On Thu, 24 Apr 2014 16:15:49 -0700, sf > wrote:

>On Fri, 25 Apr 2014 08:56:44 +1000, Jeßus > wrote:
>
>> >I had assumed that the "essence" is the same as extract.... soaking the
>> >beans in alcohol.
>>
>> Yup. In it's normally referred to as an 'essence', so I just
>> that word out of habit.
>
>I'm glad you cleared that up because the answer sites I found say
>vanilla essence is chemicals: "vanilla essence is imitation vanilla
>extract".

Yeah, the horrible stuff. I can only speak about Australia, but in our
supermarkets you do need to look closely at the label and not just
grab the first bottle you come across... it may be genuine or
imitation. Same with maple syrup, I've seen some labels that are
really quite deceiving - technically correct - but misleading that it
is actually imitation and not the real stuff.

There's probably some vanilla extract/essence labelled here as
'extract' too, it's not something I've paid much attention to but next
time I go in a supermarket I'll take another look.


>It's time we got used to seeing equivalent non-American
>food terms, so please continue using the word. Unfortunately, you'll
>probably need to answer the "what's that" question a few times before
>it sinks in that they are interchangeable terms.

That's okay, I don't mind.