Vanilla: Travels in Search of the Ice Cream Orchid

by Tim Ecott

The natural and social history of this fascinating and much-sought-after plant is traced here, from its discovery among the Maya Indians through its introduction to and cultivation in numerous other countries and its current state as an endangered plant species in the wild.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Travel, Food, Microhistory, Cookbooks, Nature

278 pages, Hardcover

First published June 8, 2004

Reviews

[P.C. Parn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book, and I was a little let down. Orchids fascinate me and I was hoping for an in depth look at not only the human history behind the vanilla trade, but the science behind the vanilla orchid as well. What I got was more like a travel book with a political vanilla overtone. In the beginning of the book Ecott states that he loves islands and has spent his whole life trying to figure out how to work on and travel to islands. As a result, sometimes I felt like the book was merely a tax right off for Ecott. He got to travel to tropical destinations and while there he did some limited vanilla research.

What I learned from the book is that the vanilla trade is ruthless and built upon lies and dishonesty. There are three 'arms' so to say of the vanilla trade, the farmers, the curers, and the European and American corporations. Between all three of these arms are a group of men who negotiate for either better prices for the farmers, or better prices for the corporations. Such men are secretive and prone to spreading lies to help their cause.

Other than that not so in depth look at the vanilla trade, I learned a little about Mexico, Tahiti, Madagascar and Reunion. I finished the book feeling hungry. What I was hoping for I didn't get. Some of the asides Ecott made didn't appear to add to the story at all. Often I would finish a chapter and feel like I had just read a long rambling story whose original point had gotten lost somewhere in the subtext.

While I did learn some things about the vanilla trade, I think in the future I am going to stick to Michael Pollen books when it comes to plants that are also food.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is everything you hope for on such a fantastic topic... it gives an edifying and educational view of the history, economics, horticulture, and industry of vanilla, good, bad, and unique. But what truly makes this book stand out from so many others like it is the author's writing style and shared experiences. This author did not just read as much as he could about vanilla, then write about his research. Tim Ecott clearly spent much of his time deeply ingrained and "on the ground" in the world of vanilla: in the gardens and plantations, with the people, and the places where these magical beans are processed, with manufacturers of vanilla products, and on the historical grounds where vanilla had made a mark. In this book, you are not just educated on the world of vanilla, you are transcended INTO the world of vanilla through his visual eloquence and expressive passion. If you have even a little bit of passion for the topic of spice trade and history, this is not just a must read, but a treasure on your bookshelf.

[Rebecca Huston · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very entertaining but slight exploration of the role that vanilla has played in modern day life. There are stories of how it's grown and processed, the rather cutthroat trade in vanilla today, and some serious questions. I could have wished that there had been some maps and illustrations included to help flesh out the story, but unfortunately, there wasn't any. Still, anyone interested in the culture of vanilla should find this one worth seeking out. Four stars overall and recommended.

For the longer review, please go here:
http://www.epinions.com/review/Jim_Ec...

[Amanda Witt]

A great account of how this plant only grows in a few select regions of the world, including Mexico and the island of Madagascar, and the controls over the industry to ensure the best plants and beans are obtained for the world markets.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a thoughtful, mysterious, magical, dark, and satisfying book. A great mix of history and travel memoir, as well as embroiders the deep myths circulating around vanilla and orchids in general.

[mossflowers · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5. Another case where the author tries to interweave two modes of writing, but has significantly more facility with one. As a purely functional, nonfiction, information-delivery mechanism, it's successful - I painlessly learned a lot about vanilla: globally, historically, botanically. But the elements of travel journalism and personal narrative here pulled the book way off course.
I don't know if there's a better book on vanilla and unless there is I don't regret reading this one (I do love a microhistory). But the contemporary accounts of his vanilla-related travels and interviews are dragging, dull, AND uncomfortable. It's as if he's dutifully transcribing each occurrence of the trip into his diary to make sure he doesn't lose any details, without further editing down to the relevant bits or expanding with pleasurable verve. The effect is not of immediacy, but of listening to a bad storyteller's vacation recap. He also depicts (I think literally) every single person he interacts with as somewhat weird, off-putting, or shady. The faithful sharing out of every moment of social discomfort he ever felt doesn't come together as journalistic transparency or pithy character study, it's just. . . awkward. The few older stories, from before he was actively researching the book, are told much more cleanly and effectively. (Confusing, as I understand his everyday job is as a journalist? surely quick turnaround of events- into-narrative is his wheelhouse?)
The characters from history are described with more roundness and empathetic curiosity, and some of their stories are well told. However, his authority was undermined for me by the wonky version of Lady Emma Hamilton's fascinating and complicated life he tells. Is this a credulous failure to do good (easy) research? Or an unwelcome and incorrect attempt at chivalry that is more sexist than the truth?
As a wide-ranging history of a single subject, satisfying. As travel writing or inquiry into social symbolism of a cultural entity, weak.

[Morgan McGuire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which reads as a bit of autobiography as well as carefully researched nonfiction.

