eli5: Why is vanilla ice cream/ yogurt white when a vanilla bean in brown?
In: 5
Vanilla beans are black. The primary component that provides the taste is Vanillin and it is its pure form is it looks like sugar and forms white crystals. You can see it from on the black beans [in this image](https://cdn.madagascarvanillacompany.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/crystals-B.jpg) So vanilla extract made from vanilla beans is white.
But even if you make ice cream with vanilla beans yourself the result is white ice cream with small black dots in it like in https://notacook.com/2011/03/31/white-chocolate-vanilla-bean-ice-cream/ You do not need a lot of vanilla beans for the tase. The black part is not dissolved in the liquid so it do not result in a gray color
That said most things with vanilla flavor do not contain anything that comes from vanilla plants. You can make Vanillin synthetically and 99% of what is used is made this way.
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