Vanilla Oil

Vanilla essential oil has a warm, rich, heady fragrance. It has a quickening effect on the spirit. It is mainly used in perfumes, as well as in spices and flavoured foods to add a variety of aromas. In addition, when mixed with several essential oils, it has a homogenising effect on the scent. It is the only one of the orchid family from which essential oils can be extracted. The raw material used to extract the essential oil has a lentil horn-shaped fruit called a vanilla bean, which has no flavour of its own. After heat treatment, drying, fermentation and other repeated processes, the green fruit becomes tea-coloured, and then fermentation produces the aromatic component called "vanillin", so that the whole vanilla bean has a strong aroma. Best vanilla essential oil is produced in Madagascar. In addition, the vanilla flavouring used in ice cream and cakes is made by diluting the essential oil with alcohol.