Vanilla planifolia from Mexico

A vanilla with character

Intensely chocolatey, the planifolia vanilla from Mexico Veracruz reveals a typically Mexican profile: chocolate, notes of walnut and nutmeg, ripe red berries, with a hint of bitterness in the background.

This vanilla offers very long beans of more than 18cm, well filled with vanilla caviar. The beans are loaded with essential oils, hence its aromatic power.

This vanilla will go very well in your crème anglaise, ganaches, rice pudding, flan, etc. It will also surprise your taste buds in savory dishes, with red meat for example.

The wild cradle of vanilla

In the valley and hills of Usila, in the heart of the Chinantla jungle, in the state of Oaxaca, vanilla still grows in the wild. Here Vanilla planifolia and Vanilla pompona grow naturally, entwined with citrus trees, banana plants and tall tropical trees such as caoba.

The ancient name of these lands, Huitzila, “place of hummingbirds”, says it all. The flowers are pollinated by hummingbirds and small local bees. Each bird fertilizes only a few flowers per cluster, often the three most vigorous, ensuring concentrated beans with fine aromatic density.

A founding history

Mexico is the original cradle of vanilla. Before the mid-19th century, all the world’s vanillas came from its forests. The Aztecs already used tlilxochitl, the “black pod”, to perfume cocoa and ritual drinks. It was offered in tribute to the emperor Moctezuma II and was also used as a perfume, mixed with mamey seed oil to anoint the hair.

In 1521, Hernan Cortes brought vanilla back to Europe. It appeared in France in 1664 and won over Louis XIV, who tried to develop its cultivation on Bourbon Island (today Réunion).

For a long time, however, only natural pollination made production possible. Around 1850, the Belgian naturalist Charles Morren studied the fertilization mechanism, soon made accessible thanks to the decisive gesture of Edmond Albius, who developed hand pollination.

Despite this prestigious history, current production in Chinantla remains modest. The terroir is demanding, the forest dense. But the quality of the beans is remarkable.