Vanilla
Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla, primarily obtained from the seed pods of the flat-leaved New World vanilla.
Vanilla is not autogamous, so pollination is required to produce the pods. In 1837, the Belgian botanist Charles François Antoine Morren discovered this and pioneered a method of artificially pollinating the plant. The method proved financially unworkable and was not deployed commercially. In 1841, Edmond Albius, a 12-year-old enslaved child who lived on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean, discovered that the plant could be hand-pollinated. Hand-pollination allowed global cultivation of the plant. The noted French botanist and plant collector Jean Michel Claude Richard falsely claimed to have discovered the technique three or four years earlier. By the end of the 20th century, Albius was considered the true discoverer.
Three major species of vanilla currently are grown globally, all derived from a species originally found in Mesoamerica, including parts of modern-day Mexico. They are V. planifolia, grown on Madagascar, Réunion, and other tropical areas along the Indian Ocean; V. × tahitensis, grown in the South Pacific; and V. pompona, found in the West Indies, Central America, and South America. The majority of the world's vanilla is the V. planifolia species, more commonly known as Bourbon vanilla or Madagascar vanilla, which is produced in Madagascar and neighboring islands in the southwestern Indian Ocean, and in Indonesia. Madagascar's and Indonesia's cultivations produce two-thirds of the world's supply of vanilla.
Measured by weight, vanilla is the world's second-most expensive spice after saffron, because growing the vanilla seed pods is labor-intensive. Nevertheless, vanilla is widely used in both commercial and domestic baking, perfume production, and aromatherapy, as only small amounts are needed to impart its signature flavor and aroma.
History
Before domestication, Vanilla planifolia grew wild around the Gulf of Mexico from Tampico around to the northeast tip of South America, and from Colima to Ecuador on the Pacific side, as well as throughout the Caribbean. The Totonac people, who live along the eastern coast of Mexico in the present-day state of Veracruz, were among the first people to domesticate vanilla, cultivated on farms since at least 1185. The Totonac used vanilla as a fragrance in temples and as a good-luck charm in amulets, as well as flavoring for food and beverages. The cultivation of vanilla was a low-profile affair, as few people from outside these regions knew of it.Although the Totonacs are the most famously associated with human use of vanilla, it is speculated that the Olmecs, who also lived in the regions of wild vanilla growth thousands of years earlier, were one of the first peoples to use wild vanilla in cuisine.
Aztecs from the central highlands of Mexico invaded the Totonacs in 1427, developed a taste for the vanilla pods, and began using vanilla to flavor their foods and drinks, often mixing it with cocoa in a drink called "xocolatl" that later inspired modern hot chocolate. The fruit was named tlilxochitl, wrongly interpreted as "black flower" instead of the more probable "black pod" because the matured fruit shrivels and turns a dark color shortly after being picked. For the Aztecs, much like earlier Mesoamerican peoples before them, it is probable that vanilla was used to tame the otherwise bitter taste of cacao, as sugarcane was not harvested in these regions at the time and there were no other sweeteners available.
Hernán Cortés is credited with introducing both vanilla and chocolate to Europe in the 1520s. In Europe, vanilla was seen mostly as an additive to chocolate until the early 17th century when Hugh Morgan, a creative apothecary in the employ of Queen Elizabeth I, created chocolate-free, vanilla-flavored "sweetmeats". By the 18th century, the French were using vanilla to flavor ice cream.
Until the mid-19th century, Mexico was the chief producer of vanilla. One of Mexico's top producing regions was Veracruz, especially in the town of Papantla. By 1889, Mexican exports of vanilla exceeded 70,000 kilograms making the region one of the world leaders in vanilla production at the time. While vanilla trade was surging throughout Papantla, many farmers who owned land on which this commodity was growing would soon be subject to political shifts that led to those farmers having to pay rent. Protests of these shifts in policy led many to fight and die against the four tier hierarchy made up of Totonac caciques, ranchero clans, a hefty class of landowning labradores, and a bulging stratum of tenants, jornaleros, and ranch hands. In 1819, French entrepreneurs shipped vanilla fruits to the islands of Réunion and Mauritius in hopes of producing vanilla there. After 1841, when Edmond Albius discovered how to pollinate the flowers quickly by hand, the pods began to thrive. Soon, the tropical orchids were sent from Réunion to the Comoros Islands, Seychelles, and Madagascar, along with instructions for pollinating them. By 1898, Madagascar, Réunion, and the Comoros Islands produced 200 metric tons of vanilla beans, about 80% of world production in that year. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization 2019 data, Madagascar, followed by Indonesia, were the largest producers of vanilla in 2018.
