Vanilla Extract Revisited — One Year Later (And It Made the Best Christmas Gifts)

About a year ago, Tytus and I made our first batch of homemade vanilla extract. We used Siesta Key silver rum — the clear one — along with a little spiced rum and some toasted coconut rum, poured it all over vanilla beans, sealed the jars, and let time do the work. Then we basically just... waited.

Fast forward almost a year, and I pulled those jars out to show you what happened. If you haven't seen dark vanilla extract before, you're in for something. That clear rum we started with? Deep, rich brown. Almost like molasses. You can see the vanilla specs still floating in it and the beans right there through the glass. That's when you know you did something right.

We bottled it all up as Christmas gifts — and this video is us doing exactly that, with Tytus helping every step of the way, a year older and still just as much my kitchen partner.

Making Vanilla Extract

We're Making Homemade Vanilla Extract — And It's Going to Take a Year (That's the Point)

Most people don't realize how simple it is to make real vanilla extract at home. You need two things: vanilla beans and alcohol. That's it. No preservatives, no artificial flavor, no mystery ingredients. Just beans, rum, time, and a little patience — which honestly is the hardest part.

Tytus and I kicked this whole thing off together, and I'm documenting it from the very beginning so you can follow along and do it yourself. We're going the long route — letting it sit for a full year — because the longer it goes, the deeper and richer the flavor gets. You can do three months or six months and have something good. But give it a year and you'll have something great.