Minor complaints, which could be summarized as "editing sucks these days:"

- Every instance of "it's" is incorrect in the entire book. That should be a contraction, but it is used as the possessive.
- The opening chapters are ridiculous in their attempts to put a sensuous spin on plant biology and agribusiness. It feels like these were added once the book was written as a hook. What should have been (and reads as if it was intended to be) the first chapter is buried close to the end, a concise summary of the major points and themes of the book. It is redundant then
- The book just ends abruptly. There's an "epilogue" that makes some poetic closing notes, but it really needs a proper conclusion about the labor issues, politics, vanilla market trends, and climate change implications raised throughout the book

Everything else is terrific. It has the depth of a Mark Kurlansky exploration combined with the travel anecdotes of Mark Kurlansky or kolbert elizabeth. Ecott brings each location to life and doesn't stint on how much traveling sucks off the beaten path in exotic locales, as well as sharing the best of the local foods, sights, and people he encounters. This gives necessary context for the research and facts about vanilla and made the book hard to put down for me.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a genuinely interesting combination of travelogue and well-researched history of the growing and production of vanilla. Tim Ecott clearly has affection for his subject, and he peppers the book with anecdotes of the mystery, espionage, and sometimes mayhem that surround the buying, selling, exporting, and importing of the much-beloved flavoring and fragrance. For content, I give this book a solid four stars. Vanilla is my favorite flavor, and one of my most favorite perfume scents. I was delighted by the opportunity to pull back the curtain on how this beguiling essence gets from the orchid into the bottle of vanilla extract or the base note of a favorite perfume. I learned things and was entertained while I learned. However -- and this is a BIG however -- I cannot recall the last book I read that was in such dire need of a copyeditor. (Note: what follows here refers to the Kindle edition of the book, which may or may not reflect the printed version.) It is no exaggeration to say that this book is heavily riddled from start to finish with, among other things, inconsistent spelling, missing and incorrect punctuation (never mind the almost complete absence of the Oxford comma, which I suppose is a stylistic choice to some), and sentences that are obviously missing words. Even allowing for the accepted differences between American and British English, the chapters toward the end of the book are particularly problematic and are, in my opinion, diminished by the objectively poor quality of the copy. It's an unfortunate problem that could easily have been solved with the most basic proofreading by objective and critical eyes. I still would recommend a read, because it's a good story. Keep in mind, though, that if you care about such things, you may be driven to unnecessary distraction throughout.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author keeps this book lively and interesting with the history and biology of vanilla and also personal anecdotes. I did enjoy it, so I hate to be picky but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book so riddled with grammar and spelling errors that should have been caught by a proofreader. I’m talking about really basic errors, such as:

it's when a possessive pronoun was required
him as a subject
missing verbs entirely (Inside there a mixture of pods grown on the islands of Reunion and Madagascar.)
mismatched singular and plural nouns (vanilla "belongs to one of the oldest and largest group of flowering plants…")
many spelling errors, even in the table of contents (Acknowldgments?!)

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've never put much thought into vanilla and knew even less about the industry. Not surprisingly, this book taught me a lot, so much so that I kept reading facts aloud to those near me. I liked the balance of historical information with travel writing (firsthand accounts of the author's travels while researching for this book), as it kept the information from being too dry. This is a surprisingly interesting and fun read, especially for those who enjoy travel writing, history, and horticulture.

[Mina-Louise]

Casanova apparently saved a lover's locket of hair and asked for it to be put in a confection with vanilla, amber, sugar and angelica. Also de Sade would serve his dinner guests a dessert of chocolate, vanilla and Spanish flies which seized people with the burning sensation of lustful ardor. A German physician also claimed that drinking vanilla decoctions cured impotent men and made them into astonishing lovers.

All important things for me to know.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is party travelog and part history based upon vanilla. Extremely readable, the authors takes us to the exotic locations vanilla is grown and processed, most of which we never think about. Who knew a slave boy discovered the process of fertilizing the vanilla flower which spawned the industry we know today.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

More reviews available at my blog, Beauty and the Bookworm.

So, I have a thing about food. It's no secret. I have a fabulous metabolism now, but let me tell you, when I get older, I am going to be so fat because I love to eat. A lot. Vanilla was just my latest foray into the world of books about food. And let me tell you, if you're looking for a book about food to read on vacation, this is a great one. I took it with me to Maine, which was lovely but was nonetheless a far cry from the tropical areas where vanilla is grown, and I spent the entire time pining after after the perfect scoop of vanilla ice cream.

That said...this isn't much of a history of vanilla. I mean, there's a history of vanilla there, but it's interspersed with all kinds of other stuff. There's an entire chapter about life on the island of Bourbon/Reunion that doesn't touch on vanilla at all. Really, it does come across as Ecott traveling a lot and writing a book about vanilla to justify it. Not that it's a bad thing--I loved reading his descriptions of Mexico, Tahiti, Madagascar, and all the other stops along the way, and his interactions with the people who make up the vanilla industry. My biggest complaint was that the narrative had a weird sort of organization. While I would have liked to see vanilla go from the vine to the processing and then onwards, in order, it bounced around a lot, going from vine to processing back to vine to the food it goes into and all around in a manner that wasn't confusing, per se, but certainly seemed a bit discordant.