After a tropical cyclone ravaged key croplands, the market price of vanilla rose sharply in the late 1970s and remained high through the early 1980s despite the introduction of Indonesian vanilla. In the mid-1980s, the cartel that had controlled vanilla prices and distribution since its creation in 1930 disbanded. Prices dropped 70% over the next few years, to nearly US$20 per kilogram; prices rose sharply again after tropical cyclone Hudah struck Madagascar in April 2000. The cyclone, political instability, and poor weather in the third year drove vanilla prices to US$500/kg in 2004, bringing new countries into the vanilla industry. A good crop, coupled with decreased demand caused by the production of imitation vanilla, pushed the market price down to the $40/kg range in the middle of 2005. By 2010, prices were down to $20/kg. Cyclone Enawo caused a similar spike to $500/kg in 2017.
An estimated 95% of "vanilla" products are artificially flavored with vanillin derived from lignin instead of vanilla fruits.
Although vanilla was domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread to the Old World, the use of an unidentified, Old World-endemic Vanilla species is attested in Canaan/Israel during the Middle Bronze Age and later. Traces of vanillin were found in wine jars in Jerusalem, which were used by the Judahite elite before the city was destroyed in 586 BCE.
Etymology
The word vanilla is derived from the Spanish word vainilla meaning "little pod", the diminutive of vaina derived from the Latin vagina describing the shape of the pods. The word "vanilla" entered the English language in 1754, when the botanist Philip Miller wrote about the genus in his Gardener's Dictionary.Biology
Vanilla orchid
The main species of vanilla cultivated is V. planifolia. Although it is native to Mesoamerica and South America, it is now widely grown throughout the tropics. Indonesia and Madagascar are the world's largest producers. Additional sources include V. pompona and V. tahitiensis, although the vanillin content of these species is much less than V. planifolia.Vanilla grows as a vine, climbing up an existing tree, pole, or other support. It can be grown in a wood, in a plantation, or in a "shader", in increasing orders of productivity. Its growth environment is referred to as its terroir, and includes not only the adjacent plants, but also the climate, geography, and local geology. Left alone, it will grow as high as possible on the support, with few flowers. Every year, growers fold the higher parts of the plant downward so the plant stays at heights accessible by a standing human. This also greatly stimulates flowering.
The distinctively flavored compounds are found in the fruit, which results from the pollination of the flower. These seed pods are roughly by, and brownish red to black when ripe. Inside of these pods is an oily liquid full of tiny seeds. One flower produces one fruit. V. planifolia flowers are hermaphroditic: they carry both male and female organs. However, self-pollination is blocked by a membrane which separates those organs.
Despite various claims otherwise, the only pollinators definitively documented to date are orchid bees in the genus Eulaema and the Western honey bee. All commercial vanilla production takes place via hand pollination by humans.
The first vanilla orchid to flower in Europe was in the London collection of the Honourable Charles Greville in 1806. Cuttings from that plant went to Netherlands and Paris, from which the French first transplanted the vines to their overseas colonies. The vines grew, but would not fruit outside Mexico. The only known way to produce fruits is artificial pollination. Today, even in Mexico, hand pollination is used extensively. In 1837, botanist Charles François Antoine Morren began experimenting with hand pollination of Vanilla orchids in cultivation in Europe. The method proved financially unworkable and was not deployed commercially. A few years later in 1841, a simple and efficient artificial hand-pollination method was developed by a 12-year-old slave named Edmond Albius on Réunion, a method still used today. Using a beveled sliver of bamboo, an agricultural worker lifts the membrane separating the anther and the stigma, then, using the thumb, transfers the pollinia from the anther to the stigma. The flower, self-pollinated, will then produce a fruit. The vanilla flower lasts about one day, sometimes less, so growers have to inspect their plantations every day for open flowers, a labor-intensive task.
The fruit, a seed capsule, if left on the plant, ripens and opens at the end; as it dries, the phenolic compounds crystallize, giving the fruits a diamond-dusted appearance, which the French call givre. It then releases the distinctive vanilla smell. The fruit contains tiny, black seeds. In dishes prepared with whole natural vanilla, these seeds are recognizable as black specks. Both the pod and the seeds are used in cooking.
Like other orchids' seeds, vanilla seeds will not germinate without the presence of certain mycorrhizal fungi. Instead, growers reproduce the plant by cutting: they remove sections of the vine with six or more leaf nodes, a root opposite each leaf. The two lower leaves are removed, and this area is buried in loose soil at the base of support. The remaining upper roots cling to the support, and often grow down into the soil. Growth is rapid under good conditions.