Homemade flavor extracts are easy and inexpensive to make at home. They’re great to make for your own personal use to save money and ensure pure ingredients plus they’re excellent to make in bulk to give away as gifts.
Homemade Flavor Extracts
I have a total of 15 homemade flavor extracts in this article, complete with FREE printable labels for them towards the end of this post. But these 15 different flavors aren’t the limit. You can make an extract using just about any kind of fruit, nut, herb, or spice!
What You Need
- Alcohol. Just about any kind of alcohol will work, but the most common are vodka, rum, brandy, and bourbon. Aim for some that is at least 40% alcohol content (80 proof).
- Flavoring ingredients. What and how much you need will depend on the type of extract you want to make. Details in the recipes below.
- Mason jars. You will need some pint size (or larger if making double or triple batches) mason jars.
- Bottles. Once the extract has been made, you’ll need something convenient to store it in. I recommend glass amber colored bottles. These bottles are the ones I used for the article (and the size I designed the labels for).
- Extract bottle labels. These are located in the free printable below.
- Sticker paper. Sticker paper is used to make the labels. More details below.
What You Do
- Put the flavor ingredient (prepared as detailed in the recipes below) in a glass mason jar. For ingredients such as leaves, press it down towards the bottom so the alcohol covers it.
- Pour the alcohol over the ingredients. Make sure the alcohol completely covers the ingredient (add more if it doesn’t). Screw on the two piece lid.
- Place the jar in a cool, dark place (such as inside a cabinet). Once a day, pull it out and give it a good shake. Make sure the ingredients are still covered with alcohol; if they’re not, add more alcohol until they are.
- After the extract has infused for the allotted time (indicated in the recipes below), strain it through cheesecloth or a coffee filter. Discard the food bits and save the extract.
- Using a funnel, carefully pour the completed extract into an amber-colored glass bottle. Store in a cool, dry place.
Extract Recipes
Vanilla Extract
Mint Extract
Almond or Hazelnut Extract
Lemon, Lime, or Orange Extract
Cinnamon Extract
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Blueberry, Strawberry, Raspberry, or Cherry Extract
Banana Extract
Coffee Extract
Coconut Extract
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Printable Labels
Instructions
What’s in the Printable: The printable above if a PDF that contains 2 pages–the first page has just one vanilla extract label (so you can make one bottle just for yourself); the next page has the label 9 times so you can make multiples for gifts.
How to Make the Printable: You’ll need some printable sticker sheets and some 4-ounce bottles. Just print the labels onto the sticker sheet(s), cut out the labels, stick them onto the bottles (clean and dry them thoroughly first), and you’re good to go!
Want the Other Labels Too? If you’d like all the flavor extract labels, you can buy them via my store!
Printable Recipes
I was wondering as to shelf life is on the homemade extracts.
Hi, Kevin. They should last pretty much forever. If they ever develop a funky smell or start growing mold, obviously throw out, but since alcohol is the base of it, it should really last pretty much forever.