Vanilla

Vanilla is the only fruit-bearing member of the orchid family. An orchid is a type of flowering plant.
The meaning of the word vanilla is “little pod” in Spanish.
Cooks use vanilla as a flavoring in ice cream, cakes, cookies, and many other types of food.
Vanilla is not only used as a flavor in foods and beverages but also in perfumes.

Where It Is Found?

Vanilla comes from beans that grow on certain types of orchids in warm parts of the world.
Madagascar, Indonesia, and China produce large amounts of vanilla.
French vanilla beans have the distinction of being called “Bourbon” Vanilla because the cultivation first started on the island of Reunion, east of Madagascar.
- At the time, it was known as the “Island of Bourbon.”

Vanilla is the second most expensive spice in the world, after saffron.
Only the melipona bee can pollinate vanilla. It is found in Central America.
In Europe, vanilla was once used in the production of certain medicines such as nerve stimulants.
The United States is the world’s largest consumer of vanilla.
Spiders don’t like vanilla. Use vanilla to drive away from them.

A vanilla orchid has a long climbing stem that attaches itself to a tree trunk or pole.
The plant produces large yellowish flowers.
The fruits that develop from these flowers are long pods with seeds inside.
People call these pods vanilla beans. The pods may grow to be 8 inches (20 centimeters) long.
It can take up to nine months for them to be ready for picking.

The flower that produces the vanilla bean lasts only one day.
A vanilla orchid plant will not produce beans unless its flowers are pollinated, or fertilized.
Usually, people pollinate vanilla plants by hand.
They use a wooden stick to move grains of pollen from the male parts of the flowers to the female parts.
A vanilla bean has no taste or smell until it is processed.

Beans are processed by drying and storing them until a chemical change called fermentation takes place.
Fermentation creates crystals of a chemical called vanillin.
Vanillin is what gives vanilla its taste and smell.
The processed beans are crushed and mixed with alcohol to extract the vanillin and other chemicals.
The liquid that results is called vanilla extract. It is used for flavoring.

The Aztecs of Mexico flavored their chocolate drinks with vanilla for hundreds of years before the Spanish arrived in their lands in the 1500s.
The Aztecs called vanilla tlilxóchitl, meaning black flower.
The Spanish learned about vanilla from the Aztec, and they later introduced it to other Europeans.
Vanilla soon became a popular flavoring for candy and baked goods.
But natural vanilla is expensive to produce. Most vanilla today is made from vanillin that is synthesized or created artificially, in a factory.