I’m a BIG fan of real vanilla extract. I love how it enriches the flavor of whipped cream, desserts, fruit pancakes, warm fruit toppings, breakfast cereals and much more as shown in a few examples below.

You’ll notice I’m using commercial or store-bought vanilla extract in the pictures above. Nothing wrong with that – except that the price shot through the roof years ago and is still high. The reason: Madagascar, the largest and most popular producer of vanilla beans, experienced storms, deforestation and labor shortages that meant that vanilla bean supply couldn’t meet worldwide demand (actually, vanilla beans aren’t real beans, like string beans, but are the fruit of the vanilla orchid).

.For me personally, that supply/price problem was a great nudge to learn how to make vanilla extract on my own – and it’s all very easy. All you need are vanilla beans, liquor that’s at least 35% alcohol content (70 proof), a container to pour off excess alcohol if you’re using a full bottle, sharp knife, cutting board, and then masking tape and a pen to mark the date, as shown below.

The toughest part of the whole process is ordering vanilla beans, which I recommend you do by searching “how to buy vanilla beans” online. Here are some links I’ve used: Beanilla and Amazon.

The next step is deciding what flavor of 80 proof (40%) alcohol to use: rum, bourbon or vodka. I’m a big fan of either rum or bourbon for their added flavor.

After that, it’s just cut into the vanilla beans to expose their flavorful middle where the small black seeds are, put the beans in the liquor bottle, close the bottle, mark the date you put the ingredients together with masking tape and a pen and store the bottle in a cabinet for at least 3 months to allow the vanilla flavor to infuse the alcohol.

Click this link or any picture on this page for step-by-step picture book directions – and enjoy!