Home Made Vanilla Extract

A year or so back, VI (Gary) posted a thread about making vanilla extract. I made a batch with Madagascar vanilla beans and it has a much different taste than a store vanilla or pre-made Mexico vanilla. It got me wanting to try different regional beans and see how different they are.

If you've never made vanilla extract, it's very easy. I make mine with vodka only (store bought is mostly water). I bought 1/4 lb of each bean (25 beans) from Madagascar, Tahitian and Mexico. I read that Mexico vanilla was so popular that it was easier to make something close and sell it as Mexico vanilla. I'm not sure if this is true but my Mexico beans were the most expensive.

To make, I remove 4 oz vodka from each bottle, slice each bean length-wise and leaving 1/2" on each end uncut to hold bean together. Put 25 beans into bottle and shake 1 or 2 times a week for 2 months (4 months for more flavor). I then dump into a plastic bottle, hold a coffee filter over the end of the bottle and squeeze the extract thru the filter and put into a dark colored glass bottle for use. From there, have another new bottle of vodka and put old beans and vanilla specs caught in filter into the new bottle for a second batch or throw the beans into a sugar container for vanilla sugar.

Here are my three batches.