Mexico is the birthplace of vanilla-it's true.
When Cortez landed on Mexico's shores and met the Aztec god-king, Montezuma, in 1519, he was served a vanilla and chocolate drink by Montezuma. It's a long story, but eventually, vanilla was exported to Europe where it immediately became extremely popular, especially in France.
The Europeans tried and failed miserably for hundreds of years to cultivate vanilla in tropical colonies, but though the vanilla vines would flourish and blossom, they never bore fruit. They called the fruitless vines the Curse of Montezuma.
Finally, in the 1800s, the French commissioned a botanist to return to Vera Cruz, Mexico, and study the vanilla vine. He discovered the problem: the vanilla blossoms could only be pollinated by a tiny bee, the Melipona Bee, native only to the Veracruz region.
Alas, the problem had been found but there was no solution. It was not until several years later when a young and brilliant Malagasy slave invented the method still used today of hand pollination with a toothpick that any vanilla beans were harvested outside of Mexico.
Once this discovery was made, nearly all vanilla production was moved to Madgascar. In Mexico, vanilla vines were still grown and cultivated, but the region produced a relatively small amount of the global vanilla bean supply. The diminished production of vanilla in Vera Cruz was exasperated by the reduction of the rainforest canopy cover in the region. (Vanilla vines require a shaded tree canopy to thrive.)
Today vanilla beans from Mexico are a boutique (and expensive) crop. They do have a subtle unique flavor profile that comes across as slightly spiced or cinnamon when compared to Madagascar vanilla beans, but it is difficult for anyone without a particularly adept palette for pure vanilla to distinguish in an extract.
So what's in that 32 oz bottle of "vanilla extract" your friend purchased for $8 in Tiajuana? It certainly has a unique and even pleasant flavor profile....
Here's the bad news: it is imitation vanilla. Most of the bottle is alcohol, water, and caramel color- standard base ingredients for an imitation vanilla extract.
Here's the really bad news: that distinct flavor profile comes from an ingredient called coumarin. Coumarin was banned in the US back in the 1950's when it was found to cause cancer in lab mice and rats. Thus, imitation vanilla flavors in the United States lack the buttery, spicy, sweet flavor note imparted by coumarin. Imitation vanilla in the USA and Europe relies primarily on vanillin for its flavor profile. (Mexican imitation vanilla also uses vanillin.)
The problem is that Mexico does not have consumer protection of labeling laws and food safety laws to protect and inform users of the product ingredients. There is no standard for what constitutes "pure vanilla extract." Thus, retailers can sell imitation vanilla extract as "pure vanilla extract" and "Coumarin-free" even though those claims are false. There are no requirements or limitations on ingredients nor are there requirements to label ingredients properly. It's the wild west and anything could be in that bottle.
We know you'll enjoy it!
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