This book wasn't a really "dense" history, if that makes sense; the history is really just glazed over, for the most part, with a few more in-depth pieces about individuals who made a real impact. But, like I said before, that made it a great, easy vacation read. and it made me want to travel, too, and eat vanilla ice cream all the while. The book barely went into the modern industry at all--apparently the modern vanilla industry is full of deep, dark secrets that no one is willing to disclose--but I still found it thoroughly enjoyable. Overall, it reminded me a great deal of Rachel Louise Snyder's Fugitive Denim, which deals with the modern denim industry and travels about in a manner similar to Ecott's. I really enjoyed Fugitive Denim, so it's not really a surprise that I liked Vanilla, too. This isn't a book for someone looking for a detailed, scientific look at vanilla, but it is a book for someone like me who likes food and travel and good writing, and I would definitely recommend it on those aspects.

[Text Addict · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much a travelogue - though of course the title says "travels" so I suppose it should get a pass on that. The problem is that when I read a single-subject history, I'm looking for something like Mark Kurlansky's Salt: A World History, and this isn't it. Still, it does seem to cover the basic history and biology of the vanilla plant, and a bunch of the economic and business aspects of it too.

When he was visiting Madagascar, he talked to some women who were sorting vanilla beans, and one of them asked him what the white people use it for. They were unwilling to believe that it's mostly just a flavoring - the local cuisine simply doesn't use it. How's that for substantial cultural differences?

[Geourska · Rating 2 out of 5]

After having read and thoroughly enjoyed 'Banana', a colleague lent me 'Vanilla'. Unfortunately, the story of vanilla is not as gripping. The plant is not about to die out. It has not led to invasive government policy. And frankly, the book is not quite as engagingly written, but perhaps, that is just the subject matter. It was interesting to learn about the history of vanilla, but I'm not sure it was worth the time.

[Linda C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ecott covers the history and development of the vanilla industry in the leading producer countries: Mexico, Reunion (island in Indian Ocean), Tahiti, and Madagascar. He also goes to a processing plant in Illinois for a tour and visits a self-proclaimed Vanilla Queen in California. Each has their own legends and secrets; many secrets. The lack of maps was annoying. And I find that in the final assessment it was interesting but not riveting.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a reader who spends most of her time in the world of middle-grade fiction, Tim Ecott helped me see that nonfiction for grown ups can be immensely satisfying. This is much more than a travel journal. It truly is a journey through time and around the world through the medium of a spice that has changed the world: the way we eat, the fragrances we smell, and even the words we use, and much more. The writing is creative, imaginative, sometimes tries too hard, but always hits the mark.

[The Sassy Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love when a book teaches me something and this was just such a book! The author takes you on a trip around the world to find out the history of vanilla and economics that surround it and let me tell you, who never knew vanilla was such a cutthroat business! Easy to read and well written, this one gets a full 5 stars from me!

[Christine Canaria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though there were no grounds for it, I thought this was going to be like a "Vanilla" version of Feather's by Thor Hanson. Sometimes there was too much imagery and not enough economics for me, I did like the dips into history though. It has it's ups and downs, but overall this book was more enjoyable than not.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating look inside the business of trading and cultivating of vanilla. Who knew that the spice trade was still so cutthroat? It has a brief history and then a more intensive overview of how it's all run today.

[George Girton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best business books I have ever read. I got it for everyone in my family last Christmas. This book has it all. Of course, if you already know everything about vanilla -- go ahead and skip it.

[Carson McFarlane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love books like this...the history of this once exotic, now world reknowned bean of flavour. Fascinating information, yet another reason why I'd like to visit Madagascar. Amazing how complicated these little beans are to pollinate and to process!

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't what I had been hoping for. I wanted an historical account of Vanilla. This is a journalist's travel diary with some history thrown in for context. Fine for what it is, but not what I wanted.

[Brittany]

Confession: I didn't actually finish this book. It came due at the library and I had renewed it too many times already. It wasn't my favorite microhistory, but Vanilla had a likeable narrator, an engaging "plot," and plenty of "hmm!" factoids. I'd recommend it to myself to finish someday.

[Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Parts of this book were very interesting, but it failed to really engage me. It didn't read as if the author was enthusiastic about the subject, rather that he had done a research project on vanilla and thought he'd turn his finds into a book. I struggled through much of the text.

[Grant · Rating 3 out of 5]

At $500/Kg raw vanilla is my favorite drug.

[David R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had no idea what the background story for "plain old vanilla" would be like. Ecott paints a story of often desperate struggle as he depicts the economics of this exotic plant.

[ColleenPA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ecott has written a solid food micro-history. For my complete review, please see http://colreads.blogspot.com/2010/08/...

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eye-opening account of the pre-plate world of vanilla.

[Janice]

I think the interesting information about vanilla was in the first couple of chapters. After that, it was snoozeville.