Vanilla is indigenous to Central America from southeastern Mexico through Guatemala to Panama. The Aztec people, who lived in present-day Mexico, were among the first to use vanilla. They traded for vanilla with other peoples, such as the Totonac, who also lived in Mexico.
In Nahuatl, the Aztec language, vanilla is called
tlilxochitl and its seeds collected from wild plants were considered among the most important tributes paid to the Aztec leader.
Vanilla became a favorite of the Aztec nobility. In the royal court it was considered an aphrodisiac.
A Franciscan friar, Benrhardino de Saghun, write about Mexican vanilla in the early 16th is quoted as saying that the Aztecs used vanilla seeds in cocoa drinks and as a medicine and sold them in their markets. Meanwhile,
Hernando Cortes, the Spanish conqueror of the Aztecs, became the first European to tats vanilla when he drank chocotatl in Montezuma’s banquet hall.
Although the Spaniards imported vanilla beans to Europe, where they were used to flavor chocolate, which the Spaniards also borrowed from the Aztec, vanilla processing factories were not established in Europe until the late 1700s.
History of Aztec and vanilla flavor
