The most tender spice, the ability to use which the world owes to a young slave (10 photos + 1 video)

Buns, muffins, ice cream, marshmallows - what unites them? Gentle vanilla flavor. This spice is perhaps the most popular for desserts and sweets. The flavoring agent is also used for other purposes - production cosmetics, household chemicals, perfumes. And there was an opportunity widely use the spice, which is made from immature pods plants of the genus Vanilla, thanks to chance.





If now crystal powder or vanilla sugar worth mere pennies, there was a time when he was valued incredibly expensive. A the opportunity to enjoy the wonderful aroma of the world appeared thanks to to a young slave whose name was Edmond Albius.



Columbus had a chance to try vanilla for the first time. Traveler was treated to an amazingly fragrant chocolate drink by the ruler of Nicaragua in 1502. And the show of respect ended up costing the locals very dearly: the Spaniards said that they would now take the spice as a tribute to permanent basis.

The scent of kings





And Europe literally fell into an olfactory ecstasy. The new product quickly gained popularity among the nobility. He began to be called "divine nectar" But vanilla was incredibly expensive. allow only royal people and their approximate.

At the court of the Russian Empress Elizabeth Petrovna was found a brave pharmacist who thought of adding crushed liana to pastries. And it was a success. True, a new article made a hole in the treasury expenses. But what difference does it make if this fragrance is so wonderful that Reminds me of all the most wonderful things in the world?



Anna of Austria loved chocolate with vanilla. And the marquise de Pompadour seasoned broths with it. In Europe, they tried to use vanilla as a remedy for abdominal pain, snake bites and male impotence. The last statement, by the way, contributed a surge of interest in vanilla from aristocrats.



Melipona

A ton of pods was paid in silver by weight one to one. European botanists tried to grow the crop in botanical gardens. The seedlings took root, they felt good. But with pollination a problem arose: in the natural environment, this was done by a special subspecies bees - melipons. All breeders' attempts were unsuccessful. Who Will he figure out where the pistils and stamens are in this creeper? And blessed pods didn't show up.

Everything ingenious is simple



And this was proved by the slave boy Edmond Albius. His home was Reunion Island, east of Madagascar. Bought it as a kid Ferréol Bellière-Beaumont is a famous botanist. Once he wandered through the garden in accompanied by a young servant and told him about the problem of vanilla pollination.



Edmond Albius

Edmond had an inquisitive mind and a good memory and excellent memorized the owner's explanations. Because suggested that pollination may obstruct the septum in the flower. And so it turned out. Rostellum - that the baffle itself is the protruding part of the column on orchid flowers, which separates the stamen from the female part and prevents self-fertilization.



The boy quickly cleared the obstacle and pollinated the vanilla. Later due time, the owner was amazed to see the treasured little pod on the place of the flower. The technique received the romantic name Mariage de la Vanille, which means "marriage of vanilla" in French.

The injustice of the world and the gratitude of descendants



Monument to Albius

In fact, the uneducated little slave managed to to do what the best minds of Europe could not. In theory, Edmond should have become incredibly wealthy. But this did not happen: such is the world, it is not always fair. Death inventor of pollination technique vanilla, which is used to this day, was met by a beggar, though free.



But Albius remained in history. And thanks to his ingenuity Mexico has lost the status of a monopoly in the production of spices. And the inhabitants of the whole world have the opportunity to purchase vanilla, not giving away as much silver for a fragrant additive as it weighs.