as flavoring for food and beverages. The cultivation of vanilla was a low-profile affair, as few people from outside these regions knew of it. Although the Totonacs are the most famously associated with human use of vanilla, it is speculated that the Olmecs, who also lived in the regions of wild vanilla growth thousands of years earlier, were one of the first people to use wild vanilla in cuisine. Aztecs from the central highlands of Mexico invaded the Totonacs in 1427, developed a taste for the vanilla pods, and began using vanilla to flavor their foods and drinks, often mixing it with cocoa in a drink called "xocolatl" that later inspired modern hot chocolate. The fruit was named tlilxochitl, or "black flower", because the matured fruit shrivels and turns a dark color shortly after being picked. For the Aztecs, much like earlier Mesoamerican peoples before them, it is probable that vanilla was used to tame the otherwise bitter taste of cacao, as sugarcane was not harvested in these regions at the time and there were no other sweeteners available. Hernán Cortés is credited with introducing both vanilla and chocolate to Europe in the 1520s. In Europe, vanilla was seen mostly as an additive to chocolate until the early 17th century when Hugh Morgan, a creative apothecary in the employ of Queen Elizabeth I, created chocolate-free, vanilla-flavored "sweetmeats". By the 18th century, the French were using vanilla to flavor ice cream. Until the mid-19th century, Mexico was the chief producer of vanilla. In 1819, French entrepreneurs shipped vanilla fruits to the islands of Réunion and Mauritius in hopes of producing vanilla there. After 1841, when Edmond Albius discovered how to pollinate the flowers quickly by hand, the pods began to thrive. Soon, the tropical orchids were sent from Réunion to the Comoros Islands, Seychelles, and Madagascar, along with instructions for pollinating them. By 1898, Madagascar, Réunion, and the Comoros Islands produced 200 metric tons of vanilla beans, about 80% of world production in that year. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization 2019 data, Madagascar, followed by Indonesia, were the largest producers of vanilla in 2018. After a tropical cyclone ravaged key croplands, the market price of vanilla rose sharply in the late 1970s and remained high through the early 1980s despite the introduction of Indonesian vanilla. In the mid-1980s, the cartel that had controlled vanilla prices and distribution