This pretty much sums up my feelings on vanilla.
For the people that can't see images, Here is video with a dramatic reading.
I have no experience of any of the things listed. The are all uniquely American products that only in American would ever consider consuming. Which I think is the point really.
Blondies? Pound cakes? Cheesecakes? Honestly, none of those appeal to me. They all seem like such bland treats.
Vanilla is a good flavour enhancer. I love it as an addition to something like a chocolate mousse or an egg nog. But, on its own it's as exciting as white rice, or spaghetti without sauce.
That's because 90% of things with "vanilla flavour" just have vanillin in it and that's it, while real vanilla has other stuff alongside vanillin in it which makes the flavour different, just try to eat stuff with fake vanilla and then eat stuff with real vanilla, you will notice a big difference
I sort of imagine that it is used so much in everything that it became the basic level default.
I’m convinced that “vanilla” meaning “plain/no flavor” is because the makers of vanilla ice cream cut down on the amount being used so much that people associated it with flavorlessness.
An early shrinkflation.
Yup. Intense, proper, yellow vanilla is delicious
Whoever's had this knows what I mean
It's not flavorless by any means, it's more that vanilla is a base flavor, to which other stuff is then added. It's the default so you get too used to it
Lots of things taste like vanilla, but that generic vanilla taste is as authentic as the generic banana taste. Real vanilla tastes very different from the chemical imitation that you find in every cheap dairy product. The "plain" in this story is refering to that fake vanilla. Real vanilla is still very much rare, expensive and exceptional.
Edit: fun fact, the fake banana taste is actually based off of the "gris michel" banana. This specific banana cultivar was THE generic banana you could buy in every grocery store. Until the 1950's when almost the whole species went extinct due to a decease. The "panama disease". Heavy monoculture farming made the banana industry extremely suseptible. Within a few years, all major farms were destroyed. Now we have a different banana cultuvar, the "Cavendish". This banana is not susceptible to the panama disease,but variations of the panama disease are allready showing up around the world.
The disease caused the decease.
Fun fact: your "fun fact" is a myth. Artificial banana flavor is not "based off Gros Michael". The flavoring is not some sort of recipe that was based off of anything. It's a single chemical found in all bananas. It's a coincidence that Gros Michael tastes more like fake banana flavoring than other bananas, but all bananas contain that same ester: isoamyl acetate. It's just that Gros Michael has more of it.
However, if you dig in to this tale a little it soon becomes clear that there is little or no verifiable source that artificial banana is based on Gros Michel. “It sounds very, very unlikely to me,” says synthetic organic chemist Derek Lowe.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140829-the-secrets-of-fake-flavours
So please stop repeating this myth.
In addition, you're completely wrong about artificial vanilla flavor. It is the exact ester found in real vanilla, and it is by far the most dominant flavor in real vanilla. It tastes exactly like vanilla minus a few extra subtle notes.
Actually, the "fake" vanilla aroma is chemically identical to the main aroma of real vanilla. So you really can't say that it's as authentic as banana aroma, as that is only similar to real banana. Now real vanilla does taste different, because it has a lot of other components creating a much more complex taste profile.
The banana flavours are also both real banana flavours.
That comparison just has so many health issues it should be taken to the back and put down
Vanillin is the same chemical in both artificial vanilla flavorings and actual vanilla, so that definitely tastes the same.
Most people don't have the palate trained to really distinguish the subtle differences brought on by those other components and will probably appreciate both equally. I'm sure I couldn't tell both apart unless I was comparing them 1-to-1.
Edit: fun fact, the fake banana taste is actually based off of the “gris michel” banana.
The real reason artificial banana flavoring tastes so jarring isn’t because food scientists modeled it on a lost fruit from a century ago. It comes down to a classic case of isolated organic chemistry vs. complex natural agriculture, a phenomenon known in statistical science as the “n=1” problem, and a single volatile molecule called isoamyl acetate.
since all the plantations are clones of the same banana its just a matter of time until we lose the banan
For what it's worth, it probably won't go extinct. Even if there wasn't a more resistant cultivar, they'd probably just get really expensive. It's still possible to get gros michael and others, just not as easily or for less than $1 USD unless the buyer lives near a plantation.
