Vanilla | Facts, Description, & Cultivation (2024)

vanilla, (genus Vanilla), any member of a group of tropical climbing orchids (family Orchidaceae) and the flavouring agent extracted from their pods. The vanilla beans of commerce are the cured unripe fruit of Mexican or Bourbon vanilla (Vanilla planifolia), Tahiti vanilla (V. tahitensis), and occasionally West Indian vanilla (V. pompona); all three species are thought to be derived from a single species native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. Vanilla had been used to flavour xocoatl, the chocolate beverage of the Aztecs, centuries before the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés drank it at Montezuma’s court, and soon afterward vanilla became popular in Europe. Today it is used in a variety of sweet foods and beverages, particularly chocolate, confections, ice cream, and bakery goods, and in perfumery.

Physical description

Vanilla plants have a long, fleshy climbing stem that attaches to trees by aerial rootlets; roots also penetrate the soil. Numerous flowers open a few at a time and last a single day during the blooming season, which lasts about two months. Because of their dainty structure, the blossoms can be naturally pollinated only by certain small bees; in areas outside of the pollinators’ range, the flowers are pollinated artificially with a wooden needle as soon as they open. The flowers vary in colour from pale green to yellow to creamy white. The fruit, a long capsule, reaches its full length of about 20 cm (8 inches) in four to six weeks but may take up to nine months to mature. As soon as they turn golden green at the base, the unripe pods are harvested.

Curing and processing

Fresh vanilla fruits, often called “beans,” have no aroma. The characteristic aroma results from enzymatic action during curing. The traditional method begins with subjecting the harvested beans to a process of nightly sweating and daily exposure to the sun for about 10 days, until they become deep chocolate brown in colour. Then the beans are spread on trays in an airy shelter until dry enough for grading and packing. Curing and drying requires from four to five months. The best grade of cured seed pods are usually covered with tiny crystals of vanillin, which provide the characteristic rich and sweet aroma. This coating, known as givre, may be used as a criterion of quality.

Vanillin is not naturally present in the fleshy exterior of the pod but is secreted by hairlike papillae in its lining and ultimately becomes diffused through the viscid oily liquid surrounding the seeds. The cured pods contain about 2 percent vanillin; other organic constituents include vanillic acid (odourless), oleoresin, sugar, gum, calcium oxalate, alcohols, aldehydes, and esters contributing to the full fragrance and flavour. Tahiti beans are reddish brown in colour, of less full flavour than the Mexican or Bourbon product, and contain a small amount of heliotropin, or piperonal, which characterizes their flavour.

Vanilla extract is prepared by crushing the cured dried vanilla beans and extracting with alcohol. Vanilla flavour is made from oleoresin vanilla, a dark semisolid concentration of vanilla extract, and alcohol and water. Imitation vanilla is made from commercially synthesized vanillin.