Vanilla: a few words of history
Among more than 25 000 different sorts of orchids existing around the world, and coming originally from South and Central America, only one hundred varieties produce the edible fruits which we call vanilla pods.
They were discovered by western civilizations in the early 16th century, in the wake of the discovery of the New World achieved by Christopher Columbus and then by Hernan Cortes during the conquest of the Aztec Empire in the year 1518. The latter then brought the first vanilla pods and vanilla plants back to the Spanish royal court.
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