Gros Michel still exists, but on an extremely small scale.
Cavendish is also a monoculture so it may well happen again.
Wasn't that whole gros michel story made up after the fact? Those bananas are still available, just more expensive. People who've eaten them have reported them tasting a bit more like the chemical banana taste, but not really the same. And the taste is highly dependent on how ripe the banana is. I think the actual story was the chemical banana was close enough and cheap and easy to produce. People also liked it, even though it didn't really taste like bananas. So it became the de facto banana taste. In small amounts the taste is a lot closer, but people prefer the higher amounts because of the more intense taste.
It even says as much on the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gros_Michel#%3A%7E%3Atext=The+Gros+Michel+has+a%2Cseeming+version+of+the+Cavendish
A food history myth is that artificial banana flavor was specifically developed from the Gros Michel, but isoamyl acetate is a simple compound and was not based on any specific cultivar.
I think it might be more that the industrialization of agriculture made rare flavors far more commonplace.
Even real vanilla isn't all that expensive or hard to come by anymore. Virtually every grocery store has it in quantities that will suffice for anything but full on commercial needs.
So it has become a default flavor, exactly because it is both cheap to acquire and popular to consume. Not unlike chocolate (which, I might argue, is more vanilla than even mediocre quality vanilla).
Missionary is the vanilla of sex. And I mean that in the best way.
Doggy is for people with ugly faces
And/or great butts.
It doesn't help that "vanilla" flavored products usually use a tiny drop of artificial vanillin.
Real vanilla has a much richer amazing taste. But even the artificial stuff would be ok if they just put more of it. That shit is cheap, pour it in dammit.
Just get it from beaver butts. Way easier.
I understand it as not plain, but the normal. The go to. The first choice.
I'm growing my vanila orchid! 2 years in, just 8 years to go!
I've read it's really hard to get them to flower and go to seed indoors. Godspeed!
Yeah you have to polinate each flower every morning by hand. But you only start to get flowers after abtout 8/10 years so... we are in for the long run
and its also grown in specific, tropical environment. aka most of it comes from africa, madagascar, and south america. so you cant really grow it in a temperate country like the usa. its not like those other ornamental orchids that are sold, those easy to grow.(most orchids are endangered in the wild, because of theier fungal symbionts specificity).
vanilla doesn't mean plain, it means more someone like: original, unaltered
I've never heard that meaning of vanilla.
People are talking about the real vs artificial, but there's another component here. Many sweets have vanilla regardless of if they have any other flavorings. This results in it being very similar to cheese is on pizza, where you only call it cheese because it's only cheese.
As someone who gets issues with Chocolate. Vanilla has always been my go to. Finding good Vanilla ice cream is amazing. Having bad Vanilla ice cream though is so bad. Binging with Babish did a taste test of all Vanilla ice cream he could get his hands on. Benjerry had the best bang for your buck and is dam good but if you want the real good stuff Mcconnell makes you see what you have been missing in your life.
Yeah but bad chocolate is also trash, so this isn't a question of which ingredient is better but a question of quality.
The best ice cream I ever had was vanilla, and it was home made by a crazy person.
the problem with vanilla, is that we dont have its definitive natural, and vanilla orchid is pretty hard to cultivate too. it gets complicated when you are trying to find out the origin of vanllia in s america, and the original pollinator. i think people still do it by HAND.
its because like most orchids, it prevents self-fertilization through its flower structure, and requires by hand, which is cumbersome and tedious. vanilla is pretty hard to cultivate.
and normal people, horticulture are unable to do it effectively either.
1. Be civil
No trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour
2. No politics
This is non-politics community. For political memes please go to !politicalmemes@lemmy.world
3. No recent reposts
Check for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month
4. No bots
No bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins
5. No Spam/Ads/AI Slop
No advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live. We also consider AI slop to be spam in this community and is subject to removal.
A collection of some classic Lemmy memes for your enjoyment
