An improved process for the preparation of vanilla extract

Fresh green vanilla beans of a recent harvest, or partially cured vanilla beans or preserved green vanilla beans are used as the starting material. A preparation containing natural tea enzyme is made from fresh tea leaves. Fresh/cured/preserved vanilla beans, after proper size reduction, are mixed in a suitable proportion with the tea enzyme preparation and incubated to facilitate action of natural enzymes on vanilla flavour precursors present in the beans. The fermented vanilla & tea enzyme mix is treated with ethanol to inactivate enzymes and to extract the vanilla flavour constituents into ethanol. This is followed by separation of solid phase from liquid phase and clarification, to obtain vanilla extract having characteristic flavour, appearance and acceptable vanillin content.