pastes on the market are diluted with water, sweetened with Glycerin, thickened with Gum Tragacanth, and enhanced with caramel and alcohol. VaniFusion is the cleanest, most authentic, and effective Vanilla paste composed of only 4 main ingredients: Vanilla Concentrate (made from whole beans), Vanilla Bean powder, exhausted Vanilla Seeds and Cane Sugar. Most Vanilla pastes available today are not organic and cannot be traced back to their origins. VaniFusion is certified organic and made from mature beans sourced from Madagascar.
Norohy’s high-quality vanilla has sweet, floral aromas with powerful cocoa notes. Because of the strong flavors and aromas of the Norohy vanilla bean, chefs who have been using it since its European release have noted that they can use less vanilla to get the same intense flavor in their recipes, thus adding more value to the product. Using a high-quality vanilla from Norohy also reduces food waste as chefs can use leftover pods several times for infusions, and then dry them to make a powder.
