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History of Vanilla Cultivation

Vanilla is a natural flavoring derived from the fruits of a tropical orchid in the genus Vanilla, native to Mexico. The first to cultivate vanilla were the Pre-Colombian Mesoamerican Totonac people, who inhabit the Mazantla Valley on the Gulf Coast of Mexico in the present-day state of Veracruz. According to an ancient Totonac legend, the tropical vanilla orchid was born when Princess Xa'nat, 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 vanilla orchid grew.

When the Aztec king, Itzcoatl, conquered the Totonacos in 1427 he immediately fell in love with the flavor and aroma of the Totonaco’s vanilla. The Aztecs called the spice “tlilxochitl" which means “black flower”. They used it to flavor their famous chocolate drink, cacahuatl (chocolate water), made from cocoa beans, ground corn, ground vanilla beans, and honey. Montezuma made the Totonaco people to grow vanilla as a tribute to him.

When the conquistador Hernán Cortés came to Mexico from Spain, in 1519, he traveled through Vera Cruz where he became intrigued by vanilla. When Cortés and his men arrived in Mexico City, they were graciously greeted by Montezuma who thought Cortés was “Quetzalcóatl”, a fair-skinned god. Montezuma served Cortés chocolatll in a golden goblet. Impressed with Montezuma’s gold and riches, the greedy Cortés and his men later conspired to kill the Aztec king, hoping to find more treasures hidden in Montezuma’s palace. However, instead of chests full of gold, they found bags of cocoa and vanilla beans in the treasury.

The Spaniards named this exotic spice “vainilla” meaning “little scabbard” and took it back with them to Spain where they created a special vanilla flavored drink, which became the rage of the aristocracy. Vanilla slowly became popular throughout all of Europe. By the early 1600’s, Hugh Morgan, apothecary to Queen Elizabeth I, started to use vanilla for flavoring. The French took a particular liking to the flavor and began using it as an ingredient in pastries, cakes and beverages. The French wanted to grow vanilla for themselves in their colonies where the climate was similar to that of Veracruz. They were able to grow healthy plants that blossomed, but were never able to get a bean from the plant.

When the Totonaco’s heard of this, they called it the “curse of Montezuma”.  For 300 years Mexico maintained its monopoly of vanilla beans production. It wasn’t until 1836 when Charles François Antoine Morren, a Belgian botanist, finally discovered the secret of growing vanilla. His careful studies of the vanilla orchids led to his unraveling the pollination secret of the vanilla. Unfortunately, the method proved financially unworkable and was not deployed commercially. In 1841, a 12 year-old slave by the name Edmond Albius who lived on Île Bourbon discovered that the plant could be hand-pollinated, allowing global cultivation of the plant. The early cultivation of vanilla took place on this island, also known as Reunion, which is located in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa. Hence, the term Bourbon Vanilla was created and became the common name for the Vanilla planifolia, which was also grown in the nearby Indian Ocean islands of Madagascar and The Comoros. Another species, Vanilla tahitensis or the Tahitian Vanilla was mutated from Vanilla planifolia beans in Tahiti.

The market price of vanilla rose dramatically in the late 1970s, due to a typhoon. Prices stayed stable at this level through the early 1980s despite the pressure of recently introduced Indonesian vanilla. In the mid-1980s, the cartel that had controlled vanilla prices and distribution since its creation in 1930 disbanded. Prices dropped 70% over the next few years, to nearly US$20 per kilo. This change was due to the typhoon Huddah, which struck early in the year 2000. The typhoon, political instability, and poor weather in the third year drove vanilla prices to an astonishing US$500 per kilo in 2004, bringing new countries including Malaysia into the vanilla industry. A good crop, coupled with decreased demand caused by the production of imitation vanilla, has pushed the market price down to the $40 per kilo range in the middle of 2005.

The labor-intensive process in producing vanilla beans, explains why vanilla is the world’s second most expensive spice next to saffron. Pure vanilla, with its wonderful aromatic flavor, is the most widely used flavoring in pastries, confections, and other desserts. The cheaper synthetic vanillas on the market today do not come close to competing with the spicy, delicate flavor and peculiar bouquet of pure vanilla.