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Why we're programmed to love vanilla

Vanilla has become so ubiquitous that to describe something as “being vanilla” means that it’s ordinary. Nothing special. But you wouldn’t know it by the price. Vanilla is a labor-intensive crop, making it the second-most expensive spice in the world (the first being saffron).

New research presented at the fall meeting this week of the American Chemical Society may have cracked the vanilla code, providing a potential path to making a convincing artificial vanilla flavoring.