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Extract Information
Our line of extracts taste better and are often twice as strong than other pantry extracts. Only the best essential oils and other natural flavor ingredients are used in creating our extracts and flavors. Because our extracts are bake and freeze proof, you will not experience a loss in flavor when you bake or freeze any of your baked goods. All of Savory Spice Shop’s extracts and flavors are gluten-free and do not contain any added sugar.
If stored correctly with the cap on securely most extracts and flavors can last for a year or more and be as good as they day they were purchased. Certain extracts (vanilla, peppermint) will actually improve with some age. Because oxygen, heat and light can cause your extracts to oxidize as a general rule you should store your extracts and flavors in a cool, dark place, again making sure the bottles are tightly closed. There are exceptions; citrus extracts (orange, lemon and lime) contain high levels of naturally occurring D'Limonene and other terpenes, which are prone to oxidation. The best way to keep the fresh flavor and aroma of your citrus extracts is to store them in a refrigerator. When stored in a refrigerator these citrus extracts can become cloudy, this is a result of the soluble waxes in the extracts precipitating from the cold. These waxes are of no concern and are indicative of extracts made from pure essential oils. Let the extracts return to room temperature and shake them. The waxes will go back into solution.
What is the difference between 'Pure', 'Naturally Flavored' and 'Imitation' extracts?
How are cold extracted, gluten-free pure vanilla extracts made?
What is triacetin and why is it in some of our flavored extracts?
What is the difference between 'Pure', 'Naturally Flavored' and 'Imitation' extracts?
Generally, a pure extract is derived from exclusively from the named product. A natural flavor extract contains only natural flavors, but they do not necessarily come from the named product. An imitation extract uses synthetic or artificial flavor ingredients. Read on for detailed information on each.
Pure Extracts
Vanilla is the only extract that has a standard of identity, which establishes the legal criteria that must be met before a product can be labeled vanilla extract. This is not the case with other extracts. As a result, the term “pure extract” when used to describe flavors besides vanilla is open to interpretation. At Savory Spice Shop, the flavor ingredients used in our pure extracts are derived exclusively from the named product. The flavor in our Pure Orange Extract, therefore, contains only orange oil. Some companies use the term "pure" to describe extracts, which contain artificial flavors or natural and artificial flavors. We believe this is misleading and it is one reason Savory Spice Shop's pure extracts are sometimes more expensive. While the solvents used in extracts are not considered part of the flavor, we use only ethyl alcohol in our pure extracts.
Naturally Flavored Extracts
A natural flavor extract is a flavor that has no synthetic or artificial ingredients; it only contains natural flavor ingredients. These materials, however, do not need to be derived from the named product, although the named product may be a component of the natural flavor. As an example, while a “Raspberry Extract, Natural Flavor” contains natural flavor ingredients, they do not need to be from raspberry.
Imitation Extracts
The term imitation extract was popularized by McCormick & Co. and other manufacturers of retail bakery extracts to describe extracts which typically contain artificial flavors (see definition of an artificial flavor below). Imitation extracts are less expensive than pure extracts and natural flavors. This is due to the fact that synthetic or artificial flavor ingredients are generally less expensive than their natural equivalents. Some flavors, like our Black Walnut and Hazelnut, can only be made from synthetic or artificial ingredients, which is why we carry them in our line.
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How are Savory Spice Shop’s flavored extracts made?
Every time you make coffee in a coffee maker, you are making an extract. In the example of coffee you are using water as the solvent to extract the flavor compounds. In many cases, however, the flavor compounds found in botanicals are not water soluble, but rather oil soluble. As an example, if you attempted to make "coffee" using ground black pepper it would have little flavor and pungency. This is due to the fact that most of the flavor compounds in pepper are not water soluble, but rather oil soluble. As a result, solvents such as ethyl alcohol, which extract oil soluble compounds, are used to make extracts. Many extracts are not "true" extracts, but rather solutions in ethyl alcohol and water. While it's relatively easy to make extracts, it is challenging to make them well. The exact process a company uses is usually considered proprietary. A well made extract will be clear and will not cloud the product in which it is being used.
