# How is vanilla extract NOT an alcoholic beverage? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 8, 2022, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457 "2022-01-08T21:37:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2022, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457/41 "2022-01-09T16:16:26Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Cool! Anders Erickson has been there and done that also. Maybe your visits coincided?! > > I can buy Angostura Bitters in my grocery store without ID. It’s on a shelf with maraschino cherries, swizzle sticks, cocktail onions, etc. Meanwhile, I need to provide state issued ID to purchase nonalcoholic beer (not that I ever would). I was there on a romantic getaway with my then-girlfriend-now-wife about 12 years ago? Door County. Nice place. We’ve been meaning to return with the kids. We usually run up to Wisconsin from Chicago a few times a year. I remember being at a bar in Sturgeon Bay with my wife, getting two beers each, and a pickled turkey gizzard as a beer snack (hey, when in Rome), and being charged $8 total for everything. I turned to the bartender and said “we had two beers each,” to which he replied “I know.” Buck fifty beers c. 2010 in a town that sees tourists. It’s probably the laws are the same here. I will usually get ID’ed for non-alcoholic beer. I don’t think it’s 100%, though. I could swear last week I was at a grocery store that did not flag me in the self-checkout for Heineken 0.0. Usually, though, I do get flagged. I’m wondering if something changed in the new year, because I think this is the second store this has happened to me since the new year. I might get a bottle of Angosturas for my sparkling water and cooking next time I’m through the line and see what happens. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2022, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457/42 "2022-01-09T17:30:50Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > > [@Spoons](#): > > > > I could roll my own, and often did, since roll-your-owns were less expensive than tailor-mades > > Never heard that before. I’m going to have to find a way to start referring to Marlboros as ‘tailor made’. - [Ya Got Trouble](https://genius.com/Meredith-willson-ya-got-trouble-lyrics) (Music Man) > Would ya like to know what kinda conversation goes > On while they’re loafin’ around that Hall? > They be tryin’ out Bevo, tryin’ out cubebs > **Tryin’ out Tailor Mades like cigarette fiends!** > And braggin’ all about > How they’re gonna cover up a tell-tale breath with Sen-Sen ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2022, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457/43 "2022-01-09T19:20:11Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I might get a bottle of Angosturas for my sparkling water and cooking next time I’m through the line and see what happens. Come to think of it, my local Target sells Angostura bitters, and it is otherwise a Target that not sell alcoholic beverages, so I assume they do not treat it as such and don’t require an ID. That is weird, now that I think of it, because I do think of it as an alcoholic beverage, not just a flavoring, although except for that bar in Door County, I’m not sure if it’s regularly drunk as a shot like other bitters – I guess they’re “cocktail bitters” as opposed to something like “digestive bitters” (amaros, Campari, Fernet, Underberg, Unicum, etc.) Wikipedia does seem to make the distinction and says that in the US, many cocktail bitters are classified as “non-beverage” products. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2022, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457/44 "2022-01-09T21:12:21Z")
Likewise, rose water is part of Indian cuisine, used in small amounts as a flavoring. It’s NOT suitable as a beverage, no matter how heavily it’s carbonated. Believe me, it smells MUCH better than it tastes. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2022, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457/45 "2022-01-09T23:36:39Z")
And yet he married her anyway! ---
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457/46 "2022-01-10T03:32:27Z")
The makers of Valomilk candies (runny vanilla marshmallow cream in a chocolate cup) maintain that the confection was created by mistake when their, then, candymaker put the marshmallow cream together incorrectly as he was under the influence of the vanilla extract he had been imbibing. It was not supposed to be runny, but the result proved to be a hit. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457/47 "2022-01-10T14:01:10Z")
Vanilla extract isn’t a beverage. You’d get sick and vomit it back up. That’s why cooking wine is available in grocery stores. It’s salted to prevent drinking. It can be swallowed but it comes right back up. I’ve read a lot of drugs like sleeping pills have irritants added. A large overdose (suicide) would get thrown up. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457/48 "2022-01-10T14:14:48Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Vanilla extract isn’t a beverage. You’d get sick and vomit it back up. > > That’s why cooking wine is available in grocery stores. It’s salted to prevent drinking. It can be swallowed but it comes right back up. I speak from experience that vanilla acts just like any other similarly proofed drink when drinking it. I did not vomit from it the few times I’ve done a shot or two of vanilla. It just felt like a regular drink. I mean, it literally is just vanilla and ethanol. Cooking wine can also be drunk without vomiting. Now that’s disgusting, but I’ve also done that when I was all out of alcohol in the house. Just drink some extra water with it and you can get surprisingly far into a bottle of cooking wine when desperate without throwing it back up. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457/49 "2022-01-10T14:21:03Z")
You have a stronger stomach than me. I found cooking wine at the grocery. I bought it without an ID. I was 16 and thought I’d outsmarted them. One sip and it went in the trash. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457/50 "2022-01-10T14:22:27Z")
