How the scent of vanilla evocates memories and emotions

My grandmother was known to abandon mundane tasks midway to whip up a sweet treat. My brother and I were often enlisted in these missions and entrusted with a brown-hued bottle of Viola vanilla extract. In anticipation of the imminent sugar high, we clumsily splashed in more than instructed, which Amy Mama, as we called her, never minded. Cakes and puddings would get a heavy dose, but so would chocolate milkshakes, iced coffee, even oatmeal. We lived in Mumbai, and though Indian desserts are customarily spiced with cardamom, saffron, and nutmeg, Mama’s kheer and gulab jamun were vanilla-forward.

To me and millions of others, the smell of vanilla is code for home, comfort, and belonging. “Vanilla is one of the few scents that is universally enjoyable,” says Richard L Doty, director of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania’s Smell and Taste Center. “A large part of that is due to conditioning, since it’s in a variety of desserts.” Early exposure to vanilla might even happen before the first bite of solid food. Vanilla can be transferred from a lactating mother’s diet to breast milk, and research has shown that infants fed longer and consumed more milk after their moms had eaten vanilla-flavoured foods.

In a 2022 study, a vanilla derivative was deemed the world’s most pleasant smell when people from distinct cultural groups—including members of rural and indigenous communities—were asked to rank 10 aromas. In the early noughties, when the Bath & Body Works vanilla-scented tsunami hit, the ripples even washed ashore in Mumbai, thanks to a souvenir of Warm Vanilla Sugar lotion from a holidaying friend. Amy Mama died in 1995, and that bottle became my portkey to another time. “The preponderance of vanilla body products in the 2000s meant millennials literally grew up surrounded by it. They have shaped this vanilla bond with childhood and adolescent smells, tied to carefree times,” says Elena Vosnaki, historian, fragrance expert, and editor at Fragrantica.

As I grew older, I expected vanilla perfumery to grow with me so I could keep it close in my memory. Instead, I often felt let down. I felt wronged on behalf of vanilla; we both deserved sophisticated representation. I yearned for explorations of this complex raw material’s more mysterious facets. Where were the smoky vanillas or the woody, savoury, boozy, spicy iterations? Some existed, but most channelled a frosting fog. Vosnaki reveals that perfumers have been struggling to disassociate vanilla from desserts for more than a century.

“In the 1920s, Guerlain’s Shalimar broke the bond with food. The great perfumer Ernest Beaux exclaimed that when he tried vanilla, he produced creme anglaise, but when his rival Jacques Guerlain tried, he made Shalimar,” she says. It’s only now that a slew of fragrance houses are releasing vanilla with ‘gravitas,’ as perfumer David Seth Moltz of DS & Durga describes his latest, Deep Dark Vanilla. This bounty could be attributed to the expansion of vanilla cultivation around the world, suggests fragrance expert Michael Edwards, founder of Fragrances of the World, a perfume classification guide. “Historically, Vanilla planifolia has been grown on Reunion Island and, later, Madagascar. Recently, Tahitian and Mexican varieties have become popular. Each has slightly different olfactive profile, giving perfumers more scope to get creative,” he says.

Other vanillas with heft include Shalini’s dreamy anise-spiked Vanille Reve and Arquiste’s the Architects Club, with its fizzy gin top and amber base. A smidge of Amouage’s intense Vanilla Barka attar will vanillise any scent, but if you’d prefer a lighter touch, vanilla hums behind the smoke of Kilian’s Smoking Hot. “Vanilla absolute is deeply mysterious,” Moltz says. “It’s smoky, woody, deep, and rich in a grown-up, gourmand kind of way!” That is exactly how Amy Mama approached spoonfuls of vanilla in her cooking: as a tool for unexpected complexity. When I wear these scents, I’m reminded of her and how she would have loved them too.

Featured image credit: Pexels.com

This article originally appeared in Harper's Bazaar India January- February 2024 print issue

Also read: Refreshing body mists you need to add to your shelves for the upcoming summer season

                 Beauty highlights from this month that you cannot miss