Originally hailing from Central America, over the course of the 19th century vanilla emerged as a French colonial staple par excellence, one associated with luxury and colonization. Indeed, in 1933, Madagascar produced 80 % of all vanilla consumed in the world. By 1967, French colonies and territories in the Indian Ocean (Madagascar, Réunion, Comoros) had more or less maintained this same percentage. Nevertheless, because vanilla was and remains one of the most expensive crops to produce, various substitute products gradually came into competition with it. Synthetic vanilla experienced a boom. In the US and Canada, traditionally large vanilla importers, the use of synthetic vanilla increased by 700 % between 1933 and 1963. This article considers a key period in the 1960s, during which vanilla-producing countries attempted to stall the inexorable rise of vanilla-flavored synthetics. Acting in concert, actors in newly independent countries and in the former colonial power attempted to set baseline prices, and to apply pressure on the EEC. They targeted the French public using nostalgic and gendered registers so as to promote “real vanilla”.