Vanilla Extract Alcohol Content

Vanilla plant is native to Mexico, South America, Central America and Caribbean. It belongs to the orchid family, in fact, it is the only edible species of orchids. Vanilla plants were initially cultivated by the Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican natives, which were later on introduced to Europe and the rest of the world, by the Spanish conquerors. Today, there are about three major vanilla plant cultivars that are grown across the world. However, V. planifolia variety, which is also known as Madagascar vanilla is the most popular type of vanilla. Vanilla is used in its various forms as, vanilla pods, vanilla beans and vanilla extract and vanilla oil. While the pods and beans are incurred without any chemical additives, the vanilla extract requires significant amount of alcohol.

Vanilla Extract Ingredients

Vanilla extract is the most popular flavoring agent which is used for flavoring bakery products. It is an artificially made flavoring product, wherein all the ingredients are blended with alcohol and water. First, it is important for us to get to know more about the vanilla extract ingredients. Vanilla beans are the most important ingredient that also comprises more than 50% of the ingredient formulation for vanilla extract. Other than the beans, vanillin or ethyl vanillin is a substance which is used as a synthetic replacement of the vanilla beans.

Sugar helps the infusion and better dissolution of all the ingredients that are used for making the vanilla extract. sugar also reduces the bitter taste that the vanilla beans and alcohol bring into it. Along with sugar, artificial caramel color is also used for better visual value of the vanilla extract. All these ingredients are diluted by using water and alcohol. Commercially, vodka is used for making the vanilla extract. Which is also replaced by rum or brandy. Vanilla extract alcohol and water content greatly varies in accordance with the recipe and the brand of the extract, which is used. The USFDA has a few rules and regulations about the alcohol content in vanilla extract, which is worth considering.

Vanilla Extract Alcohol Content

As I said earlier, the amount of alcohol varies from one brand of vanilla extract to the other. According to the USFDA, one gallon of pure vanilla extract should contain a minimum of 35% alcohol, 65% water and 13.35 oz vanilla beans. However, you might find variations in the alcohol content in different products. It is also observed that pure vanilla extract, which is incurred from the real vanilla beans takes least or absolutely no alcohol. Such vanilla extract contains about 2% to 3% alcohol. However, today most of the vanilla extract is obtained by using the vanillin rather than the vanilla beans. It is also the reason why many people are worried about the amount of alcohol that they consume unknowingly.

But the fact is, the alcohol content gets evaporated during cooking or baking the recipe and hence the least amount of it, actually gets ingested inside our body. Secondly, only small amount of vanilla extract is required to flavor the entire food recipe and hence, we use only a few drops or teaspoons of it. As a result, such small amount of the extract gets equally distributed through the recipe which is not much harmful. However, regular and direct consumption of vanilla extract can surely cause some of the harmful effects of alcohol on the body.

Well, this was all that I could tell you about the vanilla extract alcohol content. I hope information in the article above was found helpful!