OFFICIAL INSPECTIONS 4I. II 5 



cultivated in [Mexico and while the different varieties vary in 

 some details the best beans are from 8 to lo inches long, one- 

 fourth to one-third inch thick, and after curing have a rich 

 dark brown color, a waxy appearance and touch, and are cov- 

 ered with fine frost like crystals of vanillin, a definite chemical 

 compound which gives to vanilla its principal characteristic 

 odor and flavor. There is also contained in the walls of the 

 bean a granular yellowish balsam-like substance that helps to 

 give to the cut bean and the extract the delicious flavor and 

 odor not found in the artificial or cheap extracts. It is to 

 these resinous substances that the Mexican bean owes its popu- 

 larity and notwithstanding the fact that it is lower in vanillin 

 content than either the Bourbon or Java beans it commands a 

 higher price and makes a more delicately flavored extract. 



The Maine standard requires that the extract shall contain 

 the soluble matter equivalent to ten per cent of the beans. Of 

 course the quality of the extract depends entirely on the quality 

 of the bean used and the thoroughness with which the extrac- 

 tion is made. Experiments have shown that if a good bean is 

 used and thoroughly extracted with lOO parts of -35 per cent 

 alcohol solution to every 10 parts of the bean a sufficiently 

 strong extract will be obtained. It is probable that very few 

 manufacturers are using at the present time the Pharmacopoeia 

 method in making their vanillas, it requires too much time and 

 other solvents than alcohol are added to hasten the process. 



Since the manufacture of synthetic vanillin, which has ex- 

 actly the same properties as that found in the bean, a large 

 ? mount of imitation vanilla flavor has been put on the market. 

 To the artificial vanillin there is usually added some coumarin, 

 wh'ch is obtained from the Tonka bean and has. a strong flavor 

 somewhat resembling vanillin. The artificial product thus pre- 

 pared has a rather rank flavor as compared with the best grades 

 of vanilla and lacks that delicate flavor and odor derived from • 

 the resins and waxds extracted from the best beans. The 

 artificial compounds contain less alcohol as they have no resins 

 and gums that require alcohol to keep them in solution and 

 they are usually colored with caramel, and some times prune 

 juice is added to imitate the resinous matter of the genuine 

 vanilla. They contain usually 2 to 3 times as much vanillin and 

 in addition some coumarin which g^ives them a rank flavor 



