Known and used in Aromatherapy for its olfactory and emotional qualities, Vanilla is a real ‘soul support’.
If you want to know its true smell, you have to take the pods and open them. You will then smell a scent that is not the cloying one we often find in perfumes: Vanilla actually smells sweet, but also has bitter and liqueur-like undertones. If you have the oleoresin, or a dilution of it, you will smell an enveloping and inviting fragrance, and depending on the geographical origin of the Vanilla you are smelling, there will be floral notes, or perhaps sweet, or deep (in case it comes from Mexico).
When smelling real Vanilla, we will generally find density, warmth, and full but never cloying sweetness.
“By ‘listening’ to its scent, you will notice its calming and enveloping activity – even scientific research confirms its anxiolytic qualities. If you like to create perfumed blends, Vanilla blends well with flowery scents, but also with incense, resins and some woods (such as Sandalwood essential oil), as well as spices such as Cinnamon.
This orchid has had a curious fate in that it is native to Mexico, where it is now minimally harvested, while production in Madagascar is extensive (although not native, Vanilla here is ‘transplanted’). It is also produced in other parts of the world, for example in Tahiti (if you love aromatic raw materials, check Materia Viva, the aromatic ezine).
What we know as vanilla pods are actually the pods picked from the plant, which are dried and fermented for at least three months, at which point we get the pod we are used to using in cooking. If we open it with a small knife, we will find the seeds inside, which are the most fragrant and tasty part, and with them we can indulge in flavouring.