Started by Ravi Subramanian (@ravi_eats) ·
almost all vanilla is hand-pollinated, using a trick a 12-year-old figured out in 1841
Outside Mexico, vanilla orchids barely set fruit because their natural pollinators aren't there. On Réunion in 1841, Edmond Albius, a 12-year-old enslaved boy, worked out a fast way to pollinate each flower by hand with a thin stick and his thumb. Commercial vanilla is still done that way, one flower at a time.
6 sources · 33 min down the hole
How I got here
- Started with
- Why is real vanilla so expensive?
- Ended at
- Vanillin
The Trail
- “why is vanilla so expensive” (google.com)
- Vanilla (en.wikipedia.org)
- Edmond Albius (en.wikipedia.org)
- Vanilla planifolia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Melipona (en.wikipedia.org)
the bees that may pollinate it back home in Mexico. still debated
- Vanillin (en.wikipedia.org)
most 'vanilla flavor' is just this molecule, made from other sources
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