Two vanilla podsYou didn’t open this article to read my pet peeves, but now I have you: does anyone else hate it when people use the word “vanilla” to describe something boring?The (delicious, actually!) pods grow from climbing orchids, which can only be pollinated by a tiny species of stingless bee.Fresh vanilla beans have no smell whatsoever, either. They’re “sweated” and exposed to the sun for 10 days before being placed on trays, graded, and cured for months; vanilla extract is made by drawing the flavour out with booze.So it shouldn’t have surprised me as much as it did to learn that the name itself has a far-from-dull origin.The word ‘vanilla’ shares a root with ‘vagina’ You read that right ― the flavoursome pods’ name comes from the same root as “vagina.” According to Merriam-Webster, the word is “borrowed from New Latin, borrowed from Spanish vainilla...the vanilla plant and fr