Vanilla Extracts - A Homeschooling Adventure in Learning Entrepreneurship

Hi, I'm Annabel. I love making desserts of all kinds - especially dishes that use vanilla! One day, we ran out of our vanilla extract, and I asked if we could make our own at home. My dad said, “Let's give it a try and make it a homeschool project!” So, we started trying different methods and recipes. We watched (and tasted) the progress of our efforts until we got just the right flavor.

We make each batch by hand, steeped for months for the right color and a sublime, creamy, and floral flavor profile with hints of citrus. I know you will love my extracts and enjoy how much a single key ingredient can bring your dishes to the next level.

I have learned so much from starting this business - from chemistry, botany, food science, business, marketing, internet coding, shipping, and everything!

Here is some early art I did for our labels - I just love drawing Japanese chibi characters! (My drawings are much better now.)

I want to go to Japan as an exchange student, so I've been learning Japanese in homeschool.

We did a lot of product testing in our kitchen with the recipes I learned from reading lots of books from the library (probably close to a hundred!), and from watching YouTube videos of some of the best bakers out there! I wanted a vanilla extract that did well for baked goods as well as cold desserts.

My mom and dad showed me all the extra stuff that is involved in starting a business - stuff like licenses, permits, vendors and distributors. I had no idea there was so much to starting a business, and it was exciting to learn. We had a good friend, Alice, to do our prototype label design for us and we bottled our first run.

This first run was to let our family and friends try it and give us feedback (They all loved it, obviously, lol).

Meanwhile, we worked on our plans for the company and all the legal stuff - I can't say I fully understand it all at my age, but my dad explained every step and I don't think it's all that hard. We found a local artist named Herb that gave us the labels we have now (Herb is also good at drawing dragons).

It takes a whole year for our vanilla extract to mature in their heavy steeping jugs before we bottle it. Here are some of our vanilla beans - check out how they glisten! I can't wait till you try our vanilla extract. We are working on our almond extract next and that will be amazing!

- Annabel