Vanilla

Vanilla is the fruit of an orchid, and it smells of nothing when it is picked. Everything we know as vanilla is created afterwards, in months of curing, sweating and drying, until the green pod turns black and glossy and fills with scent. It is the most patient sweetness in the world, and I use it with the restraint it deserves.

What vanilla is

Vanilla comes from the pods of Vanilla planifolia, a climbing orchid whose flowers must be pollinated by hand on the single morning they open. The green pods are harvested, blanched, sweated under blankets and sun dried over weeks, and then rested for months more, during which vanillin and hundreds of other molecules develop. Our vanilla is an absolute, solvent extracted from the cured pods, which captures far more than vanillin: the balsamic, boozy, faintly floral and smoky depth of the real bean.

Where our vanilla comes from

Ours comes from Madagascar, the source of the world's finest Bourbon vanilla, where the orchid is grown by smallholders on the humid northeast coast of the island and cured by hand in the traditional way. The warm, wet climate of the region and the long, careful curing give a bean that is rich, creamy and complex, with the rum and dried fruit facets that make Madagascar vanilla the reference. This origin is recorded on our house cards rather than in the formula books, and I print it on that basis.

How vanilla smells

Sweet, balsamic, boozy and faintly floral vanilla. It is darker and more complex than any vanilla flavouring, with rum, dried fruit, a faint smoke and a creamy, almost leathery depth that lasts on skin for a day.

Vanilla in our chapters

• IIParadis de BleuThe Leaves · in the base

  In Paradis de Bleu it is a trace of sweetness at the very bottom of the green chapter, the warmth beneath the moss.

• IVRosée BlancheThe Climbing Rose · in the base

  In Rosée Blanche it softens the base beneath the rose, a creamy warmth against the vetiver and labdanum.

• VChérie OudThe Trunk · in the heart

  In Chérie Oud it is the subject of the heart, the cured pod laid beside tonka and clove at the centre of the trunk.

A note from the atelier

Chérie Oud is the only chapter where vanilla speaks aloud, and even there it speaks beside clove and above patchouli, so that it smells of a pod split open on old wood rather than of a kitchen.

Questions about vanilla