WEBVTT - Why Is Real Vanilla So Expensive?

0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:07.040
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,

0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:10.680
<v Speaker 1>Lauren bog obam Here a trip down the Baking Aisle.

0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:14.560
<v Speaker 1>Can Land. Budget shoppers in a serious quandary. Why pay

0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:17.160
<v Speaker 1>nearly twenty dollars for four ounces that's a hundred and

0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:20.200
<v Speaker 1>nineteen milli liters of pure vanilla extract when you can

0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:23.079
<v Speaker 1>get the same amount of imitation vanilla flavor for less

0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:26.680
<v Speaker 1>than five bucks. Why does real vanilla cost an arm

0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:31.120
<v Speaker 1>and a leg. There are a few good reasons. It's

0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:34.159
<v Speaker 1>a classic case of supply and demand. Much of the

0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:37.400
<v Speaker 1>world's supply of vanilla beans about is grown in just

0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:42.120
<v Speaker 1>one place, the island of Madagascar and nearby Reunion. The

0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:45.080
<v Speaker 1>last few years have seen these islands ravaged by multiple

0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:50.000
<v Speaker 1>storms like Cyclone and awo in, wrecking thousands of plants

0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:52.320
<v Speaker 1>and driving prices up to more than six hundred dollars

0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.240
<v Speaker 1>per kilo or around three hundred per pound, which is

0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:58.120
<v Speaker 1>ten times what the prices were a few years previous.

0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:02.200
<v Speaker 1>Although twenty nineteen prices proved to be more stable than

0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:07.280
<v Speaker 1>the fluctuating rates of was forecast to seat production reduced

0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:12.039
<v Speaker 1>by which could send costs shooting upward again, but that

0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:15.639
<v Speaker 1>was predicted before the COVID nineteen pandemic happened, which seems

0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:19.920
<v Speaker 1>to be sending prices lower. The other major contribution to

0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:22.560
<v Speaker 1>sky hive and ella prices is the fact that the

0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:26.679
<v Speaker 1>plant is just difficult to grow. Species of vanilla are

0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:30.480
<v Speaker 1>members of the orchid family. The bean is the orchids fruit.

0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:34.000
<v Speaker 1>It's only able to grow ten to twenty degrees north

0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.680
<v Speaker 1>or south of the equator. The flowers grow on evergreen,

0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:41.679
<v Speaker 1>climbing stems. The blooming season lasts just a couple of months,

0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:44.919
<v Speaker 1>with a mere handful of fragile, green, white, or yellow

0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:48.760
<v Speaker 1>flowers blossoming each day, and each flower only opening for

0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:53.040
<v Speaker 1>pollination for one single morning before they wither and fall

0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:57.240
<v Speaker 1>off the plant. They're so delicate that they're only known

0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.400
<v Speaker 1>pollinators in the wild are species of tiny bees and

0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:04.120
<v Speaker 1>birds that evolved alongside them in their native Central American habitat.

0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:08.680
<v Speaker 1>So basically, if you're not growing vanilla in Mexico, and

0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:12.639
<v Speaker 1>again most vanilla isn't, you have to hand pollinate. The

0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:16.320
<v Speaker 1>hand pollination process is difficult and requires an experienced person

0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:19.800
<v Speaker 1>to perform it successfully. Typically it's done by farmers who

0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:23.240
<v Speaker 1>have been in the vanilla growing game for generations. The

0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:26.920
<v Speaker 1>process doesn't end once the beans are harvested either. Freshly

0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:30.799
<v Speaker 1>harvested vanilla pods are actually pretty bland. The crop must

0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:35.200
<v Speaker 1>be cooked, sweat dried, and cured in a truly prostincty

0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:38.919
<v Speaker 1>operation that prevents rotting and allows a number of enzymatic

0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:42.840
<v Speaker 1>and friendly bacterial processes to develop some two hundred and

0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:47.080
<v Speaker 1>fifty flavor compounds that we love about real vanilla. From

0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:50.480
<v Speaker 1>getting to end growth to export, the whole shebang takes

0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:54.200
<v Speaker 1>a solid year, and that is why vanilla is the

0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:59.920
<v Speaker 1>second costliest spice in the world, after only saffron. Ironically,

0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:03.000
<v Speaker 1>many farmers in Madagascar had moved away from growing this

0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:08.639
<v Speaker 1>labor intensive crop before Cycloninao made landfall because of low

0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:12.280
<v Speaker 1>prices for the product. At the same time, consumer interest

0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:16.040
<v Speaker 1>in real vanilla had started to increase, further exacerbating the

0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:22.120
<v Speaker 1>supply problem. So is real vanilla worth the price? In baking?

0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:25.880
<v Speaker 1>Vanilla does a lot more than just make something taste vanilla.

