mmmm, beaver butt cupcakes.
“I taste otterly different, please leave butt alone!”
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Double-blind studies have confirmed that the medical uses of the unguent are most effective when applied to the region directly from the aquatic mammal.
Beaver long ago was (and still is 
) on the menu. I suppose the vanilla secretion discovery was made while butchering beavers.
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And was classified as a fish for religious purposes.
The Catholic church in the 17th century ruled that it was okay to eat beaver during Lent, which I’m sure was misinterpreted in many ways, and may have led to the discovery of castoreum.
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I think this is pretty damn great! 99% of all anal secretions are useless, but hey, these little fur-balls produce vanilla! I can’t wait for the French vanilla version!
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Where the fuck am I? I googled beaver flavor, anal, vanilla and got this bs??
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See, if you read BoingBoing, you would have known that since 2013:
Also, I always mentally replace ‘artificial vanilla flavor’ with ‘natural beaver anus flavor.’ It…adjusts…my dietary choices.
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So with regard to beavers it’s “milk milk lemonade around the back vanilla is made”?
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So in reality, most synthetic Vanillin is created from either oil or wood pulp, which is a lot easier than attempting to collect castoreum from beavers.
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Beavers also use castoreum to mark their territory, for the record. There seems to be some history of using mammal scent glands for perfumes…people have also used musk from musk deer, which have needed to be protected because of it, and perineal secretions from civets, which are farmed for them. It seems disgusting to me but I guess you can imagine people thinking that if the smell is attractive to the animals, it will work for them too? Anyway I think this probably started there, and people realized it could be flavoring too later on.
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Oui oui!
(Wait, that doesn’t come from the anal gland!)
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well, which one is it?
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I recall Brian Eno and Laurie Anderson touring a perfume factory in the early 90s… They found that at the core of every perfume is something that smells god-awful. Went to look it up and found this:
The secret of a really good perfume, Brian taught us, is that at its very core is something very, very stinky - civet - because the purpose of the nose is danger, to alert you. After that happens, then you can put on the pleasant smells. But first - wake up!
– Laurie Anderson, from:
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