Amazing spice vanilla very few people can leave indifferent. Her unique aroma always whets the appetite and makes you want to immediately sink your teeth into a fragrant bun that smells so delicious. And it is not surprising that it is so expensive, especially natural – it is quite difficult to grow and produce.
Vanilla’s homeland is South America. The Aztecs used vanilla to make drinks a few thousand years ago. In antiquity, vanilla was often used as a medicine. The first place in the world in the production of natural vanilla is occupied by the country of Madagascar. When Coca-Cola switched to using artificial vanilla, it hit the local economy hard.
This spice is considered one of the most powerful aphrodisiacs in the world. Some Indian tribes in the past used vanilla instead of money due to its widespread demand and high cost. Vanilla smell contributes to the production of serotonin in the brain, and serotonin – “pleasure hormone”.
Vanilla is a fruit that forms after the flowering of a certain type of orchid. In total, more than a hundred types of vanilla are known, but only three of them are cultivated in the world. For the first time, vanilla came to Europe at the beginning of the 16th century, when it was brought by navigators-discoverers. Once in Mexico, on vanilla plantations, owners tagged and numbered each pod to rule out the possibility of theft. The high price of natural vanilla is due to the fact that so far no one has managed to automate this process. Even now, this work remains entirely manual.
