Vanilla comes from the fruit of a thick tropical vine
that is a member of the orchid family. It is often called "the orchid or
commerce" because it is one of the two products of this enormous species
with any significant commercial value. Interestingly, not only is the
vanilla orchid devoid of scent, so is the vanilla pod or bean, which must
be fermented or cured to develop the vanilla. Vanilla vines are indigenous
to southeastern Mexico, the West Indies, Central America, and northern
South America. Tiny humming birds and a bee called Melipona pollinates
vanilla. When it was transplanted to other parts of the world it did not
produce beans until it was discovered that the small orchid blooms could
be pollinated by hand. The vines grow around trees and when the flowers
fall, the bean stops growing, thus it is very important to keep the flower
from falling. That is why in Mexico, it was grown under the jungle canopy
to protect it from high winds and hurricanes common to the tropics. It is
important not to over pollinate the vine because this will dry it out and
kill it.
pure vanilla extract
- Amber-colored liquid made from vanilla beans, alcohol, and water. May
contain sugar. Must contain at least 35% alcohol, and is the extractive of
13.35 ounce of vanilla beans.
vanilla flavor - A
mix of pure vanilla extract and other natural substances extracted from
natural sources other than the vanilla bean.
imitation vanilla - A
mixture made from synthetic substances, which imitate the pure vanilla
extract smell and flavor.
cookie vanilla - A
pure vanilla extract made from a blend of Tahitian and Madagascar vanilla
beans, which the Cook Flavoring Company says, is ideal for making
cookies.
History: It is not known with any certainty just how the vanilla
bean was discovered as a flavor or how the techniques for processing
vanilla were developed. But several tribes living the southeastern Mexico
may have discovered vanilla at least 1,000 years ago. The Spanish
conquistadors recorded its use by the Aztecs. Correll (1953) states the
"Bernal Diaz, a Spanish officer under Hernando Cortes, was perhaps the
first white man to take note of this spice when he observed Montezuma, the
intrepid Aztec emperor, drink "chocolatl", a beverage prepared from
pulverized seeds of the cacao tree, flavored with ground vanilla beans
which the Aztecs call "tlilxochitl", derived from "tlilli", meaning
"black", and from "xochitl" interpreted here as meaning "pod". Vanilla
beans were considered to be among the rarer tributes paid to the Aztec
emperor by his subject tribes. Legend has it that Cortes in 1520 was given
chocolate flavored with vanilla by Montezuma, served in golden goblets.
Bernardino de Sehagun, a Franciscan friar, who arrived in Mexico in
1529, wrote about vanilla, saying the Aztecs used it in cocoa, sweetened
with honey, and sold the spice in their markets, but his work, originally
written in the Aztec language, was not published until 1829-1830. The
Spaniards early imported vanilla beans into Spain, where factories were
established in the second half of the sixteenth century for the
manufacture of chocolate flavored with vanilla.
Francicso Hernandez, who was sent to Mexico by Philip II of Spain, gave
an illustrated account of vanilla in his Rerum Medicarum Novae Hispaniae
Thesaurus, which was first published in Rome in 1651. In it he translated
"tlilxochitl" as "black flowers', a fallacy which Correll (1953) say
remained in the literature for many years, although the flowers are
greenish yellow in color.
Hugh Morgan, apothecary to Queen Elizabeth I of England, suggested
vanilla as a flavoring in its own right. He gave some cured beans to the
Flemish botanist, Carolas Clusius, in 1602 and the latter describes them
in his Exoticorum Libri Decem of 1605. William Dampier observed vanilla
growing in 1626 in the Bay of Campeche in southern Mexico and in 1681 at
Boco-Toro in Costa Rica. Formerly, vanilla was used in medicine, as a
nerve stimulant, and along with other spices had a reputation as an
aphrodisiac. It was also used for scenting tobacco.
The plant appears to have been taken to England prior to 1733 and was
then lost (Purseglove, 1972). It was re-introduced by the Marquis of
Blandford at the beginning of the nineteenth century and flowered in
Charles Greville's collection at Paddington in 1807; Greville supplied
cuttings to the botanic gardens in Paris and Antwerp. Two plants were sent
from Antwerp to Buitenzorg (Bogor), Java, in 1819, only one of which
survived the journey. It flowered in 1825, but did not fruit. Plants were
taken to Reunion and from there to Mauritius in 1827. Vanilla was taken to
the Malagasy Republic about 1840.
Although the plants grew well in the Old World tropics, fruits were not
produced because of the absence of natural pollinators. It was not until
Professor Charles Morren of Liege discovered the artificial means of
pollination for the production of capsules in 1836 and Edmond Albius, a
former slave in Reunion, developed a practical method of artificial
pollination in 1841, and which is still used, that commercial production
was possible in the eastern hemisphere away from the center of origin.
Thomas Jefferson discovered vanilla during his stay in France. When he
found that there wasn't any vanilla in Philadelphia (the capital at that
time), he wrote to William Short (the American charge d'affaires in Paris)
to send him 50 pods wrapped in the middle of a packet of newspapers. After
they arrived, Philadelphia had the reputation for the finest vanilla ice
cream in the world.
