Vanilla. It’s the single-most popular flavor in the world. Chocolate is second by a significant margin. Yet, compared to other top-ten flavors, vanilla could be considered a rarity. Cultivation and processing of vanilla beans is a fragile endeavor requiring patience, timing, persistence—and an ample swath of passion. What could be more exciting, yet excruciating, than waiting for the eight-hour window on the one day per year the orchid blooms—necessitating a swift, yet complicated, hand-pollination intervention in order to ensure an ample harvest? This small window is one of many reasons vanilla is arguably the world’s most labor-intensive agricultural crop.
Vanilla can be divided into two very lopsided categories. The first category is the meticulously cured fruit of a tropical orchid. The second, which makes up around 97% of the vanilla used commercially for mass production, is a vanilla flavor typically made from a synthesized form of the flavor compound vanillin, the chief chemical compound that flavors the bean. The development of each category of vanilla as a usable flavor is science. But, the former requires a painstaking degree of commitment, as well as an equal measure of intuition and skill, to navigate the myriad of factors and pitfalls needed to overcome. The result is a finished product worthy of everything from the finest French custards to the gently infused beverage.