Taste Test by Dior Ayala

Sweet Delights

Looking at the pantry in my house, I noticed that I have many things that are the same product, but different brands, especially with extracts! For this, I decided to use three of my vanilla extracts and compare them, to see if they do taste the same, and the best way to taste this is by baking!!! 

I choose to do the same oatmeal cookies with the only difference being the vanilla, because they are relatively easy and quick to make, and also “healthy”. Of course, because these things can all be found in my own home, you may be wondering “but Dior, you're going to be totally biased!” Worry not Readers! I have never even noticed the difference vanilla extract has. I wonder what the change with using different brands will have!

So, the recipe that I'll be doing is the Soft Oatmeal Cookies from Allrecipes, only changes being that I reduce sugar entirely to just 1/3 cups of brown sugar and 1 tablespoon of milk at the end after mixing the oats with the batter.  The three vanilla extracts that I used are “Watkins: All Natural - Handcrafted Original Gourmet Baking Vanilla”, “Cempoala: Pure Natural Vanilla”, and “Mi Huerta: Vanilla-Vanilla Flavoring”.

Starting with Watkins! I will be honest, I thought this would not be sweet at all, what with the small amount of sugar compared to how much it was supposed to have (and this also goes for the other cookies too), but it was unexpectedly sweet! I thought that because of how muted the aroma was, the taste would be very subtle, but it was surprisingly warm and a little flowery with a sweet and dry aftertaste like bananas. The smell in comparison was not as strong, especially with how there was no distinctive smell that I could notice except the smell of cookie batter. Albeit not the sweetest, the taste was soft-centered!

Next with Cempoala! When I was adding this one into the batter, the smell was very subtle, and a little on the minty side! It ran very smoothly, much more than the Watkins vanilla did when mixing it all together. Compared to the first one that just made my creamy batter lump a little and was so dry it was the reason I added milk at the end, Cempoala ran smoothly. Very moist and easy to hold shape without any crumbs before baking, even the color at the end was the richer of the three. When I tasted it though, I was surprised that rather than the sweetness I expected, there was a spicy hint instead. Maybe it was that the cinnamon overpowered, or the vanilla extract made the taste of cinnamon stronger, but it was more earthy and bitter. 

Lastly, Mi Huerta. This batch that I made surprised me. I used the same recipe and amount of everything, and when adding the vanilla, the smell was really strong! Something the other two did not. The taste, unfortunately, was the most disappointing. Plain, bland and not really tasting of anything else other than the sugar I had added, these cookies were the crumbliest and least sugary I’ve tasted, even when shaping it and a little of the oats didn’t make it to the oven. 

Overall, the best batch to me was the Cempoala Extract, not only because the taste surpassed the other two, but also because with the small amount I had added it also enhanced all other flavors. Just like the label on it said "Pure Natural Vanilla" indeed!