Vanilla with Rosa Abreu-Runkel

Vanilla has become a slightly more expensive condiment in our lives, but for a long time it was simply impossible to grow outside of its native Mexico. In this episode we explore the history of Vanilla, how it was propagated, and its use in various foods. We look at the connection to slavery and its artificial version vanillin.

We are joined by Rosa Abreu-Runkel who, in 2020, published Vanilla: A Global History with Reaktion Books.

To find out more about Rosa's work check out her profile on the New York City College of Technology (City Tech) website.

This episode is sponsored by ⁠⁠Bloomsbury Food Library⁠⁠, an essential resource for students, researchers, and scholars studying food, offering the widest-ranging existing collection of food studies content.