The Olmec were quite possibly the first to also domesticate cacao, and with the domestication of cacao, the use of vanilla as a flavor followed at some point in this early history. They also created atole, a mildly fermented corn drink that was sometimes flavored with vanilla.
Over a period of time, the Olmeca culture was eclipsed by the Maya, who were brilliant artists, architects, and scientists, and who spawned a renaissance in pre-Hispanic Mexican culture. They also made major culinary advances, including perfecting the cultivation of cacao and creating the drink, chocolatl, which later became popular among Aztecs at the time of the Conquest. And it was during the time of the Maya, that vanilla was probably introduced as one of the flavorings for chocolatl.
However, vanilla was not always used in this adored beverage. There are at least 12 different chocolatl flavor versions, depending on the event and what was at hand, not unlike our flavor choices for coffee, milkshakes, and Italian sodas. While the Totonacs, an important group of people who emerged a little later in Mesoamerican history, were possibly the first to domesticate vanilla, their predecessors certainly enjoyed the fruits wild from the forest.
According to Totonac legend and popular belief, the Totonacs were the first people to identify and domesticate vanilla. Written history challenges this belief. The Totonacs who came from the Central Valley of Mexico probably knew nothing of vanilla until they came to the Gulf Coast. However, there is now strong evidence that there were also Totonacs living on the Coast and that the groups converged at some point in Mesoamerican history. What is known for certain is that vanilla has been central to the lives of Totonacs for at least hundreds of years, and it has become so enmeshed with their history and lore, that it belongs to them culturally (see the appendix).
The Maya called it Zizbic, the Zoques-Popolucas, Tich Moya, the Totonacs, Xanat, and much later, the Aztecs named it Tlilxochitl. Interestingly, Xanat (also spelled Xanath and pronounced cha-nat) is the generic term for the flower in the Totonac language, which is curious, given its stature within their culture. It is also sometimes called caxixanath (catch-e-chanat), which means “hidden flower,” as the orchids are neither showy nor prominent in the forest, and only last for a day.
Vanilla, in early times, was harvested from the forest when it was fully ripe and split open, filling the air with its distinctive fragrance. Instead of the 100–200 beans that are typical on hand-pollinated plants, there were eight or nine beans, pollinated at random by the forest insects. With such a seductive aroma, it is certainly understandable that the coastal and low mountain forest dwellers would be drawn to the seedpods and experiment with ways to fragrance their lives with its alluring perfume. If cacao was the food of the gods, vanilla was definitely the nectar that accompanied it!
Vanilla in New Spain
There are several accounts of vanilla in New Spain during the 1500s. An Aztec herbal book was compiled in Nahuatl and written in Latin in 1552 by Martin de la Cruz and Juan Badiano. The manuscript entitled Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis was finally translated in English and published in 1939 (An Aztec Herbaclass="underline" The Classic Codex of 1552, William Gates). This is the earliest known document that specifically mentions vanilla. The book tells us that the Aztecs ground flowers with other aromatics and wore them around the neck as a medicinal charm or amulet. It is very likely that amulets such as these were first created by the Gulf Coast tribes who gathered vanilla. On the other end of the spectrum, vanilla was made into an ointment as a treatment for syphilis. As we know that vanilla flowers last only for a day, the flowers may have been dried and then brought by the pochteca traders to the Valley of Mexico, though there are anecdotal comments about Moctezuma growing vanilla in his extensive botanical gardens. The book also contains the first known illustration of the vanilla plant.
The Aztecs were talented herbalists as were most of the Mesoamerican peoples. Whether they independently identified vanilla’s curative powers or learned of it from the pochteca traders, the rare and valued vanilla was important as a medicine as well as an aphrodisiac in their culture.
In 1529, Franciscan Fray Bernardino de Sahagun came from Spain with the assignment of converting Aztecs into Christianity. The enlightened friar first learned Nahuatl, the Aztec “Mother language,” then taught young indigenous men to write their history in Nahautl using Spanish spelling. For the next three decades, they collectively recorded all aspects of the Aztec culture. The 12-volume history, written in both Nahuatl and Spanish went to Spain, but it was considered heretical by the Catholic Church, and much of the body of work was not published until 1829. However, the Aztec materials ultimately ended up in the Laurentian Library in Florence, Italy, where it became known among scholars as the Florentine Codex.
Fray Bernardino Sahagun mentioned the widespread use of hot chocolate among the colonizers. He said, “It is perfumed, fragrant, precious, good, and a medicine. It is toasted and mixed with cacao. I add vanilla to cacao and drink it like vanilla.” (These were his words; what he meant by “drinking it like vanilla,” is uncertain.)
Cacao and vanilla could both be purchased in the market place in New Spain, but only the wealthiest people and the clergy in New Spain could afford its use.
Vanilla as Medicine in New Spain
According to Fray Sahagun, chocolate, mixed with vanilla and two other aromatic herbs was a remedy for cough and a cure for spitting blood. On the basis of Sahagun’s comments, researchers until now have wondered whether vanilla was used to treat lung diseases such as tuberculosis, which plagued the native peoples since prehistoric times. Recent medical discoveries have found that another dreaded disease that caused severe lung distress, may also have been what Fray Sahagun referred to in his notes as cocoliztli (Nahuatl for pests) one of the deadliest plagues in history. Doctor Francisco Hernandez was sent to New Spain by King Philip II in 1570 to study the colony’s natural history, the medical usefulness of the herbs and other native treatments, and to do an anthropological history of the country. He spent seven years in the Valley of Mexico, learned Nahuatl, studied indigenous medicine, and wrote his observations in Latin, creating The Natural History of New Spain (Rerum Medicarum Novae Hispaniae Thesaurus) a six-volume collection describing over 3000 plants. The books were accompanied by 10 folio volumes of illustrative paintings by Mexican artists.
In his writings, Hernandez referred to vanilla by its Nahuatl name, Tlilxochitl, which means black pod for the vanilla bean. However, he erroneously translated it to mean black flower, which led to centuries of confusion over the increasingly popular bean. He also classified vanilla as Araco aromatico. Hernandez wrote about the medicinal properties of vanilla that he learned from the native physicians, “A decoction of vanilla beans steeped in water causes the urine to flow admirably; mixed with mecaxuchitl, vanilla beans cause abortion; they warm and strengthen the stomach; diminish flatulence; cook the humours and attenuate them; give strength and vigor to the mind; heal female troubles; and are said to be good against cold poisons and the bites of venomous animals.”