Serious DIY Series – Have You Seen the Price of Vanilla?!?

Written by on in DIY on the Homestead, Food Storage, Preparing Our Food and Water, Preparing Our Homestead

 

Unless you don’t do a whole lot of baking you have to be pretty sheltered to not have seen the price of vanilla over the past year.  Two or more years ago, I could get 16 oz of vanilla from Costco for about $10.  Yes, that was a better price than you could have gotten at a grocery store.  Today that same 16 oz of vanilla cost me $36!!  It’s enough to make us stop wanting to make homemade ice cream weekly!  Seriously, 36 Bucks!

The Good News

Okay, yes, I’ve found a better price for vanilla – my favorite go-to already made vanilla is from…….you guessed it!  Azure Standard.  I can get 32 oz of REAL vanilla for $31.15!  That’s LESS THAN HALF of the price at Costco.

The Bad News

If you can’t or won’t buy from Azure Standard, you’re stuck spending $36 or more for 16 oz of vanilla UNLESS you make your own!  I’ve searched the internet over.  Normally, I’d point you to Azure’s Vanilla Beans.  But this time, unfortunately, Azure doesn’t have the best price.  SLO Food has the best price I could find on vanilla beans.  You can find their vanilla beans here.

To make a quart of vanilla, I recommend 10-15 vanilla beans.  If you want to make a half gallon of vanilla, I recommend 25-30 vanilla beans.  Now, if you go look up the price of 25 of the vanilla beans from SLO Foods, you’ll see that they cost $53 for 25 beans.  Factor in $11-$15 for vodka – the other ingredient in vanilla extract.  It could cost you about $64-$68 for a half gallon of vanilla extract.  If you compare that to Costco’s price ($36/16 oz.), you’d pay $144 for the same amount of vanilla from Costco, and when you put it in those terms, making your own costs less than half the price of buying it just about anywhere but Azure Standard.

 

Making Your Own Vanilla Extract

So why should anyone make their own vanilla extract if they can buy it just as cheaply from Azure Standard?  Well, maybe Azure doesn’t deliver to your area.  Maybe something prevents you from being able to make the Azure drop times, or maybe you are afraid to order from Azure because you have no idea what it is or how it works.  Having the ability in to make vanilla in your arsenal is very helpful.  Here’s a great article on why vanilla and vanilla beans are so expensive right now.

SOOOOOOOOOOOO all that being said, “HOW,” you ask, “do you actually make vanilla extract?”  Well, let me just tell ya; it really is super simple.  You need two ingredients and two tools.

Make Your Own Vanilla

Tools:

Kitchen scissors

Canning jar with a lid

Ingredients:

Vodka – 80 proof or better

10-25 vanilla beans

Directions:

  1.  Snip the vanilla beans into 3/4″ to 1″ segments.
  2.  Deposit the vanilla bean pieces in the canning jar.
  3.  If you are using 10 beans, fill a quart canning jar with vodka.  If you are using 25 beans, fill a 1/2 gallon jar with vodka.
  4.  Write the date that you started the vanilla on the canning jar lid.
  5. Shake daily for 4-6 months.

 

Have you ever made your own vanilla?  Would you consider making it now if you could do it more cost-effectively than you could buy it?  What would excite you about making your own vanilla?  What might hold you back?

 

There are links in this post.  Some of the links may be affiliate links.  Some of the links may not be.  My promise to you is that I will only recommend the most economical version of the best quality of items to serve you. These are the items that I buy for my own family.  You can feel free to use my affiliate links, of which I will get a small amount in compensation, or you can choose to search out your products on your own.