Vanilla

Vanilla is a flavouring essence prepared from the seed-pods of an orchid native to Madagascar, though now widely grown in the Tropics. Though there are many compounds present in the extracts of vanilla, the compound predominantly responsible for the characteristic flavour and smell of vanilla is known as vanillin.

Vanilla essence thus comes in two types: the actual extract of the seedpods, and the far cheaper synthetic essence, basically consisting of a solution of synthetic vanillin.

One large use of vanilla is in flavouring ice-cream?: the `default' flavour of ice-cream is that of vanilla. By analogy, the term is used, often as "plain vanilla" in computing for default set up of a system, with no extras or modifications.