Vanilla & Baking Extracts • California • Established 1918
Cook’s Vanilla & Extracts
A century of vanilla, family craftsmanship, and flavor.
Since 1918, the Cook’s family has transformed carefully selected vanilla beans and distinctive ingredients into extracts made for baking, beverages, and treasured recipes.
A Small Bottle With a Long Story
A bottle of extract may sit quietly in the pantry, but it can change an entire recipe.
Cook’s began in 1918, when Angus Lochhead set out to produce exceptional vanilla for ice cream makers, bakers, and confectioners. The business continued through the Lochhead family, passing from one generation to the next while remaining focused on quality ingredients and careful extraction.
Across more than a century, the company has endured economic change, shifting food trends, and the unpredictable worldwide vanilla market. Through it all, the family remained committed to finding excellent beans and drawing out their full flavor.
Today, Cook’s still represents the kind of hands-on American family business that has become increasingly uncommon.
Why Good Vanilla Takes Time
Vanilla begins as the fruit of a tropical orchid. Each bean must be grown, harvested, cured, selected, and extracted before its full aroma can reach the kitchen.
Careful Sourcing
Vanilla beans are selected from growing regions known for distinctive aroma, depth, and character.
Patient Extraction
A slow extraction process helps preserve the many aromatic elements found inside properly cured beans.
Flavor With Purpose
Good vanilla rounds out chocolate, supports fruit, softens coffee, and gives baked goods familiar warmth.
Why We Chose Cook’s
At Gift With a Story, we look for American companies whose products carry history, craftsmanship, and a reason for being included in the gift.
Cook’s offers all three.
It is a multigenerational family business with roots reaching back to 1918. Its vanillas connect American baking traditions with growing regions around the world, while its flavored extracts invite recipients to bake, experiment, and create something of their own.
Cook’s does not merely add another bottle to the box. It helps turn the products inside into an experience.
One Ingredient. Many Places.
Vanilla grows in tropical regions around the world, and each origin develops its own aroma and personality. The Trade Routes Collection turns one familiar ingredient into a tasting journey.
Fijian Vanilla
Lush • Ripe • Aromatic
A rich tropical vanilla shaped by Fiji’s warm climate and fertile soil. Its rounded aroma works beautifully in cakes, custards, creams, and fruit desserts.
Indonesian Vanilla
Woody • Smoky • Bold
An earthy vanilla with smoky depth that stands up to chocolate, coffee, warm spices, and recipes where the vanilla should add character rather than sweetness.
Madagascar Vanilla
Rich • Creamy • Classic
The familiar all-purpose vanilla for cookies, cakes, custards, frostings, and ice cream. Its balanced character supports other ingredients without overpowering them.
Mexican Vanilla
Warm • Deep • Traditional
A warm, full vanilla suited to chocolate, cinnamon, coffee, custard, and traditional baked goods. Mexico is the ancestral home of the vanilla orchid.
Papua New Guinea Vanilla
Floral • Sweet • Adventurous
Floral and fruit-forward notes make this vanilla an interesting choice for tropical fruit, cookies, cream-based desserts, and specialty beverages.
Tahitian Vanilla
Floral • Fruity • Distinctive
A noticeably floral vanilla with fruit-like aroma. It works especially well in pastry, sugar cookies, tropical desserts, and recipes where vanilla is meant to be noticed.
Tongan Vanilla
Regal • Rich • Luxurious
Aromatic vanilla grown in rich island soil. Its deep, elegant character suits custards, pastry creams, chocolate desserts, and special-occasion baking.
Ugandan Vanilla
Smooth • Deep • Full-Bodied
A darker, rounded vanilla that pairs naturally with chocolate, caramel, coffee, warm spices, and rich baked goods.
Compare Vanilla the Way You Would Coffee
Try the same simple recipe with more than one vanilla. A basic sugar cookie, whipped cream, or vanilla milk allows the differences between each growing region to stand out.
A Well-Stocked Flavor Cabinet
Cook’s flavored extracts add depth to baked goods, coffee, frostings, sauces, milkshakes, pancake batter, homemade syrups, and original Gift With a Story recipes.
Almond Extract
Bold • Familiar • Sophisticated
Ideal for cookies, cakes, pastries, frostings, marzipan, and cherry desserts.
Banana Flavoring
Ripe • Fruity • Nostalgic
Adds ripe banana flavor to breads, cakes, custards, milkshakes, and chocolate desserts.
Bourbon Extract
Rounded • Oaky • American
A natural addition to caramel, pecan desserts, glazes, sticky buns, sauces, and whipped cream.
Cinnamon Extract
Spicy • Concentrated • Warming
Adds cinnamon flavor to candies, coffee, tea, baked goods, glazes, and homemade syrups.
Coconut Flavoring
Creamy • Nutty • Tropical
Works well with chocolate, pineapple, banana, cakes, custards, ice cream, and tropical drinks.
English Toffee Flavoring
Buttery • Nutty • Indulgent
Adds caramelized sugar and buttery flavor to coffee, scones, cookies, frostings, and dessert sauces.
Hazelnut Flavoring
Nutty • Buttery • Warm
Especially suited to coffee, chocolate, cookies, cream desserts, and homemade café drinks.
Lemon Extract
Bright • Crisp • Fresh
A clean citrus flavor for cakes, cookies, glazes, frostings, ice cream, and beverages.
Maple Extract
Warm • Buttery • Smooth
Use in muffins, sticky buns, pancake batter, frostings, oatmeal, sauces, and homemade syrups.
Peach Flavoring
Ripe • Juicy • Summery
Adds delicate peach character to cobblers, tea, cakes, beverages, yogurt, and ice cream.
Pineapple Flavoring
Sweet • Tart • Tropical
Brightens cakes, candies, smoothies, milkshakes, sauces, and tropical beverages.
Rum Extract
Dark • Bold • Smooth
Adds rich rum character to cakes, sauces, frostings, bread puddings, coffee, and holiday recipes.
A Little Kitchen Alchemy
During Prohibition, kitchens remained places of comfort, creativity, and quiet indulgence. Cakes, puddings, candies, soda-fountain drinks, and strong cups of coffee were still welcome at the table.
Bourbon and rum extracts are especially fitting for our Prohibition-inspired collections. They bring familiar aroma and character to cakes, glazes, sauces, desserts, and beverages without turning the recipe into a cocktail.
A few drops could be the difference between an ordinary recipe and one guests wanted to know more about.
Every Gift Comes With More
Cook’s helps us create gifts that invite the recipient to bake, experiment, and discover something new.
American Family Business
A multigenerational company selected for its history, craftsmanship, and long commitment to flavor.
Product History
Information about the makers and the stories behind the products represented inside the gift.
Original Recipes
Selected sets may include Gift With a Story recipes created around the flavors in the collection.
Personalized Story
Add a custom Prohibition-inspired occasion story at no additional charge.
Gift Sets Featuring Cook’s
Send more than an ingredient. Send an invitation to bake, experiment, share a recipe, and discover what a small splash of flavor can do.