Vanilla: The History of an Extraordinary Bean

by Eric T. Jennings Narrated by Rick Adamson

Overview

Vanilla is one of the most expensive of flavorings-so valuable that it was smuggled or stolen by pirates in the early days-and yet it is everywhere. It is a key ingredient in dishes ranging from crème brûlée to Japanese purin. It is the quintessential ice cream flavor in the United States. Eric T. Jennings explains how the world's only edible orchid, originally endemic to Central America, became embedded in the international culinary and cultural landscape.



In tracing vanilla's rise, Jennings describes how in the 1840s an enslaved boy named Edmond Albius discovered a way to pollinate vanilla orchids with a toothpick or needle-an ingenious process that is still in use. This method transformed the vanilla sector by enabling the plant to be grown outside of its natural range. Jennings also looks at how the vanilla craze led to the search for now¿pervasive substitutes, and how a vanilla lobby has fought back. He further unravels how vanilla-the world's most expensive crop and once considered its most refined fragrance-came to mean "bland."



This tale of botany, production techniques, consumption habits, and colonial rivalry connects the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, revealing how vanilla has become a potent symbol of the modern global village.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Vanilla is a tour de force. Eric Jennings shows how a fragile and fragrant bean once known only to the Aztecs became one of the world’s most familiar of flavors.”—Alice L. Conklin, The Ohio State University

“Across centuries and oceans, Eric Jennings recounts the incomparable history of how vanilla bloomed from a rare luxury good once in perfumes and aphrodisiacs to a ubiquitous global commodity now often produced synthetically. Along the way, he weaves a gripping story of piracy, larceny, and competing botanists, and of empire, capitalism, and culture.”—J. P. Daughton, author of In the Forest of No Joy: The Congo-Océan Railroad and the Tragedy of French Colonialism

“Eric Jennings is right: ‘Vanilla is no ordinary bean.’ In this beautifully crafted and brilliantly researched history, Jennings tells the story of how this coveted pod left its home in Mexico to conquer the world, thanks to increasing global demand, imperial connections, and one remarkable enslaved teenager on Réunion Island named Edmond. Vanilla is a tour de force.”—Christopher Goscha, Université du Québec à Montréal

“Eric Jennings, our leading historian of the French empire, has derived from the vanilla bean a commodity history unlike any other. Since an enslaved teenager named Edmond Albius invented an individual method of pollination by needle or toothpick to join the male and female parts of a flower, vanilla has wafted across the globe. As he uncovers vanilla’s odyssey, Jennings blends economic, cultural, social, colonial, and literary history in a captivating story that honors Albius’s gift.”—Alice Kaplan, Yale University, author of Seeing Baya: Portrait of an Algerian Artist in Paris

“The stunning Vanilla sits amidst deep and spectacular digging into ecology, history, power shifts in the old and new worlds. With his distinctive command of the polyvalent archive, Eric Jennings turns our head towards an unexpected, rich history. That of Bean Being. What an impressive achievement!”—Ruby Lal, Emory Professor of South Asian History and author of Vagabond Princess

Product Details

BN ID:	2940195469016
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	08/26/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged