Tesoros de Mexico: Vanilla
Vanilla
Did you know that vanilla originated in Mexico? The history of vanilla goes back to ancient times? It was the Totonac who first cultivated this bean. They used it in rituals believing that the Gods had bestowed this exotic fruit upon them. They inhabited the Mazantla Valley on the Gulf Coast of Mexico near present-day Vera Cruz. According to Totonaca mythology, the tropical orchid was born when Princess Xanat, 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.
In the fifteenth century Aztecs, from the central highlands of Mexico, conquered the Totonac and the conquerors soon developed a taste for the vanilla bean. Whereas most tribes paid tribute to the Aztecs in the form of maize or gold, the Totonaca sent vanilla beans to the Aztec kings. The Totonaco were demanded to relinquish their exotic fruit of the Tlilxochitl vine, the vanilla beans.
History repeated itself when, in turn, the Aztecs were defeated by the conquering Spaniard, Hernando Cortez. He returned to Spain with the precious plunder – vanilla beans – which were combined with cacao to make an unusual and pleasing drink. For eighty years, this special beverage was only enjoyed by the nobility and the very rich.
Vanilla comes from a plant that grows as a vine. It is actually a member of the orchid family. The vine produces a long green fruit, which eventually becomes the vanilla bean we know and love.
The plant has both female and male parts, but they are separated so that self-pollination cannot happen naturally. In fact, the only way this flower could be pollinated up until the mid-19th century is through a certain type of bee that was found only in Mexico. In 1819, however, French entrepreneurs shipped vanilla beans to the Réunion and Mauritius islands with the hope of producing vanilla there. Edmond Albius, a 12-year-old slave from Réunion Island, discovered how to pollinate the flower by hand. Now Vanilla is grown in 5 main areas of the world. Madagascar and Indonesia produce 90 percent of the world’s vanilla bean crop. Vanilla is the second most expensive spice after saffron, because growing the vanilla seed pods is labor intensive, the flowers bloom for less than 1 day. So workers must keep a constant vigil for opening flowers in order to pollinate them. Once pollinated, the bean starts to grow a few weeks later. The bean is left on the vine for 9 months, then cut down and dried in the sun for several weeks or months. Afterwards, it’s set in a box to dehydrate and finally shipped to your supermarket. The whole process from pollination to shipment takes about 1 year!
Mexico, where the vanilla orchid originated, now produces only a small percentage of the worlds harvest. Mexican vanilla beans are described as creamy, sweet, smooth and spicy. Absolutely delicioso!!
