Vanilla: Travels in Search of the Ice Cream Orchid [Hardcover]

Tim Ecott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 8, 2004

Vanilla is the fascinating, kaleidoscopic story of one of the world's most exotic and sensual plants and how it transformed history. From the Aztec Indians to Martha Stewart, vanilla has been synonymous with sweetening foods. Yet it's also in chili, perfume, paint, desserts, car tires, and soda. In Tim Ecott's Vanilla, learn the fascinating history of the world's most sought-after flavoring. The story of vanilla is a botanical mystery, a plant that traveled the world but would not bear fruit outside Mexico until a twelve-year-old African slave on an island figured out how to cultivate it. Now endangered in the wild and the world's most labor-intensive agricultural crop, vanilla is more expensive to procure today than at any time in its history. Tim Ecott follows its journey from Mexico to Madagascar and back to America, meeting the farmers, the brokers, and the ice-cream makers who make vanilla a multimillion-dollar business. In the tradition of books like Tobacco, Tim Ecott's Vanilla is a whimsical journey that chronicles the incredible power of one velvety brown, long, and slender bean.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

There are more than 25,000 different species of orchids, but only one has agricultural as well as aesthetic value: the vanilla orchid. Its beans may be the planet's most valuable fruit, noteworthy since they're cultivated not for any particular nutritional value but simply for their flavor. Travel journalist Ecott traces vanilla's history from its Mexican origins. Mayan soldiers used to quaff vanilla-flavored drinks before battle, and once Cortés brought the bean back to Europe, Queen Elizabeth became hooked on vanilla pudding. Botanists couldn't figure out how to fertilize the plant outside its native soil, however, until 1841, when a slave in the French African colony of La Réunion showed his owner how to open the flower and press the right parts together. In a few decades, his discovery had made the island the largest producer of vanilla beans in the world. (Unfortunately, there are no maps to make this or other locations clear in readers' minds.) Ecott visits the island and its paltry memorial, along with several other outposts of the vanilla economy, from a Madagascar warehouse containing $100 million worth of beans to the California home of a self-styled "Vanilla Queen" who sells cookbooks. The transitions from historical background to contemporary travels work well enough, yet the story never quite makes the crucial jump from mildly interesting to riveting. 8-page insert, line drawings throughout.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

''There are more than 25,000 different species of orchids, but only one has agricultural as well as aesthetic value: the vanilla orchid. Its beans may be the planet's most valuable fruit, noteworthy since they're cultivated not for any particular nutritional value but simply for their flavor. Travel journalist Ecott traces vanilla's history from its Mexican origins. Mayan soldiers used to quaff vanilla-flavored drinks before battle, and once Cortés brought the bean back to Europe, Queen Elizabeth became hooked on vanilla pudding. Botanists couldn't figure out how to fertilize the plant outside its native soil, however, until 1841, when a slave in the French African colony of La Réunion showed his owner how to open the flower and press the right parts together. In a few decades, his discovery had made the island the largest producer of vanilla beans in the world. (Unfortunately, there are no maps to make this or other locations clear in readers' minds.) Ecott visits the island and its paltry memorial, along with several other outposts of the vanilla economy, from a Madagascar warehouse containing $100 million worth of beans to the California home of a self-styled ''Vanilla Queen'' who sells cookbooks.'' -- Publishers Weekly --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press (June 8, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802117759
• ISBN-13: 978-0802117755
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,941,310 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am a journalist and a keen diver. I lived in different countries as a child because my father was in the army. While working for the BBC World Service I reported from Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean states - and eventually ended up living in Seychelles, partly because I wanted to be able to dive more frequently. I travel a lot and have just realised a long held ambition - to visit Aldabra Atoll. Being underwater is something I have always enjoyed, and I never get tired of watching fish, or coral or sponges or sharks or even starfish. My last book - 'Stealing Water' - was a memoir about growing up in Ireland, the Far East and Africa. It shocked a lot of people. But it's a book I felt I had to write.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vanilla is anything but plain!, October 13, 2004

By 

Gerard Hennelly (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vanilla: Travels in Search of the Ice Cream Orchid (Hardcover)

You might think that you would have to be interested in vanilla, cooking, or maybe Madagascar, or Mexico, or some of the other exotic locations visited in this book in order to enjoy it. If so, you are wrong. Vanilla does give enticing glimpses into these places, but this book has merits beyong the great travelogue it is.

This book is many stories in one. It is a book of history; economy; theft; magic; and love. Mr. Ecott's writing is an exciting mixture of anecdote and explanation that has a pace more often found in well written fiction.

His description of his meal in Tahiti will leave your mouth watering, and you will see the inside of the traders shacks, with Ecott so skillfully recounting the detail you will have to remind yourself it is his memory, and not your own.

Add to that the fact that is a fascinating basic reference work for a subject horribly difficult to find information on, and you a have a real winner.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lively, revealing, and enthusiastically recommended, January 6, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vanilla: Travels in Search of the Ice Cream Orchid (Hardcover)

Vanilla is one of the most popular flavoring spices in the world and is even a major ingredient in perfumes, paint and tires, but the story of vanilla is a botanical mystery that only a twelve-year-old African slave solved. Vanilla would not bear fruit outside of its Mexican origins, until the slave developed a process for cultivating it and turned it into a labor-intensive agricultural crop. Lively, revealing, and enthusiastically recommended reading, Tim Ecott's Vanilla: Travels In Search Of The Ice Cream Orchid, should not be missed by any kitchen cook, gourmet diner, or botanist.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Exploration of the world of the Mexican Orchid, January 22, 2009

By 

Rebecca Johnson "The Rebecca Review" (Washington State) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vanilla: Travels in Search of the Ice Cream Orchid (Hardcover)

"Vanilla is the most labour-intensive agricultural product in the world." ~ pg. 2

What does a princess falling in love, rusting cargo boats, Queen Elixabeth I, the Aztecs, murder and Coca-Cola have in common. They are all part of the intriguing history of vanilla.

This book has interesting facts, like how Indonesian vanilla is better to use when baking cookies. There is a description of a visit to an ice cream factory and descriptions of a complex curing process to produce the vanilla we use in baking.

Tim Ecott meets with a reclusive botanist who is an expert on vanilla and paints a vivid portrait of the lives of people who work to bring the vanilla beans to the buyers. There is also information on how the scent of vanilla might help with weight loss.

"Before the beans can be measured and bundled they need to go into drying boxes for another eight months, and all the while they are shrinking as they lose their original moisture, so that five or six kilograms of green beans will weigh just one kilogram when dried." ~ pg. 157

If you have any interest in the history of the Mexican vanilla orchid then this book might be one you'll love to read. You may also be interested in:

Lotus Light Pure Essential Oils - Vanilla 1 oz - Fragrance Oils

Philosophy Vanilla Birthday Cake Lip Shine

12 Madagascar Vanilla Beans

Vanilla Extract, Pure (Madagascar) 4fl.oz.

Anne Willan: From My Chateau Kitchen- a recipe for infusing a pineapple with vanilla using vanilla beans

~The Rebecca Review