Ashley’s Piece of Stuff this week concerned a jug found in a 3,600 year old grave in Israel that seemed to contain the chemical traces of vanilla. This turns the story of vanilla completely on its head, because vanilla was previously thought to have originated in Mexico around 1,000 years ago. The burning question, therefore, is where did this vanilla found in “Old World” Israel a full 2,500 years before vanilla use began in “New World” Mexico come from. Could it perhaps come from the Indian Ocean world, where most of the world’s vanilla is grown today, the so-called “bourbon vanilla,” which is grown on the Reunion Islands, Seychelles, Mauritius, Cosmos, and Madagascar? Madagascan “bourbon vanilla” accounts for 80% of the vanilla consumed worldwide today – could it have been native also to this part of the world and found its way from there to Israel? Obviously, further work and more samples are needed to completely answer this puzzle. What we do know is that “bourbon vanilla,” was not native to the Indian Ocean, it was transplanted as part of French colonialism, and named for the French royal Bourbon dynasty, which ruled France from 1580-1789, with an interruption for the French Revolution, and then ruled again from 1815 to 1848.
In 1642, the French took over the Indian Ocean island known today as Reunion Island and named it Bourbon Island, and began casting about for something to grow on their seized land, and decided on vanilla orchids, which they imported from Mexico.
This vanilla was then called “bourbon vanilla” the vanilla from the Bourbon Island, to distinguish it from Mexican (and later Ugandan and Tahitian vanilla). The path to growing vanilla in the Indian Ocean, however, had a significant obstacle to overcome, it seem that it needed a species of bee, native to Mexico to fertilize the vanilla orchids. A solution was found in 1841 by Edmund Albius, who discovered a way to manually fertilize the vanilla orchid. Albius was a slave
So bourbon vanilla is called bourbon vanilla because of the Bourbon dynasty and French colonialism, and not as we had both mistakenly thought because some part of its processing involved bourbon whiskey. This leads naturally to the question, however, why is bourbon whiskey called bourbon whiskey? I had to investigate, and it turns out that it is the same reason – in honor of the French Bourbon dynasty and another story of colonialism.
For bourbon whiskey to be considered bourbon, it has to adhere to six standard rules: 1. it must be made in the US; 2. it must be aged in charred oak barrels; 3. it must be made with at least 51% corn; 4. it must be distilled at less than 160 proof; 5. It must be put into barrels at 125 proof; 6. It must not have any coloring or flavoring. This last “rule” is why one of the most popular “bourbons,” Jack Daniels, is actually not a bourbon, but is labelled as a Tennessee Whiskey, because it is filtered over maple wood chips, which impart a flavor. Together Bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey are a billion dollar industry today – in 2018 they brought in $3.6 billion dollars.
While it is agreed that the name “bourbon” is derived in honor of the French dynasty, where and when bourbon was first made and first named bourbon is a matter of dispute. Many people think the name derives from Bourbon County in Kentucky. Bourbon County was established in 1785, from a portion of Fayette County, Virginia. It was named “Bourbon,” to recognize the assistance of the French Bourbon monarch, Louis XVI, in the American Revolutionary War. Bourbon County, Virginia, became Bourbon County, Kentucky, when the new state of Kentucky was admitted to the Union in 1792. Bourbon County was originally much larger encompassing what is currently thirty-four counties in Kentucky, including what is now a much smaller Bourbon County. To differentiate between the two, the larger, older county is often called “Old Bourbon.” Given that Kentucky is famous for its whiskey the name “bourbon” is thought by many to derive from “Old Bourbon” County.
In the late eighteenth century, “Old Bourbon” county was settled by Scots and Scots-Irish (among others), who established farms in this area. They most likely brought with them knowledge of distilling whisky, though in the “New World,” the crop they had to work with was corn rather than the traditional barley, rye, or wheat of the “Old World.” When and who developed this using the six rules outlined above into “bourbon” whiskey is a matter of some debate. In one version it was a Baptist minister, Elijah Craig, who was the first man to develop aging in charred oak casks. Craig lived in Fayette County, Virginia, but a Bourbon County, Kentucky candidate for the innovation is a man named Jacob Spears. Maybe archival, archaeological or chemical evidence will be found one day to resolve the issue of origin of the spirit known as “bourbon,” but for now it the mystery is wrapped in rivalry and apocrypha.