When a "true" flavor extract is made, the ingredient being extracted is actually "washed" using a mixture of ethyl alcohol and water. The ingredient (in this example an essential oil) is placed in a tank. Alcohol and water are pumped into the tank and the three products are blended together. The amount of alcohol and water, as well as the amount of agitation, is adjusted depending on the ingredient being extracted and the extract's specifications.
The mixture (alcohol, water and essential oil) is then allowed to settle. The alcohol and water will slowly separate from the essential oil. As this separation occurs, the flavor from the essential oil is extracted into the alcohol and water. This process can take a few hours or sometimes several days. Extraction with alcohol is not completely efficient and as a result much of the flavor remains in the product being extracted.
The alcohol and water, which at this point is typically described as an "intermediate" is then filtered and usually adjusted with additional alcohol. The added alcohol helps to clarify the finished extract.
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How are cold extracted, gluten-free pure vanilla extracts made?
The vanilla bean has approximately 300 unique flavor components. However, because many are delicate and occur only in trace amounts they must be extracted carefully. To produce premium pure vanilla extracts it begins with the beans. If you don’t start with a great bean you can’t produce a great extract. Only premium quality sun cured vanilla beans are used to create our extracts.
In order to capture maximum flavor, our extracts are not produced by using super heated liquids or pressure. Instead, they are made by using a proprietary cold extraction, slow percolation method. First the beans are chopped using a specially designed chopping machine that does not produce heat. Then they are placed into custom stainless steel “cool extractors” that operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and damaging heat and pressure are never introduced into the process. This ensures the rich, deep flavor and delicate bouquet of each vanilla bean is passed on unchanged to our vanilla extracts. This multi-stage cold extraction process takes almost one month to complete (as opposed to hours with the high-heat method) but it results in our super premium vanilla extracts.
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What is propylene glycol and why is it in an extract?
Most flavor ingredients (essential oils, oleoresins and aromatic chemicals) are oil soluble and will not disperse in water. This can be a problem, since the majority of food and beverage products are aqueous. As a result various solvents, emulsifiers and carriers are used in flavors to disperse the oil soluble ingredients.
Propylene glycol is a food grade, clear, colorless, slightly syrupy, solvent, which is hygroscopic and relatively inexpensive. It is highly effective in dispersing oil soluble flavor ingredients. Other commonly used solvents and carriers are ethyl alcohol, polysorbate 80, and triacetin. The solvent, or combination of solvents, which are used in a particular extract or flavor is largely based on the characteristics of the flavor ingredients, food product being flavored and customer requirements.
Propylene glycol, which is generally known as "PG" in the flavor industry, tastes bitter and is slightly sweet. If you dip a finger in some of your flavors and extracts containing propylene glycol and taste them, these characteristics are very evident. Since most extracts and flavors are used at low levels (0.50% or less) the flavor of propylene glycol is rarely perceptible in foods or beverages.
The propylene glycol used by Savory Spice Shop meets the requirements established by the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) the U.S. Food Chemicals Codex (FCC) as well as the European and Japanese Pharmacopeias. It also meets the requirements of the Brazilian Pharmacopoeia (Farmacopéia Brasileira), and fulfills the purity criteria detailed in the European Council Directive 2000/63/EC for food additives, other than colors and sweeteners.
Propylene glycol also functions as a preservative in extracts and flavors. Many retail extracts and flavors would not be completely shelf stable without propylene glycol.
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Why is glycerin used in some flavors?
Glycerin, like propylene glycol, is used as a solvent in flavors. While propylene glycol has superior solvent characteristics, it is bitter tasting and there is a limit to how much can be used in a flavor formulation without imparting a bitter note. Glycerin, therefore, is sometimes used in flavor with propylene glycol to help improve its solubility and reduce the amount of propylene glycol needed. Natural glycerin is also one of the few organic compliant solvents a flavor chemist has to use. As a result, it is increasingly being used in flavors for organic products.
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What is triacetin and why is it in some of our flavored extracts?
Triacetin, like propylene glycol, is another food grade solvent. It is used in many oil miscible flavors to dissolve powdered flavor ingredients, such as vanillin and heliotropine. Triacetin is also sometimes used to improve the stability of "heat stressed" flavors in baking and cooking applications
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