Make mine vanilla: No. 1 flavor sheds plain, old image

by Jane Dornbusch
Wednesday, March 5, 2003

There's a taste sensation sweeping the nation, and it's complex, exotic and multifaceted. It appeals to young and old, and it's the must-have flavor in new food products. It's costly, comes to us from far-off lands and is anything but bland.

It's - are you ready for this? - vanilla.

But not vanilla as in "plain vanilla.'' "Today's vanilla is not yesterday's vanilla,'' says Lynn Dornblaser, editorial director for Global New Products Database. "Today's vanilla is complex, and shows up in complex areas.''

"It definitely is true that more and more things with vanilla in them are coming onto the market,'' says Patricia Rain, founder of the Vanilla Co. "It's because they sell well. Vanilla has a pheromonelike quality, both as a fragrance and a flavor, that's soothing and reassuring, and at the same time very erotic.''

The most obvious example of the new vanilla generation is probably last spring's successful Vanilla Coke launch. But, according to Dornblaser, vanilla's star has been rising the past few years. "The big year for vanilla was '99,'' she says, with a large number of vanilla home fragrance and perfumes debuting that year. But last year's numbers nearly match those, and seem to be climbing all the time.

Beverages and beverage mixes have accounted for a lot of the increase, says Dornblaser, with such items as cocoa mixes and flavored coffee going vanilla. Perhaps most significant has been the success of vanilla syrups at coffee bars such as Starbucks; that's brought a whole new generation into the vanilla fold. Vanilla Coke, she says, was a hit because it appeals to consumers on two fronts: "It's very much reminiscent of what we might have had at a soda fountain. It appeals to a young demographic that's used to sweet coffee drinks, and to older people, because of nostalgia.''

Rain, who goes by the moniker the Vanilla Queen, has her own explanation for why we seem to be living in vanilla times. "The events of our world, with 9/11, jilted people out of their perceived safety in the world. Vanilla really hearkens to hearth and home, and the security that we feel in baking, or something like ice cream. . . . When you bring out vanilla, you bring out soothing, and you bring out comfort.''

Call it soothing, call it comfortable - but don't call it boring. With, says Rain, about 211 organoleptic properties that create vanilla's fragrance and flavor, it's a complex profile that's nearly impossible to re-create in the lab - though not for want of trying. Synthetic vanillas have been around for years, and while they may have a pleasant aroma and are less expensive than the real thing, they just can't substitute.

Rain is on a one-woman crusade to let people know the difference. Her Web site, www.vanilla.com, is an education in vanilla, as well as a shop that sells real vanilla in various forms and vanilla-fragranced products. But it's not just real vanilla's culinary superiority that concerns Rain.

"The tropics where coffee, cacao and vanilla come from are deeply compromised,'' she notes. "My personal concern is about the degradation of the tropics.'' Coffee and chocolate aren't likely to disappear any time soon, but for a variety of reasons, the future of vanilla is more tenuous. It's costly and time-consuming to produce, and though synthetics may be inferior, they get the job done to some extent. Rain says that 97 percent of vanilla products in the world are made with synthetic vanilla, and she can foresee a possible future in which real vanilla no longer exists.

But like coffee and chocolate before it, vanilla's future may lie in the niche demand for vanilla varietals. "For people who know about vanilla or cooking, all of a sudden it's not just vanilla, it's Madagascar or Mexican. It's fascinating to see among aficionados how segmented it's become - this kind for beverages, this kind for baking.''

And the commercial demand for real vanilla, if not huge, remains steady. "I hadn't heard that vanilla is making a comeback,'' says Darryln Leikauskas, marketing director for Brigham's Ice Cream, "but for us, it never really went away.'' Vanilla is far and away the company's top flavor, selling twice as much as the second-place finisher, chocolate. And synthetic vanilla won't cut it here, thank you very much.

"Oh, yeah, it's real vanilla,'' says Leikauskas. `We don't want to give away too much of the recipe, but it's a high-level count of vanilla beans.''

She has her own explanation for vanilla's perennial popularity. "It goes with everything ... and no one would ever be offended by eating vanilla. Not everyone goes for chocolate, but I haven't come across too many people who hate vanilla.''

But once again, just because it's endlessly accommodating and hated by none, don't think of vanilla as boring. Dornblaser says vanilla ice cream is no longer just a vehicle for chocolate sauce; it "promotes itself as a destination flavor.

"When I was growing up,'' she continues, "vanilla ice cream was very vanilla, as in boring. Now it's not. `Plain vanilla' may become one of those phrases that don't mean very much anymore.''

ALMOND-VANILLA GREEN BEANS

2 lb. green beans, trimmed

1/2 c. almonds, sliced or quartered 4 T. unsalted butter

1/2 t. pure vanilla extract

Salt and pepper to taste

Fresh lime juice (optional)

Steam beans for about 5 minutes, or until crisp-tender. Drain well.

Saute almonds in butter until well coated, lightly browned and crisp. Pour over the beans. Add vanilla, salt and pepper to taste, and a squeeze of lime juice if desired. Makes 6 servings.

From "The Vanilla Cookbook,'' by Patricia Rain (Celestial Arts, 1986).

REAL VANILLA ICE

3 c. skim milk

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

1 1/2 envelopes unflavored gelatin

1/4 c. cold water

2 T. cornstarch

1/2 c. firmly packed light-brown sugar

Cook the milk and vanilla bean in a saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until bubbles form around the edge of the milk.

Sprinkle the gelatin over the water in a heatproof bowl and let sit until the gelatin swells and softens, about 2 minutes. In another heatproof bowl, mix the cornstarch and brown sugar.

When the milk is hot, pour approximately 1/4 c. into the gelatin mixture and stir to dissolve. Add enough hot milk to the cornstarch-sugar mixture to form a thin paste. Pour the paste back into the pan of hot milk and heat, over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened and bubbly. Turn the heat down and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the gelatin mixture. Cool to room temperature, remove vanilla bean and freeze mixture in an ice-cream machine according to manufacturer's directions.

From "Make Mine Vanilla,'' by Lee Edwards Benning (Fireside, 1992).