Vanilla has been appearing
in more places than my kitchen since at one of the last summer night markets I meet a
woman who was asking about vanilla in an aromatherapy perfume. Her request intrigued me and I took
this curiosity into my lab and began playing with vanilla absolute oil in
various carriers and with other oils.
Playing with vanilla in this setting was extremely fun and satisfying as
I got to know Vanilla as more than a flavoring for baking but also as a scent
for perfumes. Wow! The possibilities are endless. At the time of writing this article
there is not yet a completed product but I can say that I do anticipate a
vanilla inspired aromatherapy perfume to grace the markets and website in the
near future. For now both my home
and lab will be wafting wonderful vanilla smells as I enjoy Vanilla in all its
heavenly forms!
To better understand Vanilla
I gathered some information on growing, harvesting and how Vanilla is named that
helped me to further appreciate this well used spice and perfume fragrance.
Vanilla beans are actually the seeds from the orchid species Vanilla plantifolia. This orchid is the only species of orchids out of 35,000 orchid species to have edible seedpods. The Vanilla plantifolia orchid was originally only grown in the tropical rainforest of South Eastern Mexico and Central America. Now however it is being grown in Indonesia, Tahiti, Reunion Islands and Madagascar. I have also seen the vanilla orchid growing on a tree at a farm on Kauai, Hawaii. The Vanilla orchid grows like a vine twining itself up trees reaching lengths of up to 30 feet. In the regions where Vanilla is a native plant (South Eastern Mexico and Central America) it is pollinated by the Melipone bee that is only found in those regions. All other Vanilla Orchids are hand pollinated. The resulting bean pod takes up to 9 months to reach maturity. The Vanilla bean is odorless when harvested. Then when cured in a 3-6 month long fermentation process the pods turn dark brown to black with reddish drops of crystal Vanillin lining the pod. The crystal drops of Vanillin give the bean pod the familiar smell of Vanilla.
Vanilla beans are actually the seeds from the orchid species Vanilla plantifolia. This orchid is the only species of orchids out of 35,000 orchid species to have edible seedpods. The Vanilla plantifolia orchid was originally only grown in the tropical rainforest of South Eastern Mexico and Central America. Now however it is being grown in Indonesia, Tahiti, Reunion Islands and Madagascar. I have also seen the vanilla orchid growing on a tree at a farm on Kauai, Hawaii. The Vanilla orchid grows like a vine twining itself up trees reaching lengths of up to 30 feet. In the regions where Vanilla is a native plant (South Eastern Mexico and Central America) it is pollinated by the Melipone bee that is only found in those regions. All other Vanilla Orchids are hand pollinated. The resulting bean pod takes up to 9 months to reach maturity. The Vanilla bean is odorless when harvested. Then when cured in a 3-6 month long fermentation process the pods turn dark brown to black with reddish drops of crystal Vanillin lining the pod. The crystal drops of Vanillin give the bean pod the familiar smell of Vanilla.
Vanilla is the most popular
food flavor in the world. It is
the second most expensive spice flavoring (with saffron being the first) due to
its labor intensive harvesting and curing process.
Vanilla can’t be steam
distilled to extract its oil content like most other essential oils because of
the delicate structure of the bean pods.
Instead there are 3 other extraction methods that are used:
1. Vanilla CO2- uses carbon dioxide to pull the vanilla smell
from the pod.
2. Vanilla absolute- uses solvents
to extract the vanilla. This
method is preferred by perfumers.
3. Vanilla oleoresin- is
another type of solvent extraction that uses the macerated beans.
Each of these methods
produce slightly different smelling vanilla oil all of which are not considered
to be a true essential oil. When Vanilla
in used in an aromatherapy blend it is usually considered a “fragrance”
addition.
Vanilla is sold under many
different names such as Mexican Vanilla (Mexico), Bourbon Vanilla (Madagascar),
Tahitian Vanilla (French Polynesia) or West Indian Vanilla (Caribbean and
Central/South America) all of which are named based on the geographical regions
they are grown.
I hope that you enjoyed this article about Vanilla. Please visit our website to view our product line.
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I hope that you enjoyed this article about Vanilla. Please visit our website to view our product line.
We would love to connect on social media! You can find us on the links below.
www.evokearomatherapy.com
www.facebook.com/evokearomatherapy
www.twitter.com/evokearoma
www.pinterest.com/evokewellness
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