Introduction. During maturation, vanillin is accumulated in green vanillabeans as glucovanillin; it is hydrolyzed to free vanillin by endogenous glucosidasesduring curing and gives the characteristic flavor of vanilla. The objective of our studywas to investigate methods of curing that could greatly reduce the time to complete theprocess and yield cured beans that retain high concentrations of vanillin and other flavorcompounds with high sensory quality rating. Materials and methods. Maturegreen beans were obtained from a commercial grower (Cairns, Queensland, Australia). Onebatch of beans was continuously sweated at 35 °C at high relative humidity (RH)for 12 d. Two further batches were blanched in water at 67 °C for 3 min, andthen sweated at 45 °C at high RH for 4 d or at 35 °C for 5 d. Thebeans were sweated until they turned brown. Three methods of drying were evaluated: a heatpump dryer at 40 °C and RH 15%, tunnel dryer at 60 °C and RH 20%,and tunnel dryer at 60 °C and RH 10%. Vanillin was extracted from powderedsamples of beans with n-pentane and dichloromethane (1:1 v/v) and assayed by HPLC.Glucovanillin was measured as total vanillin after acid hydrolysis of powdered samples ofbeans. Results and discussion. About 90% of the glucovanillin was convertedto vanillin in non-blanched beans continuously sweated at 35 °C, but there was only 70%conversion in beans blanched at 67 °C for 3 min and sweated at 45 °Cfor 4 d or at 35 °C for 5 d. The sensory quality of cured beans was assessed byuntrained panelists. Profiling showed that the beans sweated continuously at 35°C had superior aroma compared with beans blanched in hot water and sweatedat 45 °C or at 35 °C but the appearance of non-blanched beans wasless attractive. Conclusion. The study revealed that a mild hot waterblanching treatment followed by sweating at 35–45 °C and rapid drying isrequired to produce cured beans with excellent appearance and attractive aroma.