If you googled “vanilla extract”, the first site you will see on the results list is this entry in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla_extract.  It described exactly what I always thought of vanilla extract – all plant, all natural, just a chemical process to extract the essence.

I was watching “The Story of Food” on NatGeo People the other day and one of the guests mentioned beavers, that the beavers excrete substances that are similar compounds to vanilla and technically, with the food science we have today, scientists can use these substances secreted by beavers (from their backside) and make vanilla extract or things that smell like vanilla.  And it’s all “Natural” as beavers are not man-MADE.

Hmmm…

And I just had vanilla ice-cream with chocolate chips…..