vanilla the most ubiquitous flavor in
the world so ever present that calling
something vanilla signifies its boring
blandness is in truth a mystical Mexican
Orchid that is so difficult to cultivate
it's surprising anyone knows what it
tastes like luckily for us and for
vanilla plants the flavor is so good
that much of the last 500 years have
been dedicated to propagating and
developing this tasty
[Music]
plant
vanilla is native to Mexico where Aztecs
toox and Mayans enjoyed and traded it
for many centuries before the arrival of
Cortez and his conquistadors in the 16th
century after the Conquering Spanish
first tasted vanilla they brought the
beans back to Europe where Royals Bakers
and perfume makers soon asked for more
of this magical flowering tasting
machine as they did with many foods
Europeans increased their access to
vanilla through a mutually reinforcing
combination of science conquest and
force labor it was a young slave working
in the French colony of runan the
12-year-old Edmund albius who realized
that the vanilla plant could be
pollinated but only by hand while around
the same time a Belgian scientist named
Charles Moren discovered a solitary
species of bee native to Mexico that
pollinated the Mexican vanilla plants in
a similar way to Edmund's method this
hand pollination technique is still used
today in a process that is labor
intensive it precip precipitated a
massive rise in vanilla production
almost immediately which allowed for
chefs around Europe to start
experimenting with new uses for vanilla
hello ice cream pastries and candies
this only increased demand for this
expensive plant that only flowers for
one day it wasn't until the late 19th
century that scientists started
extracting vanilla and later deriving
vanillin the aroma that gives vanilla
its distinctively sweet smell from
cheaper sources like wood pulp and clove
oil overcoming a far too small supply of
the vanilla plant traded in a tightly
controlled Market these Innovations have
helped to make vanilla the most
ubiquitous flavor in the world it's in
our spa ventilation systems our hand
soaps and most importantly our favorite
foods