Where does vanilla come from?

These tiny black seeds can sometimes be seen in products like ice cream and cakes, but in many cases, vanilla from pods is too expensive to use.

Instead many choose to use vanilla extract to get that vanilla flavour, just at a cheaper cost.

To make vanilla extract, vanilla beans are left to soften in water and alcohol, and the process produces a similar flavour to vanilla pods.

However, according to a number of reports, the ‘vanilla’ flavouring used in some products has nothing to do with the vanilla plant.