Mexico’s Gift to the World: Vanilla Planifolia

Tropical Rainforest Orchid

By Tara Spears

More than a gorgeous Mexican tropical flower, the vanilla planifolia is the only orchid that bears edible fruit.  The string bean-like pod becomes the key ingredient favored by cooks around the globe for baked goods and beverages. Vanilla’s complicated history is interwoven with mythology, horticultural discoveries, and political intrigue. But most significantly, imagine a world without chocolate!

 The Fairytale:     The gentle indigenous people, Totonaca Indians, an agricultural tribe inhabiting the Gulf Coast of Mexico in the present-day state of Veracruz, were probably the first people to cultivate vanilla. According to Totonaca mythology, the tropical orchid was born when Princess Xanat, was who forbidden by her father from marrying a mortal, fled to the forest with her lover. The lovers were captured and beheaded. Where their blood touched the ground, the vine of the tropical orchid grew.

The History of Vanilla:  In the fifteenth century, Aztecs from the central highlands of Mexico conquered the Totonacs, and the conquerors soon developed a taste for the vanilla bean, which the Aztecs used to flavor their unique chocolate drink, cachuatl, that is made from cocoa beans, ground corn, ground vanilla beans, and honey. The Aztecs named the bean "tlilxochitl", or "black flower", after the mature bean, which shrivels and turns black shortly after it is picked. After they were subjugated to the Aztecs, the Totonacs were required to grow vanilla as a tribute to the Aztec king, Montezuma.   The vanilla bean was used as currency.

When the Spanish explorers arrived in Mexico in 1519, Hernan Cortes           traveled through Veracruz where he first tasted vanilla.  Upon arriving in Mexico City, the conquistadors were wined and dined by Montezuma, who believed Cortes was a fair skinned god-“Quetzalcoatl”. The Mexican King served the foreigners his prized beverage, chocolatll, in golden goblets. Seeking the Aztec king’s power and riches, Cortez and his men conspired to kill him and plunder the wealth they felt was hidden in Montezuma’s palace.  Imagine the Spaniards’ disappointment to find bags of cocoa and vanilla beans instead of gold.  When the explorer returned to Europe, he brought bags of the Mexican cocoa and vanilla beans along with the plundered jewels, gold and silver from Montezuma’s conquered empire. Within fifty years Spanish factories were preparing vanilla-flavored chocolate. For many years vanilla was only used in conjunction with chocolate until enterprising chefs began using the savory seasoning in baking.  As vanilla’s popularity grew, many countries tried to cultivate vanilla plants, but while the plants thrived, the orchids never bore fruit except in Mexico.  For more than 300 years, Mexico was the sole producer of this exquisite spice.

      Orchid vine                        Vanilla blossom and fruit                              unripe beans  

Vanilla Horticulture:       According to Stephen Block, author of Vanilla Enchantment, wild vanilla orchid grows as a thick, bright green vine up rainforest trees, producing clusters of celadon colored flowers. These delicate, small flowers usually bloom for just one day and can only be pollinated by the small, stingless Mexican Melipona bee.  If the flowers are not pollinated, they drop to the ground without producing vanilla beans.  It was not until 1836 that a Belgian botanist, Charles Morren, discovered that other common insects could not pollinate this orchid-thus explaining why the plants could grow well in other countries but would not bear fruit. Efforts to relocate the Melipona bee ended in frustration: the bee did not survive outside of Mexico. Morren tried to hand pollinate the flowers with little success until a former Madagascar slave, Edmund Albius, devised a method of hand pollinating the vanilla blossom with a bamboo splinter.  This method is still used today by commercial vanilla growers.

Labor Intensive: Vanilla production is the most labor intensive of all agricultural products. The entire process of vanilla cultivation, pollination, and harvesting is done by hand. To further complicate the production is the fact that most vanilla plantations are in remote locations that do not make using chemical fertilizers or pesticides practical- a good thing with today’s modern go organic mindset. 

The orchid vine will grow as high as possible if left alone, so commercial growers fold the higher parts of the plants to stay at a height that is accessible by a standing human, which also greatly stimulates flower production.   In commercial operations, it takes 18 months for a vanilla cutting to root and product its first flowers. Like all orchids, the vanilla flower buds, growing along the 6 to 10 inch stems, bloom and mature in a sequence, each at a different interval. This requires several repeat hand pollinations per bloom cluster.  The pollinated orchid will produce a long green bean within a few weeks, but the bean must remain on the vine for nine months to develop the desired complex flavor and fragrance. Yet, when the beans are harvested, they have neither flavor nor fragrance until they go through an arduous curing and drying process. 

It takes 2 kilos (about 4 pounds) of the green vanilla beans to end up with less than half a kilo (one pound) of dried vanilla bean.  The vanilla is completely cured when the proper moisture content is reached, turning the beans dark with a rich, sweet aroma.

The culinary scoop:        Today, there are three main commercial preparations of vanilla:  pods, powder (ground pure whole pod or blended with sugar), and extract (in alcoholic solution).  Each of these forms is made of one of the three main types of vanilla beans: Bourbon, Mexican or Tahitian.  All types are equally good but with different tastes and aromas.  While both the Bourbon and Mexican vanillas are from the planifolia species, the Bourbon strain (which is grown on Madagascar and whose name derives from the French ruler at the time the plantations were started) is described by noted vanilla expert, Patricia Rain, as “very rich taste and strong aroma, with creamy, sweet overtones.  The Mexican vanilla has a mellow, smoother quality and a spicy, woody smell. These two are the gold standard of the vanilla market.”  The shorter Tahitian beans contain more oil and water and can be characterized as having a flowery, fruity taste and aroma.

When purchasing fresh vanilla beans, the best quality will be the darkest color with a length between 6-8 inches.  The pods should be plump, moist, and glossy with a rich aroma.  Avoid dry, woody beans with little scent.  Natural vanilla extracts will have a brown to golden clear color depending on the concentration strength.  Vanilla extract maintains its quality well over time when stored.

Vanilla beans will keep indefinitely in a cool, dark place in an airtight container. Don't refrigerate beans as this can cause them to harden and crystallize. In the humid tropics where beans are grown, they are wrapped in oiled or waxed paper and stored in tin boxes. If you live in a hot humid climate, avoid air-tight plastic containers as beans can mildew easily, especially if additional moisture collects in the plastic.

                                                 What Mexican vanilla extract can look like (above)