I wish I had some of the discontinued Watkins pistachio extract to compare with (still linking it here just in case it comes back in stock in the future), but alas, I used the last of it earlier this year and haven’t been able to replace it (Watkins if you’re reading this PLEASE bring back your pistachio extract! I’ll buy a dozen bottles!) If my memory serves, it was very almond-forward but with a richer, butterier undertone. (They didn’t test the Beanilla extract which arrived after I had completed the first test batch of cookies and rounded out my personal top 4.) While we all agreed on the top two, the rest of the lot was sort of divisive. We tasted the raw cookie dough as well as the final baked cookies, making notes about the flavor profiles present and how much each one tasted like actual pistachios (spoiler: most of them tasted fine, but nothing like actual pistachios).īoth Taylor and I taste tested the final cookies, and we also gave some to our friends Phillip and Billy for a second opinion.
I made a triple batch of my pistachio amaretti cookies and divided the dough it into 10 bowls with a few drops of extract to each bowl (one was my control batch which had no extract). To test the extracts, we labeled each bottle A-I. Prices are shown as of June 2023 and may be subject to change. Do with that information what you will.ĭisclaimer: I was gifted some of these products from the respective brands, but purchased all the others.
So even if the extract itself doesn’t taste exactly like real pistachios, it will still improve the final product, so it’s definitely worth using in that regard.īased on the flavor notes we detected in many of these extracts, you could probably also get away with using vanilla extract mixed with almond extract and get similar results. I do think in most cases the pistachio extract does enhance the natural pistachio flavor in a recipe (assuming your recipe actually has pistachios in it in the form of whole/chopped nuts, pistachio flour or pistachio butter). From orange to almond to marshmallow to cherry, these extracts tasted like pretty much everything except pistachio. The nine brands we tried were all over the board. It is very hard (well-nigh impossible) to find a pistachio extract that tastes like actual pistachios. However, I’ve found that pistachio extracts vary wildly in terms of their flavor notes and overall pistachio-ness.
Toasting the nuts changes the flavor profile entirely: toasted pistachios will be less bitter and grassy-tasting, and more buttery and toasty than their raw counterparts.ĭid you know: pistachios are from the same botanical family as mangoes and cashews?īecause the natural flavor of pistachios is so mild and easily overpowered by other ingredients like chocolate and butter, I like to add a bit of pistachio extract to any pistachio-flavored treats or desserts to play up the pistachio flavor. The prevalence of fake pistachio flavor has further skewed our perception of what pistachio actually tastes like, which in reality is mildly sweet, nutty and earthy, and sometimes even a bit piney, woody or herbaceous depending on the freshness and variety. Unlike vanilla, lemon, or even almond which is a very clear and defined flavor (we all know what vanilla tastes like, and while various vanilla extracts can vary in quality and intensity, they still taste like vanilla), pistachio is much more subjective (I mean, be honest, how you would describe pistachio flavor?) I ended up buying nine (yes, 9!) different pistachio extracts and decided to pit them against each other to find out which one had the best pistachio flavor. A task which turned out to be far more difficult than I anticipated. Pistachio is a flavor we all love and know, or, at least, we think we know-because, in reality, pistachio is one of the hardest flavors to define, describe, and recreate in extract form.Īfter my favorite pistachio extract was discontinued, I started looking for a suitable replacement.
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