The world’s most popular dessert flavour is Vanilla, an intensely aromatic flavouring extracted from the pale, waxy flowers that bloom only once a year. While Vanilla, a flower of the Orchid family, was native to Mesoamerica, the country known for the largest vanilla production is now Madagascar. Vanilla is the most beloved and lucrative spice with the price for natural vanilla being around 300 dollars for a pound making it one of the most expensive spices in the world, second only to saffron and the story of how the flavour conquered the world is fascinating.
The Story of Vanilla
Long before the Europeans took to the flower’s taste, its creeping vines grew wild throughout the tropical forests in Mesoamerica. Vanilla was first cultivated by the Totonac people on the eastern coast of Mexico and it was a huge part of their tribute to the Aztecs who used it in their Chocolatl, a beverage made with cacao and other spices. After the Spanish Conquest of the Aztecs in 1519, vanilla was one of the first spices to be brought back to Europe along with its companion, cacao. Hernan Cortez brought back a large supply of vanilla and its seeds to the Spanish royal court from where it spread all across Europe but only as an additive to the increasingly popular chocolate products.
The seeds of the fragrant flower were planted in botanical gardens all over England and France but they never offered the sought-after pods. Botanists couldn’t figure it out for centuries until 1836 when Belgian horticulturalists Charles Morren recognized that vanilla’s natural pollinator was the long-snouted Melipona bee, an insect that didn’t exist in Europe. With no insects that could pollinate the plant in other regions, Spain enjoyed a lucrative monopoly through their colonies in Mexico.
It all changed five years later in 1841, on the volcanic island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. A 12-year-old slave named Edmond Albius discovered the laborious method of pollinating the vanilla flower by hand. The technique spread across all French colonies and vanilla plantations grew all over Madagascar, Tahiti and Indonesia making the vanilla harvest more effective. Today, Madagascar and Réunion produce somewhere between 70% to 80% of all the vanilla in the world.
Why are Vanilla pods so expensive?
Firstly, the vanilla orchids bloom only once in the entire year and since the flower has only one natural pollinator, they must be hand-pollinated through the labour-intensive technique. The pods take another eight to nine months to mature and have to be picked by hand when green. To obtain the black pods that we see in store, they need to be cured, then wrapped in little blankets and dried for three to six months during which they ferment and shrink down to a quarter of their weight.
How to Use a Vanilla Pod?
Since it is an expensive commodity, one needs to make sure that you purchase a good quality product and use it properly so that you don’t waste a dime. The vanilla pod should be thick and plump and should look moist. Dry and thin pods mean that the fragrant essential oils have been lost and there aren’t a lot of beans inside. When storing the beans, wrap them up tightly in a plastic wrap and put them in an airtight container or jar and they will retain their aroma for up to six months in a cool and dark place.
Most recipes ask to slit the vanilla pod and scrape the beans out. The most effective and safest way to do it is to cut the pod lengthwise with a clean pair of scissors and then use a little spoon or an offset spatula to scrape out the beans. Before cutting, you can rub the pod between your hands for a few seconds to warm it up and loosen the beans making it easier to scrape them out.
There is a lot you can do with the pods after scraping out the beans. The most common use is to dry the pods and bury them in a jar of sugar to add an extra layer of aroma and make vanilla sugar. You can even put the dried pods and sugar in a blender to disperse the flavour more evenly. The dried pods can be chopped up and used as a flavouring spice for your tea or coffee or as an addition to wine used for poaching fruits like pears and apples. However, the best way to use all your vanilla pods is by making your own vanilla extract. Fill up a mason jar with cognac, brandy or vodka and steep your vanilla pods in it. Put the lid on, shake it well and store it in a cool and dark place. Keep adding your spent vanilla pods to the jar and soon you will have a concentrated and delightful vanilla flavour.
The most popular sweet spice
In the early 17th century, the local England shops started using vanilla in non-chocolate sweets and the spice grew in popularity as an ingredient. It was valued for its intense ambrosial flavour and floral aroma and by the early 18th century, the French started using vanilla to flavour every dessert. Today, Vanilla is a key player in countless recipes from bread loaves and tea cakes to pastries and ice cream. Along with a pinch of salt, vanilla is even used as a spice in delicate sauces and seasoning pork roasts.
