All-New Book of Amazing Facts, Vol. 2

13 Vanilla beans are the fruit of a unique species of orchid native to the rainforests of Central America. Indigenous peoples discovered that when dried, the tasteless, odorless vanilla bean produces a rich taste and aroma. Vanilla is the only orchid known to bear edible fruit. In 1520, Spanish explorer Hernán Cortez brought vanilla to Europe, where it eventually achieved immense popularity. Queen Elizabeth I loved vanilla so much, she preferred it over chocolate. Thomas Jefferson, who acquired a taste for vanilla in France, is thought to have been the first person to introduce it to North America. The vanilla bean requires about nine months to mature, growing up to ten inches long and looking like an overgrown string bean. Harvested beans are immersed in a hot water bath, placed into wooden boxes, and then covered with blankets to lock in the heat. They are then left to “sweat” for around ten hours, beginning the enzymatic change that produces vanillin. To complete the curing process, the beans are dried in the sun for three to four months. The cured beans, wrinkled and brown-colored, are next tied in bundles and stored in closed boxes for five or six months. Finally, they are weighed, chopped, and percolated before the expensive extract is bottled and shipped to stores. Today, vanilla beans are grown primarily in Madagascar, Indonesia, Tahiti, and Mexico, and are by far the world’s most popular flavor. The extract is used in ice cream, puddings, cakes, baked goods, syrups, candies, and even in perfumes. You can understand why vanilla is one of the most expensive flavorings in the world to produce, second only to saffron. The Bible says that salvation is the most expensive commodity in the universe. But it is also free for the asking. “You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, … but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18, 19). Vanilla An Expensive Taste Animals & Biology