DID YOU KNOW?
The Shea tree is a large and majestic fruit tree which grows wildly in the savannas of Central Africa and West Africa, mainly in Burkina Faso, Mali and Sudan. Institut Karité Paris has chosen to get its Shea Butter from Burkina Faso, country known for its great Shea Butter quality.This 15 meter high tree lives around two centuries. Families and people around show incredible respect to this “Sacred Tree”. It starts producing fruits around 25 years old and reaches maturity at 50 years old producing nearly 20 kg of fruits per year. We harvested these fruits and the almond they contain is used for the production of Shea Butter. We can definitely say that Shea Butter is a precious ingredient as we can only get between 1 and 5kg of it with 20kg of fruits!
THE DIFFERENT STEPS
First of all… the harvest
The Shea Butter harvest lasts a few months, from mid-June to mid-September. Fruits should be picked when they're ripe. They are delicately hand-picked to select the best ones. The fruit flesh is edible and sweet, to the delight of foodies!
Then… the extraction of the almond
The Shea fruit contains a nut, which itself contains the almond where the shea butter is found. After the harvest, the fruit pulp needs to be removed to get the nuts. The fruits are sometimes simply sun-dried... Once ready, the nuts are shelled, by hand or by using a machine, to extract the almond.
And finally… the transformation in Shea Butter
The almond which has been extracted from the Shea nuts is washed and then dried. It is then crushed, refined and kneaded till obtaining a thick paste which will be mixed with water and brewed by hand. Next step consists in pouring it in boiling water to make Shea Butter come to the surface and impurities fall down. Once removed and cooled, the butter is kneaded before being stewed for a long time to obtain the oil which will be filtered before being filled and packed. To get our amazing cosmetic formulas, our Shea Butter is discolored then deodorized by mechanical process which do not alter in any way its quality and properties.
