Coumadin® is the blood thinner trademarked by Bristol-Meyers Squibb. stems from the oft-repeated saw that it is a blood thinner. Coumarin also accounts for the particular smell of fresh-cut grass and of fresh-dried hay (both in Alinea's grass-gas scent-pillows, and on your front lawn). Coumarin has since been found to occur naturally in cinnamon, lavender, licorice, and a host of other commonly eaten plants-all of which would seem to be illegal under the regulation. Extreme concentrations caused liver problems in rats (how unappetizing), and a rather overreaching ban on even natural sources of the compound was put in place. Tonka beans are a major source of coumarin.īefore the law, refined coumarin was commonly added to commercial foods like cream soda, and used in synthetic vanillin. Here, all foods that contain the chemical compound coumarin are considered by the FDA to be 'adulterated' and have technically been illegal since 1954. But in the United States it's a different story. The French version of Saveurmagazine features recipes that call for the tonka bean without fanfare. The French have had 'fièvre tonka' ('tonka fever')-an overused food-mag pun on fève, the French word for 'bean'- for years. Additionally, the aroma of the tonka bean shavings (it's almost always shaved) is so affecting that it seems like an actual taste in the way that opium, which has no taste in the traditional sense, 'tastes' like its rich, flowery smoke. When warm, perhaps shaved over scallops, it moves toward spiced vanilla. When served cold-say, in tonka bean ice cream-the taste is like a vanilla caramel with dark honey. I register the aromas of vanilla, cherry, almond, and something spicy-a bit like cinnamon. 'Scents,' I should say, as the tonka bean has many at once. The taste of the tonka bean is linked strongly to its scent. It seems like an actual taste in the way that opium, which has no taste in the traditional sense, “tastes” like its rich, flowery smoke. The tiniest shavings erupt in a Broceliande of transporting, mystical aromas. Nonetheless, it proliferates on elite American menus. But according to the FDA, drama can sometimes be deadly.Įnter the tonka bean, a flat, wrinkled legume from South America with an outsize flavor that the federal government has declared illegal. With a flourish, the chefs at these restaurants call it 'avant-garde cuisine'-drama and novelty are also very important. Modern haute cuisine is working so hard to add scents to our plates: pillows of vaporized fresh-mown grass that vent at Grant Achatz's Alinea, bowls of smoke that seep at José Andrés's Minibar, hay brulée.

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