Making your own vanilla extract is one of the most rewarding things you can do in the kitchen — but what do you actually do with it once it's ready? Here are the top 10 ways we use our homemade extracts, and why extract making has become so much more than just a kitchen project.
1. Baking & Cooking — Pour With the Heart
We use our extracts liberally in baking and cooking. We "pour with the heart" — since we have so much, we can add a splash here, there, everywhere! We try different extract flavors with different cooking applications to find the perfect pairing between extract and dessert. A Madagascar vanilla in a classic sugar cookie. A Tahitian in a delicate panna cotta. The possibilities are endless.
2. Elevating Coffee, Tea & Hot Cocoa
A splash of extract in your morning coffee or evening hot cocoa is a simple upgrade that feels indulgent. Try adding Chocolate Berry Bliss, mint extract, mocha extract, or chocolate extract to your favorite drink for a profound flavor upgrade. It takes seconds and transforms an ordinary cup into something special.
3. Gifting — One of the Best Gifts You Can Give
One of the very best gifts is homemade vanilla extract. When it's finished and beautifully bottled, it's a truly thoughtful present. But we also love gifting the experience — a bundle of beans, a cute bottle, and a spirit of choice so the recipient can make their own. Vanilla pastes, sugars, and salts also make amazing gifts that any home cook will treasure.
4. BBQ Sauces, Wing Sauces & Stir Frys
Bourbon-based smoky extracts are a secret weapon in savory cooking. We add them to BBQ sauces, wing sauces, and stir frys for an extra layer of smoky sweetness that keeps people guessing. The depth that a good bourbon vanilla brings to a glaze or marinade is something you have to taste to believe.
5. Cocktails & Mocktails
Extracts are a game-changer for cocktails and mocktails. Adding a splash of Piña Colada Extract to a piña colada creates a flavor burst that is absolutely delicious. A note on mocktails: they are alcohol-free by nature. Some say adding a small splash of alcohol-based extract is fine, but others may be sensitive for a variety of reasons — so only use alcohol-based extracts in mocktails if your guests are comfortable with it.
6. Building a Beautiful Flavor Cabinet
We collect beautiful jars and finished extracts. We build flavor cabinets that are not only stocked with a variety of extract flavors but are also beautiful to look at — a living, aromatic display of creativity and craft. There's something deeply satisfying about a shelf lined with amber bottles, each one a different flavor, each one a little story.
7. Matching Extracts to Holidays & Seasons
We match extracts to holidays, seasons, and months to capture the flavors of those times of year. Our Winter Spice Extract Blend is a holiday baking favorite we save all year just to use during the season. The Pumpkin Spice Blend is similarly special — it only comes out in the fall, and that anticipation makes it even better.
8. Making Extracts to Remember People
This one is close to our hearts. Since many of our extracts are used only once or twice a year, we name them after family members, friends, and loved ones we made them with. Every year, we use those special extracts on birthdays and anniversaries and remember the moment they were made — and the people we made them with. Extract making is as much about the moment as it is about the flavor.
9. Custom Extracts for a Specific Meal or Dessert
We make custom extracts for specific recipes. A favorite coffee cake might call for a Coffee Cinnamon Extract Blend that we only use for that one dessert. A Spiced Haven Extract might only come out once a year for a fall banana bread. Or Dad's favorite extract — made with Dad's favorite bourbon — might only be used on his birthday when we bake his favorite cake. These are the extracts that become legend in a family.
10. Extract Making as a Reason to Gather
We use extract making as a reason to get together with friends and have fun. Hosting an extract party with vanilla beans, cute jars, and a spirit of choice is such a joyful gathering. Then, a year later, you get together again for a taste-testing party to see how they turned out. And every year after that, on that same anniversary, you gather with those same friends and bake something new together with your extracts. It becomes a tradition.
Extract making is so much more than just making extracts. Because vanilla extracts have unlimited shelf life (when stored and made correctly), the moments and memories that a single bottle of homemade vanilla extract represents make the art of extract making a heartfelt expression of love and appreciation that lasts for years.
Ready to begin? Visit our free guide center for everything you need to start your first extract: Vanilla Extract Making — How-To Guides.
