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The biggest surprise to me is the graphic in the article showing the top vanilla exporters. How are countries like germany, france or canada up there? I though

• seszett 3y ago
  France is actually one of the main producers (in Réunion - where the hand pollination process was discovered - and French Polynesia) but I guess the others are just doing some import/export.
• mianos 3y ago
  Most vanilla flavour, 99%, is produced by creating synthetic vanillin. I guess this is included.
  • crazygringo 3y ago
    That 99% (or 1%) value keeps getting repeated in countless blog posts and articles, but I've never seen an actual source. And I find it hard to believe, given that Coca-Cola uses real vanilla and is so widely consumed. Surely more than 1% of people's overall vanilla consumption is in Coca-Cola? Or I wonder if the ratio is vastly different worldwide vs. in the US?
    • mercutio2 3y ago
      What gave you the impression Coca Cola uses vanilla beans OR vanillin? Different regions use different ingredients for Coke, so I guess it’s possible this is true in your region, but my coke can in California doesn’t appear to list Vanilla in its ingredients. Additionally, there was this lawsuit about Vanilla Orange Coke containining vanillin, which leads me to think it’s unlikely there’s much Vanilla Bean involved in non-Vanilla Coke, at least: https://www.classaction.org/news/fake-vanilla-coca-cola-company-facing-class-action-over-labeling-of-orange-vanilla-coke https://www.classaction.org/news/fake-vanilla-coca-cola-comp... With that said, numbers like 99% of vanilla being from vanillin does sound like a made up statistic.
      • mianos 3y ago
        While I agree that 99% seems made up. I am a bit of a chemistry hobbyist and produce a wide range of flavourings. I have also been to vanilla farms and bought lots of vanilla pods. The yield from vanilla pods, not matter what process I tried, such as, a very long soak on ethanol, hot ethanol or Soxhlet extraction, yield so little I find it hard to believe any of those bulk consumer products container real vanilla from pods. Just anecdotal or course, a sample of one and all that. :)
        • moritzwarhier 3y ago
          I also see no rational reason that the average Coca Cola serving contain any amount of real vanilla pods, given how expensive it is and that vanillin is chemically identical with one main flavoring compund contained in real vanilla. If Coke (or Coke Vanilla even) would cobtain real vanilla, they'd advertise it for sure. I don't remember anything like that
          • ForOldHack 3y ago
            "Together they make up a vanilla flavor. Vanillin is just one molecule in that complex mixture, but an important one. However, whereas vanilla will always contain vanillin, just because something contains vanillin doesn't mean it contains vanilla beans." Two thins: Its up to the local bottler whether to use Cane Sugar or beet sugar or Vanilla or Vanillin. Mexican coke uses both Cane sugar and Vanilla. A bar coke from a canister usually had the syrup a bit heavy so you can taste the difference much easier.
            • moritzwarhier 3y ago
              OK, so it might contain some id you're lucky. That's what was trying to say by using the "average" qualifier though. I doubt there's much economic incentive to use real vanilla in 99% of the world / Coca-Cola's market. With the different types of sugar, it's easier for me to imagine a company doing this for economic reasons. There are some very old articles on the web from when Vanilla Coke was introduced, that they had been draining European markets for vanilla pods, ostensively. Sounds like astroturfing to me honestly. There's also a clas action lawsuit about missing real vanilla :D
    • hinkley 3y ago
      I bet you'd be surprised how much synthetic vanilla someone like Nabisco could go through without making something 'vanilla flavored'. Vanilla in chocolate flavored items punches up the flavor.
    • justinator 3y ago
      The ingredients of Coca-Cola are a trade secret.
  • iszomer 3y ago
    Maybe they'll go back to using castoreum..
    • hinkley 3y ago
      Not enough beavers. But we make red food coloring out of ground up bugs so maybe.
• lm28469 3y ago
  Their source seems a bit sketchy: https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/vanilla https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/vanilla It looks more like a simple data processing, like grabbing any "vanilla beans" trades, adding the "outs" and subtracting the "ins" If you look at other sources you'll find stuff like: > In 2021, Germany imported 695 tonnes of vanilla, worth €83 million, and exported 245 tonnes, resulting in a net consumption of 450 tonnes. https://www.cbi.eu/market-information/spices-herbs/vanilla/market-potential https://www.cbi.eu/market-information/spices-herbs/vanilla/m...
  • rafram 3y ago
    The OEC is trustworthy; that’s just what exports are. The source of the product doesn’t matter. If it enters through one of Germany’s ports, that’s an import, and if it exits through another, that’s an export. So these numbers probably just indicate that Germany is a common port of entry for vanilla headed to other EU countries (although most of the vanilla it imports stays in the country).
    • lm28469 3y ago
      Of course, I'm just saying it's not about production (of real or synthetic vanilla) which is what the person I'm replied to asked