The Totonac people, who inhabit the East Coast of Mexico in the present-day state of Veracruz, were the first to actually cultivate vanilla. According to Totonac mythology, this beautiful native Mexican tropical orchid was born when Princess Xanat, forbidden by her father from marrying a mortal, fled to the forest with her lover. The lovers were captured and beheaded and where their blood touched the ground, the vine of the tropical orchid grew. In the 15th century named the fruit tlilxochitl, or “black flower”, after the matured fruit that shrivels and turns black shortly after it’s picked. Vanilla got its modern name from Spanish explorers who arrived at the Gulf Coast of Mexico in the early 16th century. They called it vainilla, or “little pod” and until the mid-19th century, when French entrepreneurs shipped it to the islands of Réunion and Mauritius in hopes of producing vanilla, Mexico was the chief producer of vanilla. Now Vanilla is cultivated in most tropical corners of the world. Versatile Vanilla It has the most enticing, beautiful, intoxicating aroma. …