The origin of the name, is similarly a matter of some dispute. Some historians believe that the name “bourbon” came from the label “Old Bourbon” which was stenciled on all barrels that were loaded onto ships at the Maysville, Kentucky, port on the Ohio River. This make pragmatic sense, if all whiskey from this area bore the shipping label “Old Bourbon,” and had this distinctive smokey flavor, then it follows that patrons and barkeeps might refer to it as “bourbon,” to distinguish it from other spirits. There is, however, a snag in this neat story, and this is that bottle labels that say “bourbon,” are in existence from the 1850s, whereas stories that the name bourbon comes from Bourbon county don’t start appearing in print until the 1870s. This has led whiskey historian, Michael Veach, to look to an entirely different location for the origin of the name “bourbon,” – “Bourbon Street” in New Orleans, Louisiana – the place where Kentucky whiskey would be offloaded and sold. Veach has impressive credentials from which to make his claim, he is the former archivist for United Distilleries, and an associate curator of Louisville’s (Kentucky) Filson Historical Society. He is convinced that the name “bourbon” does not come from the whiskey’s point of origin, but its destination. The patrons on Bourbon Street in New Orleans had distinctly French tastes, but imported French brandy was very expensive, and so they preferred the unique taste of this corn-based, charred-barrel distilled Kentucky whiskey as a cheaper alternative to cognac.
If bourbon is named after “Bourbon Street,” the name still ultimately derives from the French royal dynasty, but the Louisianian use of the name is much earlier than the Kentuckian. The French colonized Louisiana in the 1690s (so about 50 years or so after they had colonized the Reunion Islands in the Indian Ocean). They established New Orleans in 1718, and in 1721 a royal engineer laid out the street plan, naming streets after Catholic Saints and French royal dynasties. Bourbon street, therefore, was named after the Bourbon dynasty. In 1763, following the end of the Seven Years War, the Spanish were given Louisiana, and were in control in 1788 when 80% of New Orleans was destroyed by fire. Rebuilding was done in the distinctive Spanish style that can still be seen on Bourbon Street and in the French Quarter today. France briefly took control again in 1800, when Napoleon exchanged Louisiana for Tuscany. The French colonial presence was short-lived, however, because they were also embroiled in the Haitian Revolution, which was not going well. In 1803, Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States, and in 1804 they lost Haiti to a successful slave revolution. The 1803 deal, known as the Louisiana Purchase, however, is badly named, because it did not just involve Louisiana, but also most of the middle part of America – including parts of the future states of Montana, North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas. Of course, the French did not actually control the vast majority of this land, which was then still in the hands of Native Americans, so what the United States actually bought what the colonial pre-emptive rights to obtain Indian lands by treaty or conquest, to the exclusion of other colonial powers. All the horrors of colonial conquest involved in the United State’s push westwards, the betrayal of treaties and outright genocide against Native Americans in the areas “purchased” under the Louisiana Purchase were still to come.
Bourbon vanilla and Bourbon Whiskey have in common the fact that they were named for the French royal Bourbon Dynasty. Digging just briefly into this nomenclature, however, is also an intense reminder of European colonization, imperial expansion, and exploitation of global markets in a push to bring the world’s land, people, and resources under the control of competing European polities and companies by force – to be joined by the United States. Both the sumptuous, sweet taste of bourbon vanilla and the smoky, deep taste of bourbon whiskey have come to us with a hefty colonial cost – one borne by the indigenous peoples of the Americas and the Indian Ocean.
Laura Kiniry, Where Bourbon Really Got Its name and More Tips on America’s Native Spirit,” Smithsonian Magazine, June 13, 2013, accessed Sept 17 2023. at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/where-bourbon-really-got-its-name-and-more-tips-on-americas-native-spirit-145879/
Mike Scott, “How Bourbon Street Happened,” nola.com, December 16, 2017, updated July 7, 2021, accessed September 17, 2023 at https://www.nola.com/300/how-bourbon-street-happened/article_0b4cc062-b888-5e8a-9928-e0e4e2a6e4c3.html
“Bourbon County, Kentucky,” wikipedia.com, accessed September 17, 2023 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourbon_County,_Kentucky
“Vanilla,” wikipedia.com, accessed September 17, 2023 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla