When I was a kid I thought vanilla was the “original” flavour. As in, I thought that was just what ice-cream tasted like before chocolate, hazelnuts, caramel or whatever else was added. I don’t think I’m alone.
Through a complex story involving colonisation, peacocking European aristocrats and Thomas Jefferson, vanilla has become, along with chocolate, Australia’s most popular supermarket ice-cream flavour. There is no better proof than the fact almost every supermarket brand has a vanilla version – even though real vanilla, from “beans” (they are technically fruits) of the vanilla orchard, is so expensive it’s hardly ever used in ice-cream.
