An orchid, vanilla is the only member of the world’s largest family of plants that people use as food. Vanilla is a viney plant native to Mexico and Central America. It can grow as long as 350 feet, climbing up a host tree. The vines produce yellow-white flowers which turn into slender beans or pods. The pods must be scalded, then fermented, then dried, and then aged for three months, in order to become the ineffable vanilla we know and use. It’s a happy miracle that anyone bothered with the pods in the first place. Vanilla remains the favorite ice cream flavor in the U. S.

The Totonacs, native to Veracruz, Mexico, grew vanilla in forest plantations in ancient times. In 1425 they were conquered by the Aztecs who demanded vanilla harvests from them. The Aztecs first mixed vanilla with chocolate, in a beverage called chocolatl, which was sometimes spiced with chile peppers.

The Spanish, who conquered Mexico in the 1500’s, brought vanilla to Europe, along with countless other American food plants. Today Indonesia and Madagascar supply the bulk of the world’s vanilla.
 
 

1913 postcard for Burnett’s Vanilla showing vanilla beans curing in Papantla Valley, Mexico
 
 
 
 

Drawing by Laura Westlund for “Flavor Foods: Spices and Herbs,” by Meredith Sayles Hughes
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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