Taste for Change

Projects in Uganda

Taste for Change is our umbrella program for all projects related to food and drinks.

Uganda has some of the most fertile lands in the world. With the rich soil and climate almost anything can grow here. We are advocating for local produce, and work in different ways to promote local agricultural resources solely for the benefit of local communities.

Projects in Norway

In all countries all around the world people love food, and see benefits of working with food related projects also in other countries.

In Norway we are working on several initiatives. See our Charity Chefs cooperation initiative below, and our Kimera Vanilla project,

Kimera Vanilla

Kimera is a project to deliver fresh premium quality vanilla from Uganda, and at the same time engage in development of the community.

- Forget your regular Bourbon, here’s the new super version!

Kimera vanilla from Uganda is one of the world's finest, still unknown to most. Ugandan makes up only about 2 percent of the vanilla on the international market, yet this rare commodity is known for its exquisite qualities.

It is of the same species as Bourbon vanilla from Madagascar, but differs in several important areas.

Uganda's rich nutritious soil and traditional agricultural knowledge results in a significantly higher content of vanillin, which together with around 130 other substances gives its unique taste. Typically noticeable signatures in the flavor spectrum are earthy tones, raisin, figs and chocolate.

Kimera vanilla from Uganda also stands out with its deeper colour, from dark brown to black, and higher weight per vanilla pod.

The sweetness is also more marked than in Bourbon from Madagascar.

Prime gourmet vanilla beans

Anything above grade A of the Planifolia vanilla species is called Bourbon. Our vanilla, which is called Kimera, is grade A-1 with a significantly higher content of vanillin, cultivated with pride.

Higher vanillin content makes our vanilla perfect for vanilla extract, for dark chocolate and desserts based on a lot of vanilla flavor such as vanilla ice cream and staciatella and, dishes with cream and for panna cotta. It is also excellent for berries and berry-based desserts, marmalade and sauces, also for rice porridge, latte, cheesecake and many other types of pastries.

Our vanilla pods are normally 5 grams, twice the regular size. Larger vanilla pods contain more moisture, and therefore have better quality.

Our quality spesifications

Quality: Grade A-1 Premium

Color: Dark brown to black

Length: Grade I - 17-23 cm

Aspect: Smooth and soft with an oily shine

Scent: Aromatic, sweetness and caramel

Flavor: Rich and bold earthy sweetness with hints of raisin, figs and milk chocolate. High notes of rich, soft and delicate buttery notes

Moisture: 35%+

Vanillin content: 2,5%+

Other aromas: ca. 130

Weight: 6-10 grams per bean

Kimera vanilla from Buganda are of the same species as what is called Bourbon vanilla from Madagascar, but differs in many important aspects. A full-bodied shape gives a bean higher moisture, which develops more aromas.

Conditions

Our premium vanilla beans are delivered in a concealed package preserving its freshness. It is picked by skilled local farmers at the peak of the season, after being grown the traditional way it has been for thousands of years in the Kingdom of Buganda.

It is not grown at a plantation like most of the vanilla on the market, but in the natural habitat in the jungle. This way it does not crave huge space and land properties, and no ownership of foreign companies. Hence we also avoid exploitation of workers, when it is the farmers of the local community themselves who administer their own activities.

The area where the vanilla is grown is not ridden by natural catastrophies like the tyfoons that destroys crops in Madagaskar, nor the turbulent political climate they have there. Therefore the conditions for plants and people are stable and safe.

Storage

The best way to store vanilla at home, is to but the beans in a glass bottle or container with spirits. Vodka and Gin, but a good Bourbon or Rum will work very fine. Stored in alcohol it can last for several years.

If you do not want to use a whole vanilla pod at the time, you can clip of the tip and squeese out with your fingers the amount of vanilin seeds you want. The rest of the pod you can put back in the bottle. After a bean is empty, you can dry it and make powder to mix up with sugar. Now you have vanilla sugar, and the sprit left has become vanilla essence; three products in one.

Vanilla essence

A rich vanilla bean will put delicious taste to a bottle of spirit right away, but to get the full potential out of vanilla essence it needs to develop for a full year. Then you will get a dark golden full bodied vanilla essence. It is recommended to use one vanilla pod per cup of spirit.

There is a clever shortcut to do this, using a sealed container in a waterbath, inside a pressure cooker. Then you can get almost the same result as storing for a year, in just one hour. Time and patience has its own virtous result of course, but this trick makes a quite good elixir of vanilla .

How to use vanilla

Being one of the most popular flavors in the world, there are thousands of ways to use vanilla

The higher vanillin content makes our vanilla perfect for vanilla extract, for dark chocolate and desserts based on substantial vanilla flavor such as vanilla ice cream and staciatella. And for dishes with cream, and panna cotta. It is also excellent for berries and berry-based desserts, marmalade and sauces, and for rice porridge, latte, cheesecake and many other types of pastries.

