Thrup'ny cone please.

I'm sure you probably know about saffron - it comes from a certain type of crocus and it takes about a kilo of flowers to produce around 12 grams of saffron - so it's very expensive.  But did you know about vanilla?  It comes from a certain species of orchid and its production is very labour-intensive.  Now mostly grown in Madagascar, it originated in Mexico, and is widely used in cooking and for flavouring liquids.  So what's the connection?  Well, a series of natural calamities - drought, disease and bad weather - has ruined the Madagascan crop, with the result that vanilla has become scarce and, as a result, expensive.  At present it's going for about £600 a kilo, and not surprisingly, organised crime has moved in and created a thriving black market.  And as far as we are concerned, it means that ice cream producers are now finding it prohibitively expensive to produce the traditional vanilla ice cream.