Vanilla: A Flavor from Orchids香草：來自蘭花的芬芳

“The farmers move quickly through snaking vines， seeking out the pale， waxy flowers that bloom just one morning each year. They use thin， pointed sticks to lift the delicate membrane that separates the male and female parts of the flower. With thumb and forefinger， they push the segments into each other to ensure pollination1.”

“農人們快步穿過蜿蜒的藤蔓，去尋找那顏色蒼白、每年只開放一個早晨的蠟質花朵。他們用尖細的小棒挑起隔開雄蕊和雌蕊的薄膜，用拇指和食指把兩邊的花蕊推攏，確?；ǘ涫诜??！?/p>

If the union is successful， “the thick green base of the flower swells almost immediately，” as food writer Sarah Lohman2 writes in her book Eight Flavors. “The swollen base matures into a green fingerlike seedpod—a fruit—that ripens yellow and eventually splits at the end.”

如果授粉成功，“花朵厚實的綠色基部幾乎立刻開始膨脹。”美食作家薩拉·洛曼在她的作品《八種風味》里寫道，“膨脹的花基發育成綠色的、狀若手指的種莢，那是它的果實。種莢成熟后呈黃色，最終會在末端開裂?！?/p>

To wait too long or to damage the plant during pollination is to lose a precious flower that could have matured into a pod. That’s a costly mistake for what has become one of the most beloved， lucrative spices in existence： vanilla3. Consumers’ insatiable appetite for this fragrant spice means that an estimated 18，000 products on the market contain vanilla flavor today， with prices for natural vanilla hovering around $300 per pound.

要是沒有及時授粉，或者授粉時破壞了植株，就會失去一朵珍貴的、原本可以結成豆莢的花。這樣的失誤代價昂貴，因為這可是迄今為止最受歡迎、最賺錢的香料植物之一——香莢蘭。這種芬芳的香料讓消費者欲罷不能，以至于目前市場上有約18，000種含有香草風味的產品，而天然香草的價格徘徊在每磅300美元上下。

The work of hand pollination is painstaking， but not new. Long before Europeans took to4 vanilla’s taste， the creeping vine grew wild in tropical forests throughout Mesoamerica5. While the Totonac people of modern-day Veracruz6， Mexico， are credited as the earliest growers of vanilla， the oldest reports of vanilla usage come from the pre-Columbian7 Maya. The Maya used vanilla in a beverage made with cacao and other spices. After conquering the Totonacan empire， the Aztecs followed suit8， adding vanilla to a beverage consumed by nobility and known as chocolatl9.

人工授粉的工作頗為辛苦，但并不新鮮。早在歐洲人迷上香草的美味之前，這種匍匐藤蔓就已在整個中美洲的熱帶森林里自然生長。盡管人們認為居住在現今墨西哥韋拉克魯斯州的托托納克人是最早種植香莢蘭的人，但使用香草的最早記錄則來自前哥倫布時期的瑪雅人。他們在一種用可可豆和其他香料混合制成的飲料中加入香草。阿茲特克人征服托托納克帝國后效法此方，將香草加入飲料，專供貴族享用，這種飲料被稱為“巧克拉特”。

The Spanish conquest of the Aztecs in 1519 brought the fragrant flower—and its companion， cacao—to Europe. Vanilla was cultivated in botanical gardens in France and England， but never offered up its glorious seeds. Growers couldn’t understand why until centuries later when， in 1836， Belgian horticulturist10 Charles Morren reported that vanilla’s natural pollinator was the Melipona bee11， an insect that didn’t live in Europe. （A recent study， however， suggests that Euglossine bees12 may actually be the orchid’s primary pollinator.）

1519年，西班牙人征服阿茲特克人，將這種芳香的花朵連同其伴侶可可豆一起帶回歐洲。香莢蘭開始在法國和英格蘭的植物園中得到培植，但它從未呈獻出自己高貴的種子。自那以后的幾個世紀里，種植者們都沒有找到原因，直到1836年比利時園藝學家夏爾·莫朗提出，香莢蘭的天然授粉者是無刺蜂，但這種昆蟲并未見于歐洲。（不過，最近的一項研究則認為，這種蘭花的主要授粉者其實可能是蘭花蜂。）

Five years later， on the island of Réunion13， a 39-mile long volcanic hotspot in the Indian Ocean， everything changed. In 1841， an enslaved boy on the island named Edmond Albius developed the painstaking yet effective hand-pollination method for vanilla that is still in use today， which involves exposing and mating the flower’s male and female parts. His technique spread from Réunion to Madagascar and other neighboring islands， and eventually worked its way back to Mexico as a way to augment the vanilla harvest pollinated by bees.

