Handbook of Vanilla Science and Technology

III the “Vanilla revolution... and we’ve never looked back” (1850s-1900), set forth by the discovery of a practical method for artificial pollination of vanilla flowers, which allowed for the initiation of vanilla cultivation in Old World tropical colonies, especially in French-controlled Reunion; coinciding with the turbulent demise of Papantla as a significant vanilla producer; a sea-change in vanilla being used mainly in chocolate to being principally employed in ice-creams; and, in the United States, the near total replacement of vanilla beans by newly synthesized, “plain vanilla” imitation flavors.

Table 8.1 Vanilla uses in Meso, Central, and Tropical America, three periods during ca. 1500–present

ca 1500-1750s (Precultivation)

Year | Place | Comments | References

1552 | Aztec-Veracruz | Earliest document, records vanilla fruits ground up with other aromatic constituents and worn in an amulet necklace. | Bruman 1948

1580s | Colonial Mexico and Guatemala | Consumption of hot chocolate as a beverage, flavored with vanilla and sugar. | Sauer 1993

1619 | Amazon Basin | ”Of aromatic things, what we have seen is those little pods, growing in trees, and when flavorful are black and very aromatic, and when mixed among clothing, leaves a long lasting aroma like a musk ...” | Patino 2002

1630s | Pacific coast of Guatemala | ”[...] from the provinces of Soconusco and Suchitepeques, which are extreme hot, and subject to thunder and lightning, where growth scarce any remarkable commodity, save only cacao, achiote, ”mecasuchil,” vanilla and other drugs for chocolate” | Thompson 1958

1640 | Northeastern Nicaragua and Honduras | ”Englishmen spent a good deal of time at Cayos Miskitus and Caratasca Lagoon region procuring vanilla, silk grass, annatto” | Offen 2000

1651 | Mexico | Vanilla was described as curative and cacao-beverage flavoring. | Varey 2000

1655 | Jamaica, Pomeroon | Jews settlers had secured a monopoly of the vanilla and pimento trades. The ”Chocolate trade”: cacao and vanilla by Jews, they figure out the curing procedure for vanilla | Fortune 1984; Arbell 1995

1660 | Campeche and Tabasco-Mexico (New Spain) and Bocas del Toro (Bocca-toro), West Indies | Spaniards lay them up like tobacco stems, Indians cure them in the sun and sell (3 pence/pod) them to the Spaniard who sleek them with oil. The vines grow plentifully. Sold by druggist to used among chocolate to perfume it. | Dampier 1776

1676 | Bay of Campeche and coast of Veracruz | Chocolate became popular throughout Europe during 17th and demand for vanilla greatly exceeded the supply. | Sauer 1993

1699 | Coast of South America | He said that he had traveled on the coast of South America, and he knew how to prepare vanilla extract. | Arbell 1995(continued)

1699 | Eastern Guatemala/Southern Belize | ”[...] there is evidence in the care and tidiness of their cacao and vanilla orchards | Caso Barrera and Fernandez 2006

  | | [...]” Marcelo Flores, Spanish Captain. |

18 century | Venezuela | Vanilla was the first orchid mentioned from Venezuela. Potential for cultivation, growth habit | Romero-González1998

1700 soon after | Mosquito Coast, Colombia and Venezuela | Wild vanilla exported | Sauer 1993

1707 and 1725 | Jamaica | ”although the long-term therapeutic use and value of plants from the Americas may have faded during the nineteenth century, their impact on European pharmacopoeia was immense” | Sloane 1707-1725