Questions
Vanilor is an animated story told in 52 one-minute episodes on social media, and the vanilla brand that grows alongside it. It follows Vanillin, a small explorer searching for a hidden place where the rarest vanilla in the world grows. The story runs on the calendar of a real, family-owned vanilla farm in Bangkok.
In the story, Vanilor is a hidden valley that nobody has managed to find. Whether it exists is the question the whole season is built around, and the answer arrives in the last arc.
Each episode is about one minute long. The first season has 52 of them, posted on Instagram and TikTok. Join the waitlist to hear when the first one is out.
Vanillin, the explorer, travels with four companions: Khamin the turmeric warrior, Takrai the lemongrass scout, Elder Koko the cacao elder and Prik the black pepper trickster. Each companion is a crop that grows beside the vanilla on the farm.
Vanillin is the molecule that gives vanilla most of its smell. It forms inside the bean during curing, which suits a character who is still becoming who she is.
In Bangkok, Thailand, on a 528 m² family-owned plot. It is a small urban farm, planned for 1,000 vanilla vines once it is fully planted.
Yes. Vanilla is a tropical orchid that grows roughly within 20 degrees of the equator, and Bangkok sits at about 13.7° N. It needs heat, humidity, filtered light and a short dry spell to trigger flowering, which Bangkok’s December to February dry season provides.
A vine grown from a cutting of a mature plant can flower after about 18 months; young nursery plants can take up to four years. After hand pollination, the pods take about nine months to ripen, and curing adds roughly six more months.
Almost every step is done by hand. Each flower opens for one morning and has to be pollinated by hand, the pods take about nine months to ripen, and curing takes months more. It takes about 4.5 to 5.5 kg of green pods to make 1 kg of cured vanilla. Most of the world’s natural vanilla also comes from a single country, Madagascar, so a bad season there moves prices everywhere.
Vanillin is the main aroma molecule in vanilla. Cured vanilla beans also contain many other aromatic compounds, which is why real vanilla tastes rounder. Most vanilla flavouring sold today uses vanillin made in a lab rather than taken from beans.
Five things, in this order: vanilla sugar, ice cream, a recipe book, a limited-edition tiramisu in Bangkok, and, much later, a vanilla perfume.
Vanilla sugar is our first product. The first batches use vanilla bought from growers we know, and the label says so, until our own harvest is cured. The waitlist hears first.
Yes. We are looking for a French patisserie or Italian kitchen in Bangkok for a limited tiramisu, stockists for the ice cream, and pastry kitchens that want cured Thai vanilla beans from our harvest.
hello@vanilor.orgEpisode 1 is being drawn
Get the first episode when it is out, Vanillin’s diary from the farm once a month, and first pick of the first jar of vanilla sugar.
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