Plain, standard, mundane, vanilla. Ubiquitous in cakes, cookies, and ice creams, the vanilla bean has come to dominate as one of the most sought-after spices in the modern world. Vanilla, so essential as to be considered ordinary, rose to its popularity with the second World War, but had its roots in the expansion of vanilla production a century prior. Just as the word vanilla hides hundreds of identifiable aromas, so too does it possess a rich history that predates its global fame.

In the rivalry of chocolate and vanilla, the aromatic orchid played second fiddle for much of its history. Harvested in Mesoamerica up to 2,500 years ago, vanilla was used by the Olmecs, Maya, and Aztecs as a flavoring for xocolatl, the ritual drink made of cacao.[1] The Totonac people began to cultivate vanilla in the 1200s, becoming central to their livelihoods for centuries to come. For the Totonacs, vanilla carries ritual connotations associated with creation myths. Like a human fetus, a vanilla bean takes nine months to grow. With the rise of the Aztecs, they supplied Tenochtitlan with the vanilla as tribute. In the halls of Moctezuma, Hernan Cortez first tasted vanilla, beginning its spread beyond the New World.

Unlike cacao with which it was primarily consumed, vanilla was difficult to cultivate, requiring tremendous amounts of labor, and it was not grown anywhere but Mexico. The Totonacs jealously guarded the secret of vanilla cultivation and curing, resulting in a trade monopoly by Spain.[2] A few outsiders learned the secrets of its cultivation: Jews working for the Dutch West India Company traded and expanded the trade in the late seventeenth century, but the death of a merchant could end the trade entirely. This grew the taste for vanilla beyond chocolate, exemplified in the 1692 French regulation of the vanilla trade.[3] English and French uses for vanilla waxed considerably while the Spanish market shrank in turn. Unlike the Spanish