 Still to come on Chicago tonight, we'll visit the makers of some of the world's best vanilla, right here in Illinois. What does Wachigan have in common with the Netherlands? Both are home to one of the world's premier vanilla manufacturers. The company, Nielsen Massey, has been based here for nearly a century, and its vanilla extracts are especially prized by bakers and chefs, so even if you haven't cooked with it, you've probably tasted it. There's a look inside an Illinois factory and a business that may be vanilla, but it's anything but bland. We consider ourselves really to be the Cadillac into the industry. When everyone's looking at a gold standard vanilla, they usually hold up our products. It takes us three to five weeks to produce a batch of vanilla using our process. Most manufacturers utilize a heat extraction process, and they can produce a batch in three to five days. Brothers Craig and Matt Nielsen are the latest generation to own and operate Nielsen Massey Vanilla's. The family's unique cold extraction process was used long before they were born. The company started in 1907 by a gentleman named Richard Massey. The grandfather got involved with about 1918-1919. Eventually came into our family in the mid-40s when my grandfather bought it from Mr. Massey's widow. The vanilla bean is the only fruit bearing member of the orchid family. It has a very limited growing area, grows 20 degrees north and south of the equator. Vanilla's are raised mainly in Mexico, Tahiti, and in Madagascar off the east coast of Africa. They are hand-pollinated and every vanilla bean is branded by the farmer who grows it to identify it in case it's lost or stolen. Vanilla actually originated in the Aztec Indians. It was first discovered by Cortez when he conquered Manizuma, when the Spaniards came and conquered the Aztec Indians. It was used in a drink called Chocolato, which was a mixture of water, cacao beans, and honey and vanilla. It was basically considered a nectar of the gods. The shape of the bean inspired the Spanish to name it Vanilla, which means little scabbard, a sheath for a short knife. The flavor was an instant success when it was brought to Europe. It was introduced to the United States by the ambassador to France, future president Thomas Jefferson. We buy our beans through brokers. We demand a very specific quality of beans. Our brokers will get in large shipments of vanilla beans, only about 20 to 30 percent of that total shipment would be our quality. After we receive every delivery of vanilla beans that goes through an income and inspection by the management team, the next step after that inspection is our million process. And what we're doing here is taking the bundles of the vanilla beans and grinding them or milling them into smaller pieces about half inch pieces and trying to split the vanilla beans as much as possible to open up as much surface material as possible. That way during our extraction process, the liquid, the water and alcohol solution will be in as much contact with the vanilla beans as possible to absorb all those essential oils out of the beans. What we have here are the center row of tanks are our extractors and this is where we're actually producing the vanilla extract. We use what's called a cold extraction process, everything's done at room temperature. So all of our water and alcohol that we saw gets pumped over into these tanks and it's a recirculation of the water and alcohol through the vanilla beans and it's really the alcohol that's extracting the flavor. They keep the company's original extracting tanks on the premises to remind them of the early days. In fact, the design of the tanks has hardly changed. Just don't ask the Nielsen brothers for too many details. We have some company secrets that we don't tell people about. It's all part of what makes us unique in our products superior to everything else in the market. And vanilla isn't just for desserts. The flavor can be used to accent soups, seafood and salads. It can be used in tomato sauces to help cut the acidity of tomatoes, used in chili. It actually highlights the different types of peppers that you're using. A lot of times used in beverages and it's used in even other flavors of ice cream such as chocolate and strawberry as an enhancer for those other flavors. You don't taste the vanilla. You taste the, it brings up the depth and the richness of the other flavors. Just don't mention artificial vanilla to the Nielsen brothers. Artificial vanilla is made from vannel which comes from basically chemical rinsings of wood trees. What that vannel does, it only simulates one of the 250 different flavor components that are found in natural vanilla. So it offers you a very narrow range of flavor. You don't have the true full bouquet as you would find in a natural vanilla. So next time you hear someone use the word vanilla to describe something they think is bland or run up the mill, be sure to set them straight. The Nielsen Massie Vanilla Plant in Waukegan is not open to the public but their vanilla extracts are available at Marshall Fields, William Sonoma and other culinary specialty