My good friend Renee gave us incredibly aromatic and delicious vanilla extract that her parents brought back from a trip to Mexico. I splash this into my morning vanilla latte and it’s fantastic!
Since I ran out, I was thrilled to find the exact same brand online, but just before purchase I read that the making of this vanilla isn’t exactly regulated and the ingredients might be more chemical than the real thing.
I found real vanilla beans available from the Arizona Vanilla Company, with beans grown in Mexico. I bought 12 beans from them right away. Then I found another company: Amadeus Trading Company, which sells certified organic vanilla beans from Uganda. I went a little overboard and bought ¼ pound of Uganda Gold vanilla beans from them too.
I have Organic Prairie Vodka to soak the beans in to make the extract and glass bottles from Target. It’s time to make my own vanilla extract!
On the left are the Mexican beans from the Arizona Vanilla Company and on the right are Uganda Gold beans from the Amadeus Trading Company.
Directions: Snip off the ends of each bean, slice the beans lengthwise, scrape out the ‘caviar’ and then chop up the rest of the vanilla bean. We put 12 beans in 1.6 cups vodka. Now we’ll shake this elixir daily (or whenever we remember) for 6 months or so, and we’ll have a near endless supply of vanilla extract.
This time Uganda Gold vanilla beans are on the left and the Mexican beans from the Arizona Vanilla Co. are on the right. We’ll get pretty bottles and labels perhaps in time for giving these as Christmas gifts. It’s really satisfying to know exactly what ingredients are in this extract. Since I’m sure I went overboard with plenty of vanilla beans, I’m looking forward to this being extra, extra potent. Hello lattes and everything Vanilla!
Wisconsin Photographer - www.HillaryQuella.com
4 comments
Too cool! I want to try..thanks.
I just got done doing this. So fun! My hands smell SOOOO good now!
Thanks Elizabeth! I read that after 6 mo. the extraction is pretty much done, so I’ll filter out the pieces around Halloween time. Thanks for taking a peek at the blog!
This is awesome! Do you need to filter out the beans at some point?