VANILLA

It is the most famous fragrans in the world. Native to Maxico where it is mainly grown, its fruit is produced by a creeping plant of the Orchidaceae, characterized by elongate leaves and greenish flowers.

The part that is used to produce the well known flavouring is the seed pod or the “bean” of the plant. It contains lots of seeds; when unripe the bean is dark green, it changes from yellow to dark brown when it is ripe.                                                        The ripe fruit is absolutely scentless; its precious aroma is the product of a fermentation process taking place on the plant itself.

The history of vanilla dates back a long time ago. Legend goes that Montezuma offered Cortéz, the conqueror of Mexico, a strange mixture of vanilla, cocoa beans and honey of drink. The Aztecs tried to keep the drink aroma as a secret but, at the beginning of the XVI century, Cortéz brought it to Spain . In Europe for a long time it was only used by the nobility to flavour exotic drinks.                                          The first written documents about vanilla are by Bernardino de Sahagun, a Franciscan monk who was in the new world between 1560 and 1575. In 1602 it was a chemist who suggested it could be used as a fragrance by itself as it is today.

Natural fertilization is not easy because of the plant morphology; it takes place thanks to a Mexican hymenopter that couldn’t live far from Mexico. in 1861 a young former slave working in the vanilla plantations was able ti fertilize the plant artificially.                             Out of the exiting 110 species, just 3 are grown for its commercial value, Planifolia, Pompona and Thaitensis. They’re maily grown in Mexico, Madagascar, Uganda, Mauritius and Comoran Islands, Seychelles and Indonesia.

Processing has changed little since the past: the fruit is carefully sorted and put into hot water to “kill” the vegetative life and preserve the bean enzymes. Subsequently, the beans are put in chests and covered with wool to keep them warm (temperature is about 50 °C). 24 hours later beans have grown dark brown. Now they are put on a rack in the air and from the following day they are left to dry in the sun for a week. Enzymes must operate in suitable warehouses, then a drying process in a shaded place follows lasting up to 2 or 3 months. when dry, beans are carefully sorted out, paked and exported. Weight loss can vary between 50 and 70%.

You can find vanilla on the market as dark brown stick covered with tiny crystals containing the active ingredient characterized by the sharp, delicious smell.                               Even if is has no nutritional value at all, vanilla is appreciated everywhere for its stimulating, antiseptic and aphrodisiac properties. It’s vanillin that gives it its unmistakable smell; it is not the same in all varieties, Bourbon vanilla, for instance, having the highest percentage of vanillin present in nature rating to 1.6 - 2.4%.

Synthetic products rating to 90% of the vanilla world market cannot faithfully reprodice the refined, unmistakable flavour of the unique spice. European regulation consider synthetic vanillin the same as natural one but it can’t be labelled as “natural flavour”, of course.    Vanillin has always been considered a golden spice; today it’s mainly employed in the food industry to prepare cakes, puddings, cream sauces and alcoholic drinks but also in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical ones.
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