What ever happened to Mexican vanilla?

thenews.com.mx

Friday, 17 October 2014 01:10

What ever happened to Mexican vanilla?

BY KATE BIELAMOWICZ

The News

Aromatic vanilla is native to Mexico, yet the country only produces 1 percent of the world’s supply, said Óscar Mora Domínguez of Finica Xanath, a vanilla farm in Veracruz.

Mora Domínguez is part of a small group of Mexican vanilla producers who are working to rescue Mexican production, as well as the species vanilla planifolia, which is in danger of extinction according to report by the National Commission for Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity.

“Vanilla is lost to us. Vanilla in Mexico is like looking at something in a museum. It’s ancient,” Mora Domínguez said.

“But it isn’t that. It shouldn’t be that. It’s a candy, a honey, a mole, a coffee, a perfume. It’s a reflection. It’s a medicine. It’s us. It’s ours,” he said.

And it’s true. Nine of the 15 Mesoamerican aromatic vanilla species are found in Mexico.

The plant was first discovered by the Totonaco in the northern areas of Veracruz and Puebla. It is a cultural symbol and an economic one in the region.

Yet the current problem, says Mora Domínguez is that although there is demand for natural vanilla, the production doesn’t exist.

Natural vanilla production is not a quick and easy process, either. The average vanilla plant takes 3 to 4 years to produce, said Mora Domínguez.

His farm, Finica Xanath, does every step of the harvesting vanilla, including pollination.

“Some days we might pollinate 5,000 flowers by hand. Imagine that when vanilla flowers only last half a day,” he said. “It’s a lot of cost and a lot of production.”

For this reason, Mora Domínguez is advocating a combined effort between businesses and producers to help drive the production of Mexican vanilla and reach the demand that is otherwise unmet due to economic and ecological issues.

Some organizations are taking notice, particularly the Mexican Orchidology Association (AMO) and the Franz Mayer Museum. They are specifically featuring vanilla in their upcoming exhibition, “Orquídeas. Otoño 2014” (“Orchids. Autumn 2014”).

Vanilla, after all, is a type of orchid.

“It’s one of the oldest types of orchids,” said Eduardo Pérez, president of AMO and National Autonomous University of Mexico professor.

Vanilla is endemic to Mexico but the majority of vanilla consumed in Mexico is artificial, Pérez said.

Orchid festival organizers are hoping that platform will help grow awareness about Mexican vanilla and drive production efforts.

“We have contacted various producers of vanilla to come and showcase their products so that the people might become more familiar with Mexican vanilla,” said Pérez.

“The idea is that the consumer has direct access to the producer,” he said.

Finica Xanthal vanilla farm is one of those producers.

“Whenever you smell real vanilla, you crave it. This is the connection we want to make,” said Franz Mayer Museum Director Héctor Rivero Borrell Miranda.

“Orquídeas. Otoño 2014” will feature orchid exhibitions, photography, products for sale, educational workshops and conferences, many of which will be geared toward the preservation and cultivation of Mexican vanilla.

“People often go to the orchid sale, but not the conferences, which is why we picked vanilla as a theme,” said Professor Rebeca López of AMO. “It’s our country’s ‘black gold.’”

The orchid festival will be held from Oct. 15 to 19 at the Franz Mayer Museum in Mexico City. Over 300 plants from 60 different species will be on display.

Shopping for Vanilla

mazatlansource.com

Many visitors to Mazatlan want to bring home a bottle of Mexico’s famed vanilla extract for their kitchens at home. Because vanilla originated in Mexico, it’s natural to think that we’d have a good supply of real, pure vanilla extract. Well, “Surprise!” That big bottle of 'genuine pure' vanilla your friends brought back from Mazatlan is probably synthetic.

Vanilla is the only edible fruit from an orchid, and Mexico had the monopoly on vanilla extract until the late 19th century. Most of Mexico’s vanilla was (and still is) grown in Vera Cruz State on the eastern side of the country, in the moist mountains that also grow a majority of Mexico’s coffee and tobacco. As travel and shipping expanded, Mexican vanilla plants made their way to France, Tahiti, and Madagascar, all which had ideal climates for vanilla production. So no matter where your vanilla comes from, it has its roots in Mexico.

But strong demand for the scent and flavor of vanilla combined with the labor-intensive efforts required to cultivate and process real vanilla created the need for a synthetic version, which was perfected first by the Germans in 1880. For a while, other Caribbean and Central American countries produced artificial vanilla as well, hoping to cash in on their close proximity to Mexico, and some growth and production of legitimate vanilla continues to this day in some of these areas.

The United States is the world's largest consumer of vanilla, followed by Europe - especially France. About 1400 tons of dried vanilla is produced worldwide each year. Our worldwide interest in natural vanilla has grown considerably in the past several years, however, and the current annual demand is for 2200 tons of vanilla. As you can see, there’s an 800 ton gap in production, thus the demand for synthetic vanilla.

Most of the vanilla you will encounter in Mazatlan is synthetic, no matter what the label says. Bogus vanilla likely includes a high alcohol content (up to 25%), whereas genuine vanilla extract will have no more than 2% alcohol. Fake vanilla may also contain coumarin, an extract of the Tonka tree, which can be toxic to the liver. It has been outlawed in the United States, but may still find its way into synthetic vanilla here.

The one brand of vanilla here in Mazatlan that enjoys a reputation of being pure and ‘real’ vanilla is Orlando. It’s not available everywhere, but look around a bit and you’ll find it. If you’re not going to get the real thing, than you might as well buy your vanilla back home, where at least you can be pretty sure that it doesn’t include any harmful chemicals.