Forget trendy flavors like salted caramel or almond poppy seed.
When it comes to ice cream, the most popular choice is always vanilla.
But vanilla lovers beware: Your beloved bean is in danger.
It’s hard to think of a sweet food that isn’t flavored with vanilla.
It’s found in an estimated 18,000 products worldwide.
But natural vanilla is now in short supply and chemists may not be able to concoct a
substitute that both food-makers and consumers can stomach.
The story of this vanilla apocalypse begins in 16th century Mexico, where Spanish explorer
Hernán Cortés witnessed the Aztec Emperor Montezuma drinking a chocolate beverage
flavored with vanilla.
News spread and people worldwide began jumping on the vanilla bandwagon.
But the flavoring remained a rare treat for the world’s elite for centuries because
nobody could cultivate vanilla orchids as a cash crop outside Mexico.
The dainty flowers relied on local bees for pollination.
That is until 1841.
Enter Edmond Albius, a 12-year-old boy in the French colony of Réunion near Madagascar.
Edmond figured out how to hand-pollinate the vanilla orchid using the most quintessential
of childhood tools: a stick.
The stick method gives pollen a friendly push toward the part of the plant where reproductive
magic happens.
Thanks to this technique, output of vanilla in Réunion soared and its cultivation spread
to nearby Madagascar.
These days, about 80% of the world’s natural vanilla comes from small farms in Madagascar
that still rely on the old-school stick method to catalyze a little vanilla romance.
Through the 1800s and 1900s, chemists came on the scene and developed methods to synthesize
vanillin, the main flavor compound of dried, or cured, vanilla beans.
Chemists have crafted vanillin starting with eugenol in clove oil, ferulic acid in rice
bran, and even coniferyl alcohol from spruce tree lignin.
But petrochemicals provide the most important precursor: Today about 85% of vanillin is
synthesized from a petrochemical called guaiacol.
Now bear in mind that vanillin is just the main flavor compound of real vanilla flavor—
foodies would call it the top note.
Anyone who’s had real vanilla knows it has a lot more subtle components that round out
its flavor and give it a fabulous je ne sais quoi.
Switch to factory-made vanillin with its one dominating component and you feel, well, cheated.
Still, most store-bought products have used synthetic vanillin over the years, with the
exception being dairy products.
For decades, the US Food & Drug Administration has required ice cream and yogurt companies
to use real vanilla extract or, if they’re big fakers, to stamp “artificial vanilla”
on their products.
Given the rising consumer disdain for synthetic flavors, most companies opt for the Real McCoy.
And that sentiment is spreading.
In fact, Nestle took things to a whole ‘nuther level in 2015.
The food megacorporation announced that it would eliminate artificial additives--including
vanilla--from chocolate candy sold in the U.S.
The other food bigwigs--think General Mills, Hershey’s, Kellogg’s--soon followed suit.
Great news for natural vanilla, right?
Not so much.
While the ink was still drying on the swathe of all-natural announcements, Madagascar had
an abysmal vanilla season.
That means prices for pure vanilla extract reached an eye-popping eleven thousand dollars
per kilogram in 2015.
That’s nearly ten times its price from just a few years ago.
What does this all mean for us?
Unless the vanilla goddess smiles upon us and improves crop yields, there will not be
enough vanilla beans in the world to satisfy global demand.
Some scientists are trying to figure out which genes vanilla orchids use to build the enticing
suite of flavor compounds found in real vanilla beans.
Researchers could then perhaps insert those genes into microbes or other plants to produce
vanilla’s desirable flavor profile.
Certainly some consumers will object to the thought of GMO vanilla.
But others may see it as more a sustainable option than building more orchid plantations or more
appealing than synthetic vanillin from petrochemicals.
What about you?
How would you be willing to ride out the vanilla shortage crisis?
Tell us in the comments.
And thanks to Melody Bomgardner for her awesome article about this not-so-sweet crisis.
And if you’ve got a taste for more fun chemistry, don’t forget to subscribe.