Vanilla: A History

As a pastry chef and chocolatier, I always make sure that my vanilla is 100% pure vanilla; I prefer Tahitian vanilla. So many people have no idea how complex the growing and propagation of vanilla really is. Excellent job on this video!

My grandmothers brother; Orville, was a horticulturist and his favorite pastime was orchids. He had several greenhouses that he used for cultivation. In the corner of one he had several Vanilla Planifolia, the flat leafed, most common variety for commercial vanilla production. He dreamed of building a large enough operation to cultivate for US based production. Never happened, but from his small greenhouse plants my grandmother used to make Vanilla ice cream with her "secret family recipe". I have never tasted anything "vanilla" that came close. My dad used to say Rum was also a "secret" ingredient. LOL Thanks for that fond memory!

Well, in a YouTube channel dedicated to unlikely war stories, nuclear near misses and the births of legends, this was certainly not a... vanilla episode of THG.

As a Pastry Chef, I'd like to thank you from the bottom of my Vanilla loving heart for this episode.

History cat loves making a cameo appearance .

I used to be a purchasing agent for food manufacturing and spent a lot of time purchasing pure vanilla extract. Interestingly, today, even though vanilla originated in Mexico most pure vanilla does not come from Mexico. The most (and the best) Pure Vanilla extract comes from Madagascar with smaller amounts grown in Indonesia and Tahiti. Also there are strong taste differences between each area that produces pure vanilla as, the soils and climate has a profound affect on the resulting taste.

In 1971 our family trip was camping two weeks thru Mexico. There my mom bought 4 vanilla beans which she wrapped up and kept in a jar using them for special occasions. I thought it was one of her german quirks, now I know it was truly a special treat she provided to us. Thanks for this bit of history.

I hate how ubiquitous vanilla has become that people no longer appreciate how exquisite it is

Thank you for covering Vanilla. I went to a vanilla plantation on Hawaii and it was amazing. I minored in military history in my undergraduate years and I love history. Vanilla is exotic and if only more people knew how vanilla has changed the world, they would have more appreciation for it.

Typical History Guy - History with human interest. Wonderful, as always.

Would love to learn the history of Saffron.

“Hey, this beaver’s butt tastes like vanilla!” Could it be that the discovery of castoreum is history NOT worth remembering???

Even cats love history. Ours are are watching too.

Great episode. Vanilla is my second favorite ice cream flavor, after strawberry. However, it is the standard by which I judge ice cream brands. If your vanilla offering is not good, you're just masking poor quality with flavoring in other cases.

Always glad to see The History Cat in videos; Most people don't know that Dr. John S. Pemberton, inventor of Coca-Cola, died in poverty.

An excellent book on the history and efforts it takes to make a simple meal is ‘Much Depends on Dinner’ by Margaret Visser. It is a study as to what goes into making supper for a small dinner party using simple ingredients and what it took historically to bring these foods to our tables. It looks into chicken, lemons, olive oil, vanilla, milk and a number of other foods that we take for granted. A fascinating and easy read, yet quite eye opening.

Just what I needed, plain vanilla history.

Do a history on catnip, love to see how the cat responds

I've had vanilla ice cream with vanilla seeds only once, and that stuff was delicious.

The history of citrus cultivation is more interesting than most people know.