The vanilla pods were first harvested from wild orchids in Mexico. It was soon realized that, when they fell to the ground when they were barely ripe, the long, thin fruits of these plants fermented under the cover of humus, giving off an exquisite aroma. The first mention of vanilla can be found in the […]
Salted butter caramel, a delicious combination of caramel and salted butter, has a whole story behind it! It is indeed necessary to go back to the 14th century, a key period when the virtues of salt were first discovered, particularly with regard to food preservation. In 1343, King Philip VI introduced the “salt gabelle”, a […]
Legend has it that raspberries are originally a white fruit. The nymph Ida, daughter of the King of Crete and nurse of Zeus, wanted to pick a raspberry to calm his sorrow. She pricked her breast with the raspberry thorns and the fruit then turned a blood-red colour. More seriously, wild raspberries come from the […]
It is thought that 9000 years ago, in the Middle East, pistachio nuts were already consumed and appreciated. They were probably wild fruits. The pistachio tree was then cultivated 4000 years ago in Assyria, in northern Mesopotamia. Then pistachio would have arrived among the Romans, who would have contributed to its development in Europe from […]
The lemon fruit arrived apparently from Asia and was already cultivated in Roman times (as shown by the frescoes of Pompeii for example) in the Mediterranean basin and in this case in Sicily on the Sorrento Peninsula. It has developed in some areas thanks to the mild and sunny climate but also according to needs, […]
While the origins of coffee are still unknown, many legends feed popular beliefs. The mysterious drink is identified in various written or told stories. In the Iliad, Homer tells us that Helen of Troy offered Menelaus a drink “useful against sorrows, resentment and the memory of pain”. In the first book of the kings of […]
The Caribbean includes both the Caribbean islands and the continental American regions surrounding the Caribbean Sea. This part of the globe is best known as a tourist destination. But the Caribbean is also a major cocoa farmer. It’s a tropical tree that only grows in countries with a hot and humid climate, as in the […]