0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:29.160
<v Speaker 1>With all those flavor compounds, it can enhance other flavors

0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:33.480
<v Speaker 1>in sometimes unexpected ways. That said, when a recipe calls

0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:36.480
<v Speaker 1>for pure vanilla extract, can be tempting to sidestep the

0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:39.480
<v Speaker 1>authentic but pricey version in favor of the much cheaper

0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:44.800
<v Speaker 1>imitation stuff, which is typically lab synthesized vanillen. Vanilla is

0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:48.000
<v Speaker 1>one of those many taste and aroma compounds that's produced

0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:50.760
<v Speaker 1>when you cure vanilla beans, but there are lots of

0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:54.000
<v Speaker 1>other ways to get the same molecule. You can use

0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:57.600
<v Speaker 1>yeast or bacteria to ferment an oil from cloves or

0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:00.760
<v Speaker 1>an acid from rice bran fed. One of those things

0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:07.520
<v Speaker 1>be specialized and often proprietary microorganisms basically poop vanilla. Those

0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:10.920
<v Speaker 1>sort of products are considered natural vanillen that you can

0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:14.200
<v Speaker 1>also heat and pressure treat an alcohol that comes from

0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:17.640
<v Speaker 1>spruce trees to produce vanillen. As of the nineteen nineties,

0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:20.800
<v Speaker 1>a lot of the world's vanillen was actually a byproduct

0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:24.240
<v Speaker 1>of the wood pulp and paper industries. Finally, you can

0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:26.960
<v Speaker 1>synthesize vanilla in a lab using an oil that's a

0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:31.159
<v Speaker 1>byproduct of the petroleum industry. Those two, the wood pulp

0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:36.119
<v Speaker 1>and petroleum versions, are considered artificial vanillen. The petroleum version

0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:38.360
<v Speaker 1>is the cheapest of a lot by far, especially since

0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:41.159
<v Speaker 1>wooden paper industries worked to reduce their waste in the

0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:45.960
<v Speaker 1>two thousands However, if you've heard that some artificial vanilla

0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:50.000
<v Speaker 1>flavoring comes from the butt glands of beavers, yes, this

0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:54.520
<v Speaker 1>is a rumor that's incorrect on multiple levels. First Off,

0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:58.880
<v Speaker 1>any product derived from an animal would be called natural. Secondly,

0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:02.279
<v Speaker 1>while it is is true that beavers do produce a

0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:05.640
<v Speaker 1>sort of vanilla's scented substance in a gland that's near

0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.240
<v Speaker 1>the base of their tails, it's not from their anus,

0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:12.120
<v Speaker 1>and it's not actually financially viable to milk beaver glands

0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:14.359
<v Speaker 1>at a rate that would satisfy the world's interest in

0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:19.040
<v Speaker 1>vanilla flavoring. The gland secretion, by the way, is called castoreum,

0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:21.800
<v Speaker 1>and beavers use it to mark their territory and to

0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:25.760
<v Speaker 1>impress humans by spelling just absolutely lovely. It did see

0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:28.200
<v Speaker 1>some use in the eighteen hundreds as a perfume ingredient

0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:31.320
<v Speaker 1>and food additive, during the time when beaver fur was

0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:34.280
<v Speaker 1>all the rage in fashion and beavers were being hunted

0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:38.080
<v Speaker 1>in large numbers. It still shows up the fragrance industries sometimes,

0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:42.520
<v Speaker 1>but it's expensive and uncommon at any rate. The real

0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:47.320
<v Speaker 1>vanilla is rare. The vanilla flavoring used in foods we eat,

0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:51.120
<v Speaker 1>like vanilla ice cream is synthetic. If you can afford

0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:53.880
<v Speaker 1>to splurge on a few beans, it can be really worthwhile.

0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:57.240
<v Speaker 1>Though there are simple recipes online for extracting lots of

0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:00.360
<v Speaker 1>flavor from them. You can even scrape the time reflect

0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:02.960
<v Speaker 1>black seeds from the pods for use in a special recipe,

0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:07.040
<v Speaker 1>and then reuse the fleshy husks multiple times, drawing out

0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:09.800
<v Speaker 1>flavor by steeping them in liquid or storing them in

0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:17.840
<v Speaker 1>granulated sugar. Today's episode was written by Aliya Hoyt and

0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:20.880
<v Speaker 1>produced by Tyler Klang. To learn more about vanilla, check

0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:24.040
<v Speaker 1>out my podcast about food science and history. It's called Savor.

0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:26.480
<v Speaker 1>And for more on this and lots of other not

0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:29.840
<v Speaker 1>so vanilla topics, visit how stuff works dot com. Green

0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:31.800
<v Speaker 1>Stuff is a production of my heart Radio. For more

0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:34.360
<v Speaker 1>podcasts in my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,

0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.240
<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.