Vanilla

Where it comes from

Vanilla is the cured seed pod of Vanilla planifolia, a climbing orchid native to the Gulf coast of Mexico. Outside its native range, the orchid must be hand-pollinated within a few hours of opening. Madagascar (especially Sambava), Indonesia, Mexico, and Tahiti are the leading producers. The green pod is harvested, blanched, sweated, and slowly dried over months, during which vanillin and hundreds of secondary aroma compounds develop.

Flavor & pairing

Vanillin gives the dominant sweet woody note, but the bouquet contains hundreds of additional compounds — floral, tobacco, raisin, leather. Tahitian vanilla leans floral and cherry-like; Bourbon Madagascar vanilla leans rich and rum-like. Vanilla pairs with chocolate, coffee, stone fruit, dairy, citrus, almonds, and dark spirits.

How it’s used

French crème brûlée, pots de crème, and ice cream depend on vanilla scraped from the split pod. American baking uses extract by the bottle. Mexican atole and champurrado drinks lean on it. Modern bartenders infuse it into rum and bitters. The empty pod is buried in sugar for vanilla sugar.

Trade history

A Madagascar cyclone in 2017 and rampant pod theft drove vanilla prices above silver per gram for several years.