Vanilla pollination

Vanilla is manually hand-pollinated

After fertilization of the flower with a small bamboo stick, the plant is “pregnant” for 9 months, same amount of time as humans.

Background

Kimera is a project initiated by Greater Africa Foundation. We identified a gap in the market, as there is not enough supply to fulfill the demand internationally. This is an opportunity of creating impact by providing resources from skillful people within challenged communities. 

The soaring prices gives room for us to increase livelihood for families, and at the same time deliver high quality products at a reasonable and competitive price.

This is also a growing market, as the demand for real vanilla instead of synthetic flavor is growing. Health benefits, fair business and environment friendly production also plays big roles in trends of the consumer populations.

Traditional  knowledge, local ownership

Kimera vanilla is of high quality because of the rich soil of Buganda, and the traditional agricultural knowledge they have practiced for centuries.

Our vanilla grows in food jungle, in it’s natural habitat. It does not come from plantations like other vanilla. There is local ownership, and there are no corporations or others in between that has any control or inflictions over their activities.

Taste for Change

All income goes entirely to Greater Africa Junior School, that we have built where the vanilla is grown.

The vanilla project was established by a local community organization in order to raise funds for the childrens needs.

Our organization in Norway supplies vanilla from local providers, and funds  from supporters in Norway. When you buy vanilla from us, you support the local community directly.

The children get food, a place to sleep and everything they need for education. No uninvolved parties are enriched from the funds, all are used locally. We have our own milking cows and other animals, and grow tomatoes, beans, potatoes, corn, cassava og other food crops.

Worlds most popular flavours

Vanilla is the second most popular taste in the world, after chocolate. But even chocolate would not exist as we know it without vanilla. Chocolate was originally served as a drink with vanilla because of the cocoas bitter taste, today milk, sugar and other substances are uset to mimic the sweet smoothness of vanilla qualities.

When it comes to ice cream vanilla is number one, even more popular than chocolate.

There are thousands of ways of using vanilla. See our website or other sources for inspiration, and guidance for how you can get the most out of your vanilla.

The higher vanillin content makes our vanilla perfect for everything from vanil extract to dark chocolate, and desserts where vanilla is the main flavor. Like vanilla ice cream and staciatella, dishes with cream, and panna cotta. It is also excellent for berries and berry-based desserts, marmalade and sauces, for rice porridge, latte, cheesecake and many other types of cakes and pastries.

Read the history of vanilla

Edmond Albius was 12 years old when he introduced the method to pollinate vanilla.

Continue to read the history of vanilla that goes back thousands of years.

Events

A series of events labeled “Internasjonalt Mateventyr” launches September 14th 2023. The title entails an international food fairy tale.

The concept is a monthly arrangement where guests are invited to explore food from different countries, in 3 different kitchens.

The evening takes place at Kommunegården in Sandvika from 18:00 - 22:00 once a month.

We tailor other events for customers, and hold courses, conferences and theme arrangements.

And again, all income goes to charity.

Social Responsibility Programme

When a chef becomes part of the Charity Chefs Programme, there are a range of benefits for all parts.

First and foremost the cooperation enables the participants to be able to contribute through their capabilities, to generate funding valuable for the livelihoods and wellbeing of the local community in Uganda. Greater Africa Foundation provides the complete setup for making sure the contributions in its entirety are transferred in a secure manner, in accordance with the ethically correct standards and regulations.

Restaurants or other food companies the participant works for can get a tailored CSR-programme, where we deliver text material and images for the company's website, and they also get mention with a logo on the project partners' websites. The companies can also have posters hung up at their premises, flyers about Charity Chefs, and maybe an apron with our logo or other promotional material.

We might also offer to have a short text with a QR-code on their manu and/or tablecard, and possibly a collection jar for their counter/reception.

They might also get material that they can bring when they represent themselves or their business at food fairs, markets, conventions or elsewhere.

Background

The FNOI association is a group of immigration women in Norway who are skilled with cooking. They learn language and get certification for their profession, and there are initiatives for assisting them for getting employment.

July 2023 Robina Taj Chaudhry of FNOI have established a collaboration project to start selling food where the income goes to the Greater Africa Foundation.

After several meetings the concepts started to form and develop. July 17th we came up with the idea of presenting three different countries every month, since we have access to three kitchens at the same facilities. And the next day Mikael of Greater Africa came up with the concept sketch of the Charity Chefs Network.

Internasjonalt Mateventyr

-En kulinarisk reise fra land til land

Charity Chefs invites to an exploration through the cuisines of the world.

Every month we introduce three new countries, and present you dishes to taste from their cultures.

Internasjonalt Mateventyr is provided by a collaboration between FNOI (Foreningen for Norskopplæring og Integrering), Greater Africa Foundation, Nettverksuset and International House Bærum.

 Partners

Team Charity Chefs