My emotional support vanilla extract is what I lovingly refer to as my nearly four-year-old jar of homemade vanilla extract. I started this batch after I moved to Vermont to symbolize a period of nesting and rooting after navigating multiple life transitions. I’m attached to her because she and I started our journeys in Vermont together, and I brought her with me through the many homes we resided in until we arrived in our cottage.
Creating a jar of vanilla extract at home is not difficult, but it requires some planning and time. It is a moment of Everyday Opulence, or, the work that makes pleasure possible. I love the ritual of decanting and refreshing my emotional support vanilla; letting her deepen in richness and complexity as she ages. This long-aged method using a mother jar creates a luxurious vanilla extract, perfect for baking, gifting, and cherishing. I bake to share and also love to share my gorgeous emotional support vanilla with loved ones who appreciate what she is.
Here’s a recipe/method as well as an FAQ from the questions I’ve received on socials.
Emotional Support Vanilla Recipe
Recipe Type: Easy
Time: 10 minutes + 3 months of aging
Servings: 16 oz
Ingredients for Homemade Vanilla Extract
2 oz vanilla beans to start
16 oz vodka to start
An additional 1 oz of beans and 8 oz of vodka to refresh in 3–6 months
Equipment
16 oz sanitized glass bottle or jar, tall enough to hold whole vanilla beans and with a mouth wide enough to retrieve or add beans easily, with a leakproof lid
Masking tape and a permanent marker
Funnel
8 oz bottle for decanting
How to Make Vanilla Extract
Place whole vanilla beans into your glass bottle and pour vodka to fill the jar or bottle and cover the beans.
Label the jar with masking tape with the name “emotional support vanilla extract” and the date you started her. This is your mother jar of vanilla extract. You should respect and revere her.
Put the jar in a dark, cool place (I put mine in my pantry) and let her rest for at least 3 months; 6 is best. Periodically you can give the jar a gentle shake, smell the extract, and notice how she changes over time.
How to Maintain a Mother Jar
After she’s aged for at least 3 months, open the mother jar, give her a smell, and admire her.
Take two beans (one at a time): snip off one end, hold the vanilla bean over the open mother jar, cut side down, and squeeze the pod from the top down using a pinching motion. This will disperse the beautiful vanilla seeds—which have become a lovely thick paste—into your extract. Repeat with the second bean.
Carefully close the jar and shake. This will give your vanilla extract beautiful flecks of vanilla seeds. You may choose to put the pods back into the mother jar and remove them at a later date (the next decanting), or save them for another use—dry them for tea or add them to sugar.
Decant 8 oz of the extract into an 8 oz bottle. After giving the mother jar of vanilla extract a good shake (to distribute the vanilla seeds), carefully pour the vanilla from the mother jar, using a funnel, into the smaller bottle. Label the bottle. This smaller bottle will be for regular use.
To your mother jar, add 1 oz of fresh vanilla beans and top off with additional vodka.
Vanilla Bean Extract Ratio
You can scale the recipe by following the ratio of 1 oz of vanilla beans to 8 oz of vodka. Make sure to consider the shape and size of the vessel you use to make the extract.
Here’s a Q&A about emotional support vanilla. I’ve documented my journey of maintaining her on socials, and I’ve received excellent questions that I’ve answered here as well.
Vanilla Extract FAQ
How long does it take to make emotional support vanilla extract?
Vanilla extract takes at least three months, but I think it’s better to wait six months.
Where do you get the vanilla beans from?
I order them online from Native Vanilla (not sponsored). They have great deals and source their vanilla ethically, which is important to me as a consumer.
I’ve also found whole vanilla beans at Costco (organic Madagascar beans). A pack of 20 was $10.99 in stores the last time I got them (December 2025), which is an excellent deal.
Where can I get supplies?
You can get the vanilla beans, and equipment for making extract on my storefront. If you shop through my Amazon storefront, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my work.
What kind of vodka do you use?
You do not need to splurge on vodka here. I wouldn’t recommend getting a handle of vodka in a plastic bottle that reminds you of college days. I have a bottle from Costco (the premium) vodka that cost me less than $20 for a large quantity.
What do you use vanilla extract for?
I use the vanilla extract for anything: baking cookies, whipping cream, making a gorgeous coffee drink. I love having the extract around because I can freely add splashes of it to whatever I’m making.
Can you use the vanilla beans in the mother jar?
Yes! After your mother jar of vanilla extract has matured, I like to take a whole bean from the jar, snip it, and add it to something I’m baking directly. This is great for custards and creams where you want to see the vanilla seeds and have a more concentrated vanilla flavor.
What do you do with the whole beans in the mother jar of the vanilla extract?
I snip the tip of the bean and squeeze the vanilla seeds into my baking when I’m feeling opulent and want to show off the gorgeous flecks of vanilla seeds. This type of vanilla seed display is great for whipped creams, meringues, and crème pâtissière.
What do you do with the vanilla bean pod after you’ve squeezed out the seeds?
You can return it to the jar and retrieve it the next time you decant to let the old pod contribute more seeds to the vanilla extract. The spent pods will become very hard, and it will be obvious they don’t have any seeds inside.
Or, you can use the spent pods by cutting them up and adding them to a small jar of sugar to make some vanilla sugar. You can dry them and add them to tea. There are many ways to use these pods—get creative!
How long does this keep for?
You can keep your mother jar going indefinitely if you keep using it, adding to it, and refreshing it regularly! The vanilla extract shouldn’t spoil as it is in a high percentage of alcohol. Just make sure you’re handling it with squeaky-clean hands and start with sanitized tools.
My vanilla extract is too light in color—what did I do wrong?
You probably did not add enough vanilla beans. Make sure to use the ratio listed above.
Have more questions?
Ask them in the comments below, or throw them onto socials. I’ll keep answering them in this Q&A.