Vanilla. It has become shorthand for plain or boring. That is so vanilla. The irony is that vanilla is one of the most labor-intensive, geographically precarious, and chemically complex spices in the world. It is the second most expensive spice on earth, just behind saffron. It comes from an orchid that flowers for a single morning and must be hand-pollinated within a few hours or the opportunity is gone forever. The pod that comes from that brief window is then cured for up to a year to develop the scent we know and love. Queen Elizabeth I’s doctor prescribed vanilla to her as an aphrodisiac. King Louis XV’s meals were laced with it to rekindle his desire. And a study by Alan Hirsch found that the scent of vanilla increased arousal in men by 10-15%. (Weird side note - apparently the scent that cause the most arousal was lavender + pumpkin pie spice - I would never have guessed that. But I digress).
Vanilla is plain and boring? Anything but!
The Flower
Vanilla comes from a climbing vine, Vanilla planifolia, that grows in humid tropics. It is an orchid, and it produces pale greenish-yellow flowers that open in the early morning and close by afternoon. Miss that window and there is no pod, no bean, no spice. The flower carries both male and female parts, but a small membrane called the rostellum physically separates them so the plant cannot fertilize itself. In its native Mexico, a small stingless bee called the Melipona handled this work. Outside of Mexico, there is no Melipona bee, and so every single vanilla pod on earth is the result of a person visiting each flower, by hand, on the one morning it is open and using a toothpick to mimic the bee to pollinate each one.
The person we have to thank for making that possible is Edmond Albius, a twelve-year-old boy, who was a slave living on the island of Réunion in 1841. Using a thin stick to lift the rostellum and pressing his thumb to transfer pollen, he figured out something that had stumped botanists for years. His technique is still used on every vanilla farm in the world today. He was never compensated for it. He died in poverty in 1880. The global vanilla industry, worth billions of dollars, traces directly back to his ingenuity.
The Curing
Here is something most people do not know: a fresh vanilla pod has almost no scent. You could hold one to your nose and smell very little. What we know as vanilla does not exist in the living plant. It is produced entirely through a curing process that takes months.
Inside the fresh pod, the main flavor compound, vanillin, is stored in a locked form called glucovanillin. The plant keeps it that way as a defense mechanism, because free vanillin is actually toxic to microbes at high concentrations. During curing, the pods are scalded, bundled, sweated, and slowly dried over weeks. Enzymes break down the cell walls and vanillin is released. Alongside it come hundreds of additional compounds, including phenolic acids, lactones, and esters, that give real vanilla its depth and complexity. This is why synthetic vanillin, which is just one molecule, never matches the real thing. The bean is not delivering a single flavor. It is delivering a whole symphony of scent.
The Price and the Weather
Madagascar produces about 80% of the world's vanilla supply, with smaller production in Tahiti, Indonesia, Uganda, and Papua New Guinea. Almost all of these regions are in the path of tropical cyclones. A cyclone or hurricane can come through and destroy a lot of the year’s crop. In 2017 a cyclone destroyed over 30% of Madagascar’s crop sending prices from $20 per kilo to up to $1000/kilo. Entire warehouse inventories, representing a full year of work from planting through curing, can be wiped out in a single storm. That put the high price of vanilla beans into perspective.
The History
The Totonac people of Veracruz, Mexico, were the first to cultivate vanilla and work out the curing process. Their city was once known as "the city that perfumed the world," and they considered the plant sacred. They have a legend that claims that vanilla sprang up from a princess who transformed into a vine after dying for forbidden love, her arms wrapped around her lover’s tree. This symbolized eternal passion. When the Aztecs conquered the Totonacs in the 15th century, they combined vanilla with cacao to make a ceremonial drink called xocolatl, reserved for royalty. Montezuma reportedly drank it in large quantities, partly for its reputation as an aphrodisiac. That reputation has followed vanilla ever since. Vanillin has mild stimulating effects on the nervous system, and vanilla's scent has been shown in studies to reduce anxiety and increase feelings of warmth and comfort.
