Over the years, as demand rose, attempts were made to industrialize the pollination process, to no avail. Vanilla was stubborn. All of this changed thanks to the ingenuity of a year-old slave named Edmond Albius on the island of Bourbon, miles east of Madagascar.
In , Albius discovered he could manually pollinate the orchid using a sliver of wood or a needle. After this delicate operation, the vanilla farmer must patiently wait for the pod to ripen and darken before it can be harvested. From there, the pod is washed, sorted, cured, and aged for at least a month, each stage of which risks failure.
It could easily be a year after its initial harvest before a ready-to-use vanilla pod ends up in your kitchen. Today, vanilla is produced in only a few climatically similar regions near the tropics. In Tahiti, the pods are plump, rich, and floral, often used in perfume. Occasionally, Madagascar vanilla, which has a similarly creamy flavor, is mistakenly labeled as Bourbon.
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The era of greyhound racing in the U. See how people have imagined life on Mars through history. See More. In the early 19th century it was known as Ile Bourbon. The Bourbon vanilla plant stock originally came from Mexico. Bourbon vanilla and Mexican vanilla are essentially the same though soil and climate can produce subtle flavor differences.
Tahitian vanilla plant stock also originally comes from Mexico and is a cross of Vanilla planifolia and Vanilla odorata. Genetic modification changed its flavor and fragrance and it is now considered its own species.
It is significantly different from Bourbon and Mexican vanilla. Between and tons of dried vanilla is produced worldwide each year. This is significantly less than cacao chocolate and coffee, which has millions of containers of cacao and coffee beans. Vanilla is not only used as a flavor in foods and beverages, but also in perfumes. However, these days most of the vanilla fragrances and much of vanilla flavorings are imitation. Please support the growers by buying only pure vanilla here.
Your email address will not be published. The flavor makes all of my baking so much better! I will never use grocery store vanilla again! I'm amazed at how superior your vanilla is! I opened the bottle of your vanilla extract last weekend to bake some cookies and the difference in taste is extraordinary. History of Vanilla. Patricia Rain on February 26, pm No Comments.
Author Recent Posts. Follow me. Patricia Rain. Patricia Rain is an author, educator, culinary historian, and owner of The Vanilla Company www.
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