五年后，在留尼汪島（印度洋上一處長達39英里的火山活躍區）上，一切發生了改變。1841年，一個名叫埃德蒙·阿爾比尤斯的奴隸男孩發明了給香莢蘭人工授粉的辦法：讓花朵的雄蕊和雌蕊暴露出來，并使兩者交配。這個方法頗為辛苦，但收效顯著，沿用至今。他的技術從留尼汪逐漸傳播到了馬達加斯加及其他臨近島嶼，最終傳回了墨西哥，作為對蜜蜂授粉的補充，增加香莢蘭的收成。

This proliferation helped whet the world’s appetite for vanilla. The spice quickly found its way into cakes and ice cream， perfumes and medicines， and was valued for its intoxicating flavor and aroma. But despite growing demand and a robust crop， the tremendous amount of time and energy that went into cultivation and processing affected farmers’ ability to supply the market—and continues to do so today. Nearly all of the vanilla produced commercially today is hand-pollinated.

香莢蘭的產量激增，令全世界都為它垂涎。很快這種香料就被用于蛋糕、冰淇淋、香水和藥物中，并因它那醉人的美味和芳香而備受珍視。但在不斷增產的需求和可觀的產量背后，香草的種植和加工過程卻要耗費農民大量的時間精力，始終影響著他們供給市場的能力。這種情況一直持續至今，因為幾乎所有商業化種植的香莢蘭都要靠人工授粉。

“Vanilla requires a fair amount of skill to grow，” explains Tim McCollum， co-founder of Madécasse， a direct-trade chocolate and vanilla company. “You can’t just put seed in the ground， tend to it and expect it to produce a yield. Hand pollination is a learned skill. Many farmers have been growing vanilla for three to four generations. Smallholder farmers … have an absolute sixth sense as to when the orchids will bloom.”

“種植香莢蘭需要相當高的技術含量。”馬達加斯加巧克力和香草直銷公司的聯合創始人蒂姆·麥科勒姆解釋說，“你不能只把種子埋進地里，照顧照顧，就指望它能豐收了。人工授粉可是個技術活兒，很多農民家里三四代都是種植香莢蘭的。那些小規模種植的農民……靠著絕對的第六感就知道蘭花什么時候會開?！?/p>

Moreover， the vanilla aromas and flavors we know and love don’t reveal themselves until the crop is cured14 and dried. So it’s equally important to know to manage the plants once they bear fruit. After harvesting， McCollum explains， vanilla beans are sorted and graded. They’re then blanched15 in hot water to halt fermentation and placed in large containers to sweat for 36 to 48 hours. “It’s when the beans start to change from green to brown， and start to develop aroma，” he says.

此外，我們熟知和喜愛的那種香草的芳香和味道，要等豆莢經過蒸曬和干燥之后才會顯露出來。所以一旦作物結果，知道如何處理也很重要。麥科勒姆解釋說，收獲后，要先將豆莢分類、分級，再將其放入熱水中短暫浸泡以中止發酵，然后把豆莢置于大容器中“發汗”36至48小時?！斑@時綠色的豆莢開始變為棕色，香味也隨之產生?！丙溈ɡ漳氛f。

From there， the beans undergo alternating periods of sun drying during the day and sweating at night， a journey that lasts between five and 15 days and ends with a period of slow drying. “This usually occurs indoors， in a well-ventilated room where beans are placed on racks，” McCollum says. “It can take up to 30 days， depending on the grade.” The entire process—from growing and pollinating to drying， curing and preparing for export—takes around one year.

之后，香草莢白天日曬、夜晚“發汗”，整個過程交替進行5至15天，最后還要慢慢干燥一段時間?！斑@一步通常在室內進行，我們會找個通風良好的房間，把豆莢放在架子上晾干。”麥科勒姆說，“根據豆莢等級不同，這個步驟最長可能需要30天的時間?！睆姆N植、授粉到干燥、蒸曬加工和準備出口，整個過程大概一年之久。

But the reality is that very little of the vanilla we consume comes from those precious pods. Today， most of what we eat is actually artificial vanilla flavoring. In the late 19th century， scientists figured out how to derive vanillin16—the dominant compound that gives vanilla its signature aroma—from less expensive sources. Today， about 85 percent of vanillin comes from guaiacol17 that’s synthesized from petrochemicals18. This isn’t something many of us realize， because labeling can be confusing.

