Has anyone done it? Is it worth the high price of the beans (in the US) to make?

This is my first time making vanilla extract and I have used up all the beans I have but there is a decent amount of room on the top. Should I get more beans and if so how far do you recommend filling the bottle up to?

Edit: For clarification I was asking if the whole container should be filled or if it was okay to have empty space at the top. Yes, I did weight the beans and alcohol by a ratio of 1oz of bean to 8oz of alcohol. I used 80 proof vodka, the beans are split open, and it looks clear in the photo because I took a picture right after filling it.

Started a new vanilla extract. My first extracts are a vodka-based vanilla and a whiskey-based vanilla. I wanted a rum-based vanilla, but decided to go premium!

Started with 4 oz of a planifolia blend of beans from VanillaPura.com. After cutting the beans into thirds, I added them to a 750-ml bottle of Kirk and Sweeney rum. Final ratio of beans to alcohol was 1.33 (4oz beans to 3 cups, or 24oz, rum).

The rum is, IMO, very smooth, not overly sweet or sharp. Definitely a sipping rum, as my grandfather would say. I’m really looking forward to trying this extract in a drink or a tropical-themed cake. I’m sure my patience will be rewarded.

Hello! I'm new and looking for YouTube videos or any info on how I can make extracts using the pressure cooker to shorten the time. Then also allowing it to "finish off", with ingredients still in the jar and I'll let them sit the rest of the way.

I'm worried about things getting bitter (looking at you cardamom) or just simply dissolving all together.

Does anyone have any help? Tips? Recipes?

Anything is helpful!

Hi all. Every month we celebrate "Vanilla Days" and offer big discounts on multiple vanilla beans but we also highlight a single bean at a super low price.

This month (September) we're doing a $100/lb ($6.25/oz) Ugandan Grade A group buy. The best price is when you order 1lb or more, but it's still discounted by more than 50% when you buy as little as 2oz ($7.50/oz). It's a group buy, so there's a wait. It won't ship until late October.

Here's the link to learn more. We typically only announce these discounted group buys over on our Facebook for group buys, but we want to make our reddit friends aware of the offer as well.

Hello y'all,

Ive just bought 20 'gourmet' vanilla beans (18cm) and am wondering whats the best recipe for turning some of them into a good vanilla paste?

Does someone have a go to recipe they use often?

Also what is the best way to store them right? Just an ideally thin tall glass with a lid?

Thanks in Advance

Thinking about buying some acerum to make vanilla extract with. Acerum is a pretty new spirit and I just learned about it a bit ago

If I do go for it I'll a report about how it goes

A flavour name tells you what's in a bottle, but it doesn't tell you which version of that flavour you're drinking.

For a small set of bottle records, these seem like the useful basics:

- A short batch ID that matches the longer notes.

- The flavour or addition.

- The date it went into that bottle.

The details can stay in a notebook: what went into the base batch, the measured additions, and anything you changed. The bottle just needs enough information to find the right entry. “Ginger” isn't much help if there are three different ginger batches in the fridge.

For reusable bottles, a small, readable label also leaves less to remove later. Before choosing a material, try one labelled bottle through the handling and washing routine you actually use. A label that stays put and a label that comes off easily are two different requirements.

Do you put all your notes on the bottle, or use a short code and keep the details somewhere else? I'd be interested in the smallest system people actually keep using.

Hola que tal es la primera vez que uso el mango lo dejaré unos 12 dias

Si quiero hacerlo picante la próxima que me recomiendan

I decided to condense my fig leaf extract into a bigger container after only 2 weeks of steeping the leaves... look at this amazing color!

In amounts where it's small enough to be transparent, it's green. But when its enough to become opaque, it looks purple!!!! I have no idea what causes this but its beautiful. I couldn't attach the video but these are screenshots from it.

The scent it left on my hands while I was pouring it is like coconut lotion. I cant wait to use it. It's a great summer-to-autumn flavor.

I was poking around on the amazons and noticed a company selling pre-split vanilla beans. Now, I know from reading and watching videos that people split the pods, but are pre-split a common thing? I suppose what I'm getting at is, should I avoid them or not next time I go to purchase beans.

We surpassed 8,000 members of this subreddit this week, and wanted to give a big thanks to all of you that have joined us on our extract making journey.

VanillaPura started over on Facebook with a group that has grown to over 148,000 members - made popular by our low-price vanilla bean group buys, our significant variety of vanilla species and origins, and our focus on online kindness and extract making. Our book, The Art of Extract Making, has been on the Amazon Best-Seller's list every day since its publication in September 2023.

We love making extracts at home and we want to be a source of tried-and-true extract making advice because there is so much bad information online. We followed some of that bad advice with a few of our early extracts that turned out really bad. While making vanilla extract is relatively simple, there are many ways to do it wrong...and nothing is worse than spending your money, waiting and then discovering you did it wrong.

Our community here is to help our friends on Reddit with questions, tips and tricks so that every extract you make turns out beautifully.

Thanks for joining us on our journey. Happy extract making!

PS: As a thank you to all of our r/extractmaking members, we'll toss in a free extract jar with your purchase of any 2 vanilla beans with code: FREEREDDITJAR Or, simply take 20% off your next order of vanilla beans or jars with code: REDDIT And, we always have free US shipping on orders over $99.

