Kay Sodowsky, age 11, of Derby, Kansas, for her question:

Where does pure vanilla come from?

You may not know it, but the taste of chocolate is nothing until vanilla is added. The two plants that give us these delectable flavors happen to be neighbors. This is convenient. Otherwise perhaps nobody would have discovered that they need each other and we would never have tasted chocolate. Originally, the vanilla vine was a native of Mexico and other parts of Central America. But several species were introduced into other suitable climates. Nowadays, three fourths of the world's genuine vanilla is produced on the tropical islands of Comoro, Reunion and Madagascar.

The vanilla vine belongs in the orchid family. Its special flower and honey flavor is in the long pods of the vanilla bean. To extract it, the beans are dried and cured, chopped and boiled in a mixture of water and alcohol. The complex process is long and costly, which explains why pure vanilla extract is so expensive. Chemists have created several less costly synthetic substances that imitate the flavor and fragrance    more or less