Vanilla

Vanilla is a spice that comes from orchids in the genus *Vanilla*, mainly from the seed pods of *Vanilla planifolia*, a species native to Mexico and Central America. Because the plant cannot pollinate itself, its flowers must be pollinated to produce pods. In 1837, Belgian botanist Charles François Antoine Morren discovered this and developed a method of artificial pollination, but it was too costly for commercial use. In 1841, Edmond Albius, a 12-year-old enslaved child on the French island of Réunion, found that the plant could be pollinated by hand. This technique made global cultivation possible. French botanist Jean Michel Claude Richard later falsely claimed to have discovered the method a few years earlier, but by the end of the 20th century, Albius was recognized as the true discoverer.

Three main species of vanilla are now grown worldwide, all descended from a Mesoamerican ancestor. *V. planifolia* (also called *V. fragrans*) is cultivated on Madagascar, Réunion, and other tropical Indian Ocean areas. *V. × tahitensis* grows in the South Pacific, and *V. pompona* is found in the West Indies, Central America, and South America. Most of the world’s vanilla is *V. planifolia*, known as Bourbon vanilla (after Réunion’s former name, Île Bourbon) or Madagascar vanilla, produced mainly in Madagascar, nearby Indian Ocean islands, and Indonesia. Together, Madagascar and Indonesia supply two-thirds of the global vanilla crop.

By weight, vanilla is the second-most expensive spice after saffron, due to the labor-intensive process of growing the pods. Still, it is widely used in commercial and home baking, perfume making, and aromatherapy, since only small amounts are needed for its distinctive flavor and scent.

Before domestication, *Vanilla planifolia* grew wild around the Gulf of Mexico from Tampico to the northeast tip of South America, from Colima to Ecuador on the Pacific side, and throughout the Caribbean. The Totonac people of Veracruz, Mexico, were among the first to domesticate it, farming it since at least 1185. They used vanilla as a temple fragrance, in good-luck amulets, and to flavor food and drink. Cultivation remained obscure outside these regions. While the Totonacs are most famously linked to vanilla’s human use, the Olmecs, who lived in the same wild-vanilla areas thousands of years earlier, may have been among the first to use it in cooking.

In 1427, the Aztecs from central Mexico invaded the Totonacs, developed a taste for vanilla pods, and began flavoring food and drinks with them, often mixing vanilla with cocoa in a drink called *xocolatl*, which later inspired modern hot chocolate. They called the fruit *tlilxochitl*, likely meaning “black pod” rather than “black flower,” since the mature fruit shrivels and darkens after picking. For the Aztecs and earlier Mesoamerican peoples, vanilla probably tempered cacao’s bitterness, as sugarcane was not grown there and no other sweeteners were available.

Hernán Cortés is credited with bringing both vanilla and chocolate to Europe in the 1520s. In Europe, vanilla was mainly used as an additive to chocolate until the early 17th century, when Hugh Morgan, an apothecary for 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 vanilla producer, with Veracruz, especially the town of Papantla, as a top region. By 1889, Mexican vanilla exports exceeded 70,000 kilograms, making the area a world leader. However, political shifts forced many farmers who owned land where vanilla grew to pay rent, leading to protests and deaths among a hierarchy of Totonac caciques, ranchero clans, landowning labradores, and tenants. In 1819, French entrepreneurs shipped vanilla fruits to Réunion and Mauritius hoping to produce vanilla there. After Albius’s 1841 discovery of hand-pollination, pods thrived, and the orchids were sent to the Comoros Islands, Seychelles, and Madagascar with pollination instructions. By 1898, Madagascar, Réunion, and the Comoros produced 200 metric tons of vanilla beans, roughly 80% of world production. According to 2019 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization data, Madagascar and Indonesia were the largest producers in 2018.

After a tropical cyclone damaged key croplands, vanilla prices rose sharply in the late 1970s and stayed high into the early 1980s, despite Indonesian vanilla entering the market. In the mid-1980s, the cartel that had controlled vanilla prices and distribution since 1930 dissolved. Prices dropped 70% over the next few years, to nearly US$20 per kilogram. They rose sharply again after Tropical Cyclone Hudah hit Madagascar in April 2000.