Vanilla starts with an orchid
Those tiny specks in vanilla-bean ice cream have a flower in their backstory. The seeds come from an orchid's fruit, most commonly Vanilla planifolia, a climbing vine with pale greenish-yellow flowers.
What we call a vanilla bean is the orchid's fruit. It doesn't emerge from the flower smelling like the vanilla in your kitchen. The characteristic aroma develops as the harvested fruit is dried and cured.
There's a surprisingly small window to get that fruit started. Each Vanilla planifolia flower opens for only a day. Growers commonly pollinate the flowers by hand, working while they're receptive. The pods then need months to mature, followed by curing.
Edmond Albius developed a practical hand-pollination technique as an enslaved 12-year-old on Réunion. His method is still used today, one flower at a time.
