I have learnt more about vanilla than someone whose ass isn& #39;t ever going to grow it needs to. Fun tidbits:
.It& #39;s expensive as shit
.It has to be hand-pollinated for commercial purposes
.Fake vanilla can come from beaver batty
.We can grow it locally
.It has grades, like meat does

Beaver batty "vanilla" isn& #39;t vanilla, but a similar-scented substance from (close to) the animal& #39;s anal glands. It goes in foods, too.
Fake vanilla/"vanilla" extracts can also come from non-orchid sources, such as wood

But the best thing I learnt, helping #decolonisefood is that french vanilla does not fucking exist.
Vanilla is not grown in France.
Like much of the co-opted foods of the world, vanilla came from WINKA LatAm (incl the Caribbean).
The other best thing is vanilla& #39;s etymology

Vanilla and vagina are cognates https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🙂" title="Leicht lächelndes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Leicht lächelndes Gesicht">
Vagina and vanilla come from the latin "vagina", meaning "sheath, covering (i.e. something that covers)".
Vanilla really means little vagina (little sheath :))

Looking at the flat-leave vanilla orchid and imagining a vagina, we can understand.

Lat. vagina -> Span vaina -> vainilla (illa being the Spanish diminutive).

Anywho, we thank the Totonac from WINKA Mexico for tlīlxōchitl (black ink flower)/vanilla & for drinking it with hot xocolatl, & we thank Edmond Albius, the slave whose genius gave vanilla its varieties

Imagine a whole professor of fucking botany couldn& #39;t do what the Edmond, a slave, did. It vexing, it makes you think of the brilliance (and peace and prosperity) stifled then (and now) and of how much further we could have been as a species were it not for those savages