Making Vanilla Extract: Why I Use Brandy and Why It Takes Longer
The standard advice for making vanilla extract is to use vodka, and vodka works well. It is neutral, reliable, and makes a nice smooth vanilla extract. But I use brandy. Vodka is a blank slate. It has no color, no flavor; it is neutral. When you put vanilla beans in vodka, the alcohol goes to work immediately. There is no competition. The vodka has nothing going on, so it is fully available to receive all the compounds the vanilla bean has to offer. Most vodka-based extracts are ready in about six months.
Brandy already has information imprinted on it. It is not neutral. The dark color is from aging in oak barrels, and those barrels left their tannins, phenolic acids, lactones, sugars, and a whole library of oak compounds already carried in that spirit. When you introduce vanilla beans to brandy, the vanilla does not simply move in and fill empty space. It has to work with the information already there. Over time, it integrates itself into the existing flavor. The result is not a simple extraction. It is a rebalancing of two complex ingredient profiles into something new.
This is why brandy takes longer, and this tends to surprise people. The alcohol percentage in brandy is roughly the same as vodka, around 40%. So the longer extraction time is not about proof. It is about the fact that the brandy is not neutral. There is more negotiation happening at the chemical level. I give brandy-based vanilla extract a full year. In my opinion, what comes out has a warmth and complexity that marries perfectly.
How to Make Vanilla Extract
Making vanilla extract is simple; it just needs time and good beans to start with.
I use 1 ounce of vanilla beans per 1 cup of spirit.
Split the beans lengthwise so the insides are exposed to the alcohol. If you want, give them a rough chop to increase surface area. Place them in a glass jar, cover completely with your spirit of choice, and seal tightly. Shake the jar daily for the first week, then weekly after that. Store in a cool, dark place. (And don’t forget to label with a date and what spirit you used).
Vodka extract: ready in about six months.
Brandy extract: give it a full year minimum. The patience is worth it.
I have also used other spirits to experiment like rum and even tequila. They are fun for some recipes but for baking I love brandy.
You can top the jar off with more spirit as you use it. The beans will keep producing for a long time.
How to Make Vanilla Paste
Paste is worth knowing about. It gives you the full bean, seeds and all, in a thick form that is easy to measure and beautiful to use anywhere you want those dark specks to show. And it’s a great way to use your leftover beans after your extract is finished. You can use it in custards, ice creams, buttercreams, shortbread. Anywhere vanilla is the main flavor profile.
To make vanilla paste
1. Cut your extracted or fresh vanilla beans into small pieces, roughly one to two inches. (If using fresh beans use 4.5oz beans. If using beans from an extract use more - like 7.5 oz)
2. You will need 8 oz. brown sugar, 14 oz alcohol (use 40%. This can be brandy or spiced rum), and 2 oz. Honey.
3.Using a food processor add vanilla beans and grind for a few minutes. Slowly add alcohol in stages, grind, and scrape sides. I add my last portion of alcohol at the end after adding the sugars. (You can also replace a small portion of your alcohol total with your finished extract for extract flavor).
4. Add half the sugar. Process.
5. Add the rest of the sugar and process more.
6. Add the honey. And the last of your alcohol.
7. If it’s not smooth enough you can blend in a blender at the end.
8. If it’s too runny you can add a pinch of xantham gum, but it’s usually not necessary.
9. Transfer to a jar. Label. Store in a cool, dark place.
Paste substitutes 1:1 for extract in any recipe.
Anything but ordinary
The next time someone uses the word vanilla to mean boring, remember there is nothing ordinary about vanilla. It is exquisite in every way.
This blog is part of the Essentio Herbal Lab series: Exploring culture, history, chemistry, and formulation through the timeless lens of the plant path. If you enjoyed this, please share it and follow for more.