Vanilla, indigenous to Central America, is one of the most expensive flavorings, coming from the only orchid grown globally for its edible fruit. The once-rare spice, smuggled by pirates and subject to pervasive substitutes, became a potent symbol of the modern global village through colonization and trade rivalries. At the center of the story of vanilla is the discovery in the 1840s by an enslaved boy named Edmond Albius of a hand-pollination method that allowed vanilla to be cultivated outside its native Mexico. Eric Jennings told the surprising story of the journey of vanilla, from its rarefied origins to global ubiquity.
