Where does the vanilla flavor come from?

Who has not enjoyed when they have had the opportunity to smell and use the dark real vanilla podsa prodigious pre-Columbian spice that gives to the recipes an aroma that is difficult to surpass in exquisiteness and finesse.

Of course, it has little to do with the usual vanilla substitute, a white sugar flavored with synthetic vanillinwidely used in desserts, ice creams, yogurts and other commercial products.

The synthetic vanillin or “vanilla flavor” not only does it not have the intense flavor of natural vanilla but it has been often surrounded by controversy for its composition. A hoax has even recently resurfaced about the supposed presence of secretions from the beaver’s anus in its composition.

This substitute does not have the vanilla properties authentic, which is considereddigestive and whose pleasant aroma is associated with a mild effect sex stimulant. Other sources suggest that it is capable of calming people who are upset by its calming effect. It is also attributed a certain expectorant and aperitif capacity.

In this article we tell where does the vanilla flavor come from, where does the artificial flavor come from and also what is true about the latest controversy of vanilla and the use of beaver secretions to imitate its flavor.

Where does the vanilla flavor come from?

We can get the vanilla flavor naturally using directly real vanilla pods or natural vanilla extract or essence obtained from them, or resorting to one of its substitutes, which are nothing if not synthetic vanilla, with a much less intense flavor. These are the ones usually used by the food industry and also what we mostly find in supermarkets in the form of vanilla extract, vanilla essence or vanilla sugar.

vanilla pods

The Vanilla planifolia or fragrans It is a liana of the orchid family. that climbs the large trees of the Central American jungles.

There are one hundred species of orchids of the vanilla genus, but only three are cultivated. The most appreciated is the call “Bourbon”, like the island where it began to be cultivated, today called La Réunion, north of Madagascar. Also the one from Tahiti whose flavor is slightly reminiscent of anise and pepper, and finally the “vanillion” of the Antillesmusky aroma.

Their flowers They are ivory white, slightly yellow or green, have a very short life and intense aroma.

The fruit is a pod that even picked at full maturity does not give off any odor. Must undergo various manipulations to acquire its indescribable aromas.

After blanch the vanilla beans they are briefly deposited in padded boxes, where they remain for about 48 hours. in them ferment and darken. After a week of exposure to the sun, its aromatic force is released. And later they continue to mature inside some wooden trunks that are placed for several months in a well-ventilated room.

From the vanilla pods It can be obtained vanilla essence or natural vanilla extractbut the essences and natural extracts tend to have a very high price and those that are usually sold in supermarkets have little vanilla and numerous additives.

The scent of vanilla it’s so intoxicating that even can cause dizziness, headaches and skin allergies in those who handle the pods daily (this medical condition is known as “vanillism”).

where does the artificial vanilla scent come from

The excellent aroma of vanilla podsas precious as expensive to obtain, it was soon chemically imitatedalthough none of its substitutes achieves the delicate flavor of true vanilla.

The main vanilla substitute today is ethyl vanillin, which is obtained by transforming sucrose, paper pulp or coal tar. This by-product of the paper industry is intended not only for food, but also for perfumery.

In addition, the terminology contributes to the confusion because call this synthetic aroma vanillinthe same name as that of the crystals that form naturally in the pods of authentic vanilla.

Vanillin, however, is only one of the active ingredients of real vanilla. Its unique taste is created by the presence of other components.

For this reason, there is no real substitute for real vanillaalthough substitutes are tested by genetic manipulation.

How to know if a product contains natural or artificial vanilla

Any product called “vanilla” owes its aroma to natural vanillawhile the calls “vanillin”, “vanillin” ( or vanilline) “vanilla flavored” are artificial and flavored with synthetic vanilla.

Vanilla, castor and hoaxes

Recently a television report raised the controversy over the use of substances from the beaver’s anus in “vanilla flavored” products that we usually drink. The report later qualified the statement but the networks burned for a few days.

The controversy is not new, and it’s a hoax that vanillin is obtained from the secretions of the beaver’s anus, but like many hoaxes is based on a fact that has later been misrepresented.

When cheaper and more readily available alternatives to vanilla began to be sought in the 1960s, one of the solutions found by the North American food industry was to use a small amount of castoreum, a substance obtained from bags that beavers have between their anus and tail.

Those little bags are not actually the glands of the beaver’s anus.whose content will surely not have a very pleasant smell, but rather small receptacles in which the beaver accumulates a yellowish fatty substance that you make from the grasses you eat and that gives off a musky and herbal fragrance.

Beavers use this substance to spread it on their skin. and protect it, but it wasn’t that easy to obtain either… and it certainly wasn’t cheap either. Also, it’s not that castoreum tasted like vanilla, but that its musky notes allowed it to enhance other artificial flavors with which the flavor of this spice was imitated, but also of strawberry and raspberry.

So while castoreum was widely used in the 1960s and 1970s in North America, Other alternatives were immediately sought and it did not take long for a way to produce synthetic vanilla to be found. from other sources. “Vanillin,” as synthetic vanilla is often known, was always synthetic.