Épices Rœllinger Cave À Vanilles (“vanilla Cellar”)<Vanilla from the forests of Mexico

The Chinantla Forest is considered the birthplace of vanilla and the vanilla plant, or vine, is native to Mexico. There, the vines grew and thrived without any help from humans.

Wild vanilla is naturally pollinated by melipona bees and small hummingbirds that are only found in Mexico. Before 1850, all vanilla beans came from Mexican forests and France was the number one importer of the “black flower.”

The Aztecs and the Mayans before them believed that the scent of vanilla could help them communicate with the gods and had longmastered the fermentation techniques required to cure the beans. They cultivated “tlilxotchitl” or “black flowers” so that the flavors could be paired with cocoa and coffee.

In 1521, Cortés was the first European to bring the dark pods or beans back to Charles Quint. Vanilla beans first arrived in France in 1664. Later, Louis XIV fell in love with vanilla’s flavor and wanted vanilla vines to be grown on Reunion Island, then known as the Ile Bourbon.

But by the middle of the 19th century, vanilla beans were still only “made” in Mexico. Even though the technique for curing the beans was well-known, pollination of the flower was not.

Around 1850, Charles Morren, a Belgian botanist, or, in truth, Edmond Albius, a slave on Reunion Island (this fact has been overlooked by history until now), discovered how to bypass bee pollination by pollinating vanilla flowers by hand. They say that Albius was freed from slavery as a reward for his discovery.

Soon thereafter, vanilla plants were exported by the French to plantations in Tahiti, Madagascar, the Mauritius Islands, Reunion Island, The Comoro Islands, and even Papantla in Mexico, near Veracruz.