What is vanillin?

Vanillin (C₈H₈O₃) is the main aroma molecule in vanilla. In a vanilla bean it forms during curing, and it makes up only a small percentage of the cured bean. Most vanillin used in food today is made in factories from other materials, which is why imitation vanilla is cheap. Real vanilla contains vanillin plus many other aroma compounds, so it tastes rounder.

How vanillin forms in the bean

A green vanilla pod stores vanillin in a bound, odourless form. During curing, the pod’s own enzymes slowly release it. That is why freshly picked pods smell of almost nothing, and why curing takes months. On the best-cured beans, vanillin even crystallises on the surface as fine white frost.

Synthetic vanillin

Vanillin was first made in a laboratory in 1874 by the German chemists Ferdinand Tiemann and Wilhelm Haarmann. Today most of it is made from guaiacol, a petrochemical, or from lignin, a by-product of paper making. Vanillin sold as “natural” is usually made by fermenting ferulic acid from rice bran or eugenol from cloves.

Demand for vanilla flavour is far larger than the world’s vanilla harvest could supply, so almost all vanilla-flavoured food relies on made vanillin. It is often estimated that less than 1 % of vanilla flavour comes from vanilla beans.

Imitation vanilla vs pure vanilla

Imitation vanilla is mostly vanillin in water. Pure vanilla has vanillin plus many other aroma compounds from the bean. In cakes and cookies baked at high heat, many people cannot tell them apart. In custard, ice cream, whipped cream and anything uncooked, real vanilla is easy to taste.

Does vanilla come from beavers?

No. Vanilla comes from orchid pods. The rumour comes from castoreum, a secretion from beavers that has been used in some perfumes and, historically, in a few flavourings. It is expensive and hard to collect, and its use in food today is very rare. The vanilla in your extract, your ice cream or our vanilla sugar comes from a plant.

Questions

Is vanillin bad for you?

Vanillin is widely approved as a food flavouring and is used in very small amounts. The difference between vanillin and real vanilla is one of flavour, not safety.

Is vanillin the same as vanilla?

No. Vanillin is one molecule. Vanilla, the cured bean, contains vanillin and many other compounds that together make its full flavour.

Why is the character in Vanilor called Vanillin?

Because vanillin only forms after a long, slow cure, and she only becomes fully herself after a long, slow journey.

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