As the definition of it, vanilla is something that’s plain, ordinary and uninteresting. However, despite its unexciting definition, vanilla has already made its mark in popularity. We all know that vanilla is well-known for its use as food flavoring – in cakes, ice cream, pastries, milk and other vanilla recipes and delicacies; it is also used by large companies in the United States as one of their premium scents for perfumes and body lotions because of its sweet smell. What people don’t know is that there’s more to vanilla than just being an ingredient to the mouthwatering recipes and the way it imbues perfumes with its aroma.

Vanilla might be called ordinary because of its common use for culinary purposes, but to those who don’t know it yet, next to saffron, vanilla is the second most expensive spice in the whole world. Why is that? It is because that the production of vanilla beans requires extensive human labor and absolute timing. The orchid vanilla would take 3 years to reach its maturity where it only blooms for just a day. After which, the plant would not bloom until the following year. Once the vanilla plant blossoms, it is then hand-pollinated by the farmers. Pollination in the presence an insect is not possible especially when the cultivation is in Madagascar, because the only insect that’s capable of pollinating the vanilla plant can only be found in Mexico, the Melipona bee. Once ripe, the vanilla pods are then harvested, dried up and then fermented. The whole process would take several months to finish before the vanilla beans and vanilla bean extracts are made ready for exporting. So talk about being plain and ordinary, eh?

Perhaps most of us think that all vanilla taste just the same, that vanilla is just vanilla. Actually, this notion is not totally true. Depending on certain factors - the country where the vanilla plant is cultivated as in the Madagascar vanilla, the maturity of the vanilla pod when harvested, the method used in curing the beans and the process used in the production of vanilla extracts; it is most likely that the vanilla concentrate will yield a different taste. In addition, vanilla is also used to potentiate other flavors such that of a nut, chocolate, coffee, or any fruit without having its own flavor and strong aroma distinguished especially when only a small portion of the vanilla extract is used. As a matter of fact, a vanilla could turn a tangy citrus fruit flavor into something that’s velvety.

Because vanilla is very expensive and not all consumers can afford the retailed price, other manufacturers have come up with some of the cost saving ideas with the vanilla beans. One idea presented is the formulation of a synthetic vanilla extract derived from the usual mixed choices of selected vanilla beans, still offering the same creamy taste and quality with that of pure vanilla extracts. These are just some of the facts that one must know about vanilla. That vanilla is really not just something that’s dull as what its definition would imply but extraordinary and interesting.