So no one else remembers the episode of Family Ties in which Tom Hanks played an alcoholic uncle who gets drunk (or at least tries to) by drinking the vanilla extract? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457/51 "2022-01-10T14:30:44Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > That’s why cooking wine is available in grocery stores. It’s salted to prevent drinking. It can be swallowed but it comes right back up. Vanilla isn’t salted or denatured in any way. > [@aceplace57](#): > > You have a stronger stomach than me. I could certainly understand people not liking the vanilla flavor, but as for the alcohol, it’s on par with other hard liquors (ie Jack Daniels, SoCo etc). I don’t know how they make it on an industrial level (though I presume stronger solvents are involved, at least for cheaper stuff), but when I make it at home, it’s literally just vanilla beans and vodka or bourbon. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457/52 "2022-01-10T14:36:08Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I found cooking wine at the grocery. I bought it without an ID. I was 16 and thought I’d outsmarted them. One sip and it went in the trash. Cooking wine I definitely would not recommend. You can cut it with a powdered lemonade drink and pretend its like a saltier Gatorade, but when you’re feeling shaky in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep and just need something to last you until morning, you find a way to keep it down. So, yes, kids, don’t try this at home. I’ve only done this to two bottles of cooking wine, but it was doable when the vanilla ran out (and I wasn’t about to go out to buy more vanilla for drinking purposes when I could buy something for 1/10 of the price.) [And that was October 2020 – not that anyone’s worried, but we’re all good here now.] ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457/53 "2022-01-10T15:01:56Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I don’t know how they make it on an industrial level (though I presume stronger solvents are involved, at least for cheaper stuff), but when I make it at home, it’s literally just vanilla beans and vodka or bourbon. From what I understand, it’s pretty much the same process, albeit one that’s optimized for industrial production by grinding and steeping the beans at a controlled temperature and most likely some specific alcohol percentage which may or may not be the same as commercially available booze. Of course the really cheap stuff is actually synthetic vanillin, alcohol, water and some other stuff like brown coloring. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457/54 "2022-01-10T15:05:28Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > That’s why cooking wine is available in grocery stores. It’s salted to prevent drinking. It can be swallowed but it comes right back up. > > I’ve read a lot of drugs like sleeping pills have irritants added. A large overdose (suicide) would get thrown up. Salt apparently doesn’t make everyone nauseous. > **[Fatal hypernatremia due to drinking a large quantity of shoyu (Japanese soy...](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21315305/)** > > We report a case of fatal salt poisoning in a 55-year-old woman who suffered from depression and drank a large quantity of shoyu (Japanese soy sauce). She presented with the highest ever documented serum sodium level of 187 mmol/L. This was... IME, the use of large doses of **[Seconal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secobarbital)** for a medically-assisted death is preceded by a substantial dose of anti-emetic medication to inhibit vomiting. I don’t know whether this is because of additives to the Seconal or because of the properties of the Seconal itself. Nausea is listed as a side effect of the medication itself, so it may not need an anti-abuse additive, but of course the same may not be true of other medications. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457/55 "2022-01-10T17:30:47Z")
To put in perspective, a cup of soy sauce has about 14,000 mg of sodium. A cup of cooking wine has about a teaspoon of salt, or 2325mg of sodium. A Big Mac has about 1000mg of sodium. A bowl of cheap ramen (whole package) has about 1500mg of sodium. A foot-long Subway BMT has 2600mg sodium. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457/56 "2022-01-10T17:46:43Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > IME, the use of large doses of **[Seconal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secobarbital)** for a medically-assisted death is preceded by a substantial dose of anti-emetic medication to inhibit vomiting. I don’t know whether this is because of additives to the Seconal or because of the properties of the Seconal itself. WAG is that the med itself causes nausea. And, while I understand they’re trying to make the person comfortable during their final moments instead of dry heaving, I would have thought the overdose of barbiturates would have knocked them out before the nausea would be an issue. Is there any chance they’re using an anti-histamine (which has anti-emetic properties)? That might actually help to make the person fall asleep first. IIRC, benadryl was one of the meds in the drug cocktail they use for twilight sedation (or it was for me anyway). ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457/57 "2022-01-10T21:57:09Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I’ve read a lot of drugs like sleeping pills have irritants added. A large overdose (suicide) would get thrown up. Benzos are the devil to try and suicide with - hork down a handful of benzodiazepan and you tend to vomit, one has to take them slowly over time one or two at a time [as a cousin of mine did ☹] They don’t have anything added to make you vomit, it is something in the normal body reaction. I suppose someone could take something like zofran to suppress the nausea. I have way too m any drugs in my daily shuffle that are dangerous, when I have a fresh 3 month load out, we calculated that I could kill 30 people if I really put my mind to it. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457/58 "2022-01-10T22:14:49Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I’ve read a lot of drugs like sleeping pills have irritants added. A large overdose (suicide) would get thrown up. I’ve never heard of anything like that. The closest thing I’ve heard is the newer generation of Oxycontin are designed to make them really, really difficult to crush and even if you can crush them, they turn into a really thick/stiff gel substance when it gets wet which makes it more or less impossible to snort or inject. There’s also Saboxone which is a combination of an opiate and Narcan. Taken as instructed, the Narcan doesn’t do much, but if abused (taking too much, injecting etc), the Narcan will start working. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457/59 "2022-01-10T23:32:52Z")
When I was in high school (ca. 1980) there was a proposal to put ipecac in tranquilizers and narcotics for exactly this reason. This was years before I decided I wanted to be a pharmacist, but good heavens, that is a VERY BAD IDEA for more reasons than anyone could even begin to list! ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457/60 "2022-01-10T23:39:24Z")
One of my Facebook friends, a HS classmate, said she called Poison Control once for each of her three children - one child was eating a jar of Vicks VapoRub, another swallowed something else not intended for oral consumption, and the third one had spilled some table salt on the floor and was licking it up. Guess which was the only one they said she really needed to be concerned about? You guessed it, the table salt. Poison Control told her what the symptoms were of hypernatremia, and told her to try to get her daughter to drink extra water. In the end, she exhibited none of those symptoms, and was just fine. (and while we’re on that unpleasant subject, back in the day, giving children a cup of salt water was often recommended to induce vomiting if they swallowed something “evil”. (lol) This was abandoned after children were reported to have died from this, especially if they didn’t throw it up.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-vanilla-extract-not-an-alcoholic-beverage/957457.md?page=4)