True vanilla is a appriciated flavour used in a wide variety of foods but did you know that it is derived from an orchids pod that seems completely inedible when still left on the plant? It has to be cured to divulge its famous aroma; a truth which might have remained undiscovered if it hadn’t been for the Totonacos.

The Totonaco people is a pre-columbian people that inhabited the vera cruz region of Mexico. (more…)