Unfortunately, vanilla has gotten a bad reputation lately for being, well, boring. For something that has become synonymous with blandness and “playing it safe,” few spices are as versatile or expensive as vanilla. Second in price only to saffron, vanilla is widely used in the creation/manufacture of perfume, in aromatherapy, as well as extensively as a food additive, in its own right and as a complement to other foods.
Like corn and potatoes, vanilla was completely unknown to Europeans prior to Spanish exploration in the early 16th century. Originally, the Aztec word for vanilla was tlilxochitl, meaning “black flower;” however, the Spanish referred to it as vainilla, meaning “little pod,” as a reference to the little dried pod that gives the flavourful fruit of the particular genus of orchid.
The first to cultivate vanilla were the Totonac people living around modern-day Veracruz, Mexico, and, until the mid-19th century, Mexico was the leading producer of vanilla.
Through the work of French entrepreneurs exporting the plant to Madagascar as well as Edmond Albius discovery of the artificial pollination, the crop was soon booming, yielding 250 tons by the late 1800s. Even though modern production methods have vastly expanded availability – the top 3 producers, Madagascar, Indonesia, and China, produce a combined 10,000+ tonnes – it’s still difficult to meet overall demand, and, due to this, an estimated 95% of so-called vanilla products are flavoured with lignin-derived artificial vanilla.
The first known use of the word vanilla comes from Henry Stubbe’s 1662 work, The Indian Nectar, where, explaining the Spanish/Mexican composition of chocolate, he writes, “They added..the Vanillas [to the chocolate] for the like ends, and to strengthen the brain.”
Aside from being an addition to other foods, 1731’s Essay Concerning the Nature of Ailments, written by John Arbuthnot is the first mention of vanilla’s essential oils, writing, “When..mixed with Vanillias or Spices; it [chocolate] acquires likewise the good and bad Qualities of aromatic Oils.”
Again, further noting the aromatic potential, which would later attract it to the perfume industry, John Lindley writes in 1830 in An Introduction to the Natural System of Botany that, “The aromatic substance called Vanilla is the succulent fruit of a climbing West Indian plant of the order [Orchideæ].”
