Seventy-nine percent of the world’s vanilla fields are in Madagascar. A shortage there has helped drive up the cost of vanilla beans from about $11 per pound in 2011 to $193 by the end of 2016.

French colonists first brought vanilla to Madagascar’s neighbouring island of Réunion in the early 19th Century. It grows as a clinging vine, reaching lengths of up to 300ft (90m).

There's no such thing as plain vanilla — at least if you're talking about beans from the vanilla orchid. Whether it's from Tahiti or Madagascar, vanilla can be creamy, spicy or even floral.

The vanillin in Madagascar beans on the open market has halved to 1.2-1.3% over the last five years, said Germany-based flavour producer Symrise, which counts Unilever, owner of Ben & Jerry's and ...

"Vanilla beans look like a green runner bean (a bean vegetable), hence the reference to 'bean,'," says Jennifer Boggiss, CEO and co-founder of Heilala Vanilla, a B-Corp certified vanilla producer.