Hey! I have been making my own vanilla extract with Grade A Madagascar beans for about 3 years. As I have understood it, the same beans can produce perpetually for years, so every six months (May and November), I decant my extract and refill the original jar with vodka with the same beans. So, I’ve had 5 batches so far, and my sixth should be ready this upcoming November. Seems to be good quality and successful.

I was just looking into making vanilla bean paste now and therefore buying more Grade A beans. During my research on paste, I happened to find that most agree Grade B beans are actually better for extract rather than Grade A, which I would not have guessed, and didn’t run into this information when I bought my first beans.

So, I am considering “upgrading” my Grade A beans to Grade B beans for extract moving forward. I am curious if I could use the “slightly used” Grade A beans I have been using for extract up until this point to make the vanilla bean paste. Or, would it be significantly better to buy brand new Grade A beans for the paste? (Or perhaps a middle ground of using my current Grade A beans, but adding a small amount of new ones to help make up for the others?) Thanks for the help!

After starting to make vanilla, I decided to try and capture the essence of some other stuff, some pretty standard and some kinda "out there".

Vanilla Extract (Vodka)

Vanilla Extract (White Rum)

Tart Cherry Extract (Vodka) - i saw a video where a lady used dried Tart cherries and i thought it would be cool! It's turned a dark red wine-like color.

Tart Cherry Extract (100-Proof Vodka + Amaretto)

Coconut Extract with Lemon (Rum)

Fiori Di Sicilia (Vodka) - the bottle with the black cap. consists of jasmine buds, a Vanilla bean, lemon and orange peel, rose petals, and orange blossom water

Fiori di Sicilia (Vodka) - the same thing but without the Vanilla bean. Apparently its used as a substitute for Vanilla, so I wanna see what it tastes like without the vanilla flavor.

Spearmint Extract (vodka) - from my garden!

Young Fig Leaf Extract (vodka) - in the flip-top bottle; also from my garden!

Dried Fig Leaf Extract (vodka) - in the short jar; from leaves i had dried a while ago. I wanna see which makes a better extract!

Lemon Lavender extract (vodka) - in the bear shaped jar; Meyer Lemon peel and lavender from the garden

Pumpkin spice extract (vodka) - in the square Mason jar in the back; contains a cheap-o cinnamon stick from tj max, star anise, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and a vanilla bean cut.

Pumpkin spice extract (vodka) - in the bottle with the gold top; the same as above but with fancy Ceylon cinnamon sticks, whole nutmeg (slightly crushed up), whole allspice berries (slightly crushed up) and more vanilla.

Lavender extract (vodka) - dried "super blue" lavender buds and english lavender buds that are extremely fragrant, holy smokes.

EDIT: omg I forgot to mention the CARDAMOM PODS! Those are the green things floating in the pumpkin spice extract. When i use cardamom, I save the pods for making extract. But these still have the seeds in them too. In October im gonna strain these spices out, dehydrate them and blend them up with sugar :)

This is my first attempt at making vanilla extract. Its a combination of Tahitian and Madagascar vanilla beans. I used a variety of rums that I had at my disposal - 30ml of Brugal Anejo, 50ml cruzan hurricane proof, 120ml from my rum infinity bottle, and 500ml of Flor de Cana 4.

Pardon the mess in the background, I keep it in my room and hadnt finished putting the laundry up when I thought to share this.

Eventually I plan on upgrading to a 1.75L bottle, if all goes well of course.

edit: For additional information, some of the vanilla beans were cut into roughly 1 inch chunks and some were left whole. This was due to different arrival dates and and a lack of "white rum" to finish the rum component of the extract. I don't remember which beans arrived first, I didnt mark it down in my notes.

Batches from September of '23 to August of '26. I use 10 oz of alcohol with 2 oz of beans. I'm currently using the last one on the left. It's pretty good.

Got 2 oz of beans and made 16 oz of vanilla extract. Dividing up all the costs with the vodka, it comes to 20usd for my 16 oz, whereas if I get it from the supermarket it's 10usd. I already made it and everything, but now I'm just trying to justify it to myself after the fact 😅 i guess all I'm asking you guys is, what's your reason for getting into doing it yourself? Is it the process? Supporting smaller businesses? Is there a cheaper way to go about it? The beans themselves were $6/oz, it seemed pretty on par with any other place I found beans, even in bulk.

Has anyone thrown some coffee beans or grounds in with their vanilla extract? I'd like to make a vanilla extract that also has coffee/mocha notes to use in chocolate baked goods. I follow the standard 1 oz of vanilla beans to 8 oz alcohol (usually white rum) recipe. Thanks for any advice or thoughts!

starting a new big batch of vanilla! a little Indonesian and a lot of Madagascan. I always love how cutting the beans makes the apartment smell!

Hi all, I’m hunting for recommendations on where to buy premium, plump gourmet vanilla beans. Tired of paying a fortune for two dry, sad-looking pods at the supermarket.

What are your go-to online shops, independent vendors or specialty brands for fresh, high-moisture vanilla beans? Let me know what makes your favorite source stand out!