不過實際上，我們消費的香草里，只有極少部分來自這些珍貴的豆莢。我們如今食用的大部分“香草”都是人工制成的香草香精。19世紀晚期，科學家們發現了如何從相對低廉的原料中提取香草醛（賦予香草標志性芳香的主要化合物）。今天，大約85%的香草醛都提取自用石油化學物質合成的愈創木酚。這事情大多數人都不知道，因為食物標簽往往含糊其辭。

In short， vanilla is the plant. Vanillin is one of up to 250 chemical compounds that make up the flavor we know as vanilla. So what’s the distinction？ Real extract is thicker and darker in color， and speckled with seed fragments. Vanillin produced naturally in the bean varies from place to place which results in different flavor profiles. Imitation vanillin extracted from lignin19 or guaiacol is very standard， rather than distinct.

簡而言之，“香草”是這種植物，“香草醛”則是一種化合物，我們所熟知的香草風味是由包括香草醛在內的多達250種化合物構成的。那兩者有什么區別呢？真正的香草提取物質地更濃、顏色更深，布滿斑斑點點的香草籽碎片。在豆莢中天然形成的香草醛根據產地不同，生成的風味也各有特色。提取自木質素或者愈創木酚的人工合成香草醛，香型則固定統一，彼此毫無分別。

Right now， this demand for inexpensive vanilla flavoring comes with an environmental cost. According to research in the American Chemical Society’s journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research， the production of these compounds “creates a stream of wastewater that requires treatment before it can be released into surface water … catalysts currently used in the manufacturing of vanillin are polluting and can only be used one time.” In response， the authors have developed a new catalyst that separates out the vanillin but removes the polluting step. This catalyst could theoretically be re-used and， they hope， lead to more environmentally-friendly ways of manufacturing the alluring compound.

為了滿足當今世界對廉價香草香精的需求，我們付出了環境的代價。美國化學學會期刊《工業與工程化學研究》刊登的一項研究表明，這些化合物的生產過程“會產生源源不斷的廢水，這些廢水必須經過處理，才能排入地表水中……目前用于生產香草醛的催化劑會造成污染，還只能利用一次”。為此，文章作者開發了一種新型催化劑。用它能夠分離出香草醛，并且去除污染環節。這種催化劑理論上可以循環使用，研究者們希望它能夠帶來新的生產方式，讓生產香草醛這種誘人化合物的過程變得更加環保。

So is the answer to move away from real vanilla， and toward more environmentally friendly ways of scaling up production of artificial vanilla？ Assuming that we consumers are content with a simple vanilla flavor， perhaps. But we will undoubtedly lose something in the process.

那么，逐步放棄真正的香莢蘭，轉而以更環保的方式擴大人工香草醛的生產，會是我們的答案嗎？如果我們消費者能滿足于一種單一的香草風味，或許答案是肯定的。但在此過程中，我們也無疑會有所失去。

1 pollination 授粉。 2美國歷史學家。其作品《八種風味：美國菜的秘史》（Eight Flavors： The Untold Story of American Cuisine）考據了美式菜肴中最常見的八種口味及其發展史。

3香莢蘭，又稱香草、香子蘭等。 4 take to 喜歡上。 5 Mesoamerica中美洲。 6位于墨西哥東部沿海地區。 7 pre-Columbian 又稱印第安時期，指美洲在明顯受到來自歐洲文化影響前的歷史時期。 8 follow suit 照做。 9納瓦特語詞匯，意思是“苦水”。這個詞是chocolate的詞源。

10 horticulturist園藝學家。 11無刺蜂屬，廣泛分布于熱帶地區。 12蘭花蜂族，主要分布在中南美洲熱帶地區。 13位于印度洋西南部，臨近馬達加斯加島。

14 cure（用熏、腌等方法）加工貯藏。 15 blanch 焯水，在熱水中短暫浸泡。

16 vanillin香草醛，又稱香蘭素、香草精等。 17 guaiacol愈創木酚。 18 petrochemical 石油化學物質。

19 lignin木質素。