Discover Pure Flavor
Take your baking to the next level with our handmade vanilla extract and vanilla bean sugar made with only two ingredients!
About Sweet Simplicity Vanilla Co.
Our Story
About 10 years ago, my Nina (grandmother) and Auntie Debbie gave me and my husband a bottle of homemade vanilla for Christmas. At the time, I never even knew you could make vanilla extract! Once I tried it in my homemade chocolate chip cookies, it was a game changer! Adding this pure, delicious vanilla really stepped up the flavor of my cookies and took them to a whole new level!
Since then, my family and I have been making our own pure vanilla extract for all of our baking and flavoring needs, and it really makes such a difference in taste!
Besides my chocolate chip cookie recipe, my two kids' (Chayce and Emery) favorite recipes with our pure vanilla extract are my husband Eric's famous homemade waffles, frosting for funfetti pancakes, and homemade ice cream! And if our pup Lucy could talk, she would probably agree with all of the above!
Our pure vanilla extract has received so much love from local customers that we have decided to introduce a new item made with the same amazingly fragrant, hand picked Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans - Vanilla Bean Sugar!
The Making of Pure Vanilla Extract
Pure vanilla extract is a very time consuming process. We make our vanilla with only two simple ingredients – vodka and Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans. The entire process from chopping and measuring to bottling, labeling and packaging is all done by hand. We use our own special processes from start to finish, ensuring the best bean to alcohol ratio is met and that the extract is able to produce the most flavor possible. The extrapolation process takes two months in order to bring out the strongest creamy, warm and sweet flavors derived from the Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans. The longer the ingredients sit together the better! This is why Sweet Simplicity vanilla extract includes a bean in every bottle – to add continuous flavor as the bottle rests!
The Making of Vanilla Bean Sugar
Vanilla bean sugar starts with a two week infusion process where the caviar of the beans are scraped and added to pure cane sugar. The sliced beans are then mixed into the sugar and over the following two weeks the containers will be agitated in order to continue infusing the sugar granules with the sweet and creamy flavor of the vanilla beans. Once the sugar has completed this process, the sugar and vanilla beans are then triple sifted to remove the bean slices, leaving behind plenty of flavor specks and creating a delicious, flavorful vanilla bean sugar that is an amazing addition to coffee, desserts, fruit dips and cocktails!
Taste (and see) Our Difference
Sweet Simplicity’s pure vanilla extract and vanilla bean sugar are different from most vanilla products on the market for a few reasons:
- Our Pure Vanilla Extract is made with only two ingredients – vodka and high quality vanilla beans. We don’t add water, sugar or any other ingredients that could impact the true flavor. Because of this, each teaspoon of pure vanilla extract is packed with intense flavor, requiring less in a recipe.
- Additionally, our Vanilla Bean Sugar is made with only two ingredients - sugar and Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans. There are no preservatives added.
- The extract is unfiltered, meaning it contains specks of vanilla beans throughout for enhanced flavor, while our sugar is blended with the beans, adding a much more intense vanilla flavor versus infusing alone.
- Each bottle of Sweet Simplicity Pure Vanilla Extract contains a piece of a vanilla bean, ensuring continuous flavor as the bottle rests.
- Sweet Simplicity Pure Vanilla Extract and Vanilla Bean Sugar are handmade and produced in small batches. This allows greater attention to detail with the quality of vanilla beans used, the level of freshness and the length of time allowed to steep and infuse. The results are a richer, more complex flavor profile in both products.
- Additionally, Sweet Simplicity Pure Vanilla Extract comes in a unique and high quality rose gold bottle and our Vanilla Bean Sugar is packaged in a gold backed resealable bag with a see-through front allowing the vanilla bean specks to add a delicious looking appeal. Sweet Simplicity Vanilla Co.'s packaging looks stunning on a countertop and makes for a beautiful gift for the baker in your life.
Did You Know?
A few facts about pure vanilla extract and vanilla beans
Where our beans come from
The name of the beans we use sometimes confuses people. They think that Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Beans mean that the beans are in some way related to bourbon alcohol. While some extracts DO use bourbon as their extrapolator, the Bourbon that these beans refer to is related to the location of where the beans are cultivated and cured – on the Bourbon Island of Madagascar, which was actually renamed Reunion Island back in 1948.
Why pure vanilla extract is made with alcohol
Alcohol is a natural extrapolator, meaning that it is the best liquid to pull out the flavor from the beans. Because such small amounts of vanilla are used when baking, the amount of alcohol added to a recipe is not enough to have an effect on a person. Also, if the recipe calls for baking, the alcohol will be cooked out. Vanilla that is not made with alcohol is called vanilla flavoring, not extract.
Why pure vanilla extract and vanilla products are expensive to produce
Vanilla extract is one of the most expensive flavorings to produce because of the labor-intensive process involved in growing and harvesting vanilla beans. Vanilla beans come from a species of orchid that only grows in certain tropical regions, such as Madagascar, Indonesia, and Tahiti.. The beans must be hand-pollinated and hand harvested once perfectly ripe after about nine months. The beans then undergo a complex curing and drying process that must be carefully monitored to ensure quality.
Our Pure Vanilla Extract can be found at these Locations:
