Company type | Private Company |
---|---|
Industry | Processed & Packaged goods |
Founded | Battle Creek, Michigan (1888) |
Headquarters | Gonzales, Texas, U.S. |
Products | Spices, herbs, flavorings |
Number of employees | 170 |
Website | www |
Adams Extract, owned by Adams Extract & Spice, LLC (dba: Adams Flavors, Foods & Ingredients LLC), operates a full-service spice and extract packaging and manufacturing facility in Gonzales, Texas. Best known for its Adams Best Vanilla, it also sells product under the Adams Spice, Adams Extract, and Adams Reserve brands. In addition, Adams spices, extract and seasoning blends are found in many private label brands around the country as well as being used to season many commercially produced meat and food products. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Founded in 1888, Adams is one of the oldest continuously operated companies in Texas and one of the oldest spice and extract companies in the United States. [2]
John Anderson Adams, began making and selling extracts in Michigan in 1888. In 1905, he moved the family to Beeville, Texas. His wife was unhappy with the quality of the vanilla extract products available because she felt like they either baked or froze out. Mr. Adams decided to formulate one for her. When his wife tried the product, she was delighted and John replied, "Well, that's old man Adam's best." His vanilla extract became known as Adams Best Vanilla. [5]
Mr. Adams, along with the help of his sons, Fred and Don, began to produce, package, and sell the vanilla extract door-to-door with a complete money back guarantee. After being the first to be awarded a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from University of Texas at Austin, [6] Fred purchased the company from his father and relocated the production headquarters to Austin, Texas. In 1922, he built a two-story building downtown and continued production of the extracts and colors. Adams Extract is credited for having brought the Red Velvet Cake to kitchens across America during the time of the Great Depression by being one of the first to sell red food color and other flavor extracts with the use of point-of-sale posters and tear-off recipe cards. [7] [8] His son, John G. Adams, Sr., worked in the family business throughout his childhood, and after having received his BA in Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin, he returned and helped expand the lines produced. In 1947, he designed and built the assorted food color 4-pack line that is still sold today. [5]
In 1955, the company built a new plant, designed by the famous architecture firm Lundgren and Maurer on I-35. This plant helped aid in the expansion of the products to include spice lines in 1959. During this time, another important person played a big role in the company's recipe development, Betty Adams. Her name can be found on many of the original recipes boasted by the company including the "Adams 75th Anniversary Poundcake" or more commonly known as the Five Flavor Cake. [5]
In 2000, architecture students at The University of Texas at Austin helped the Adams Extract Company design a new manufacturing campus at Buda, Texas, south of Austin. [9]
The Adams Extract building continued production in Austin, Texas, under direction of John G. Adams, Sr., from the Adams family until 2002. In that year, the company was purchased and relocated its facility to Gonzales, Texas. It is still producing a full line of spices, and of course, the Adams Best Vanilla and food colouring line.
In 2009, the movie Extract (film) was released and based on the childhood memories creator and director Mike Judge had of the Adams Extract Plant in Austin, Texas. [10] [11]
In mid-July 2011, Adams Best Vanilla, six other extracts, and food colors were added as a feature product in the popular Apple iTunes app, "Cupcakes!". [12]
In January 2013, Adams Extract & Spice, was awarded the Texas Treasure Business Award, nominated by Senator Glenn Hegar and Representative John Kuempel. Created in the 79th Texas Legislature in 2005 with passage of Senate Bill 920, the program recognizes the accomplishments of Texas businesses that have provided employment opportunities and support to the state's economy for at least 50 years and pays tribute to the state's well-established businesses and their exceptional historical contributions toward the state's economic growth and prosperity. This award was presented to the company, on January 25, 2013, in front of the Alamo in San Antonio at their 125th Birthday Celebration. [13]
The University Star, a student-run newspaper at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, was established in 1911 by Fred Adams, second owner of Adams Extract Co. [14]
Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as cake, biscuit, ice cream and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly savory to create desserts. In some parts of the world there is no tradition of a dessert course to conclude a meal.
Frappuccino is a line of blended iced coffee drinks sold by Starbucks. It may consist of coffee or crème base, blended with ice and ingredients such as flavored syrups and usually topped with whipped cream and or spices. It may also include blended Starbucks refreshers. Frappuccinos are also sold as bottled coffee beverages in grocery stores, convenience stores and from vending machines.
Baileys Irish Cream is an Irish cream liqueur made of cream, cocoa and Irish whiskey emulsified together with vegetable oil. Baileys is made by Diageo at Nangor Road, in Dublin, Ireland and in Mallusk, Northern Ireland. It is the original Irish cream, invented by a team headed by Tom Jago in 1971 for Gilbeys of Ireland; Diageo currently owns the trademark. It has a declared alcohol content of 17% by volume.
Macaroons are small cakes or cookies, originally made from ground almonds, egg whites, and sugar, but now often with coconut or other nuts. They may also include jam, chocolate, or other flavorings.
Vanilla extract is a solution made by macerating and percolating vanilla pods in a solution of ethanol and water. It is considered an essential ingredient in many Western desserts, especially baked goods like cakes, cookies, brownies, and cupcakes, as well as custards, ice creams, and puddings. Although its primary flavor compound is vanillin, pure vanilla extract contains several hundred additional flavor compounds, which are responsible for its complex, deep flavor. By contrast, artificial vanilla flavor is solely made up of artificially derived vanillin, which is frequently made from a by-product of the wood pulp industry. Because of the way that vanilla extract is made, there is no possible way for it to be colorless or clear. Therefore, any clear vanilla flavoring is artificial.
Red velvet cake is traditionally a red, crimson, or scarlet-colored layer cake, layered with ermine icing. Traditional recipes do not use food coloring, with the red color possibly due to non-Dutched, anthocyanin-rich cocoa, and possibly due to the usage of brown sugar, formerly called red sugar.
Hot sauce is a type of condiment, seasoning, or salsa made from chili peppers and other ingredients. Many commercial varieties of mass-produced hot sauce exist.
Chocolate cake or chocolate gâteau is a cake flavored with melted chocolate, cocoa powder, or both. It can also have other ingredients such as fudge, vanilla creme, and other sweeteners.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to chocolate:
Vanilla is frequently used to flavor ice cream, especially in North America, Asia, and Europe. Vanilla ice cream, like other flavors of ice cream, was originally created by cooling a mixture made of cream, sugar, and vanilla above a container of ice and salt. The type of vanilla used to flavor ice cream varies by location. In North America and Europe consumers are interested in a more prominent, smoky flavor, while in Ireland, a more anise-like flavor is desired. To create the smooth consistency of ice cream, the mixture has to be stirred occasionally and then returned to the container of ice and salt to continue the solidification process. According to Iced: 180 Very Cool Concoctions, many people often consider vanilla to be the "default" or "plain" flavor of ice cream.
Sprinkles Cupcakes is a bakery chain established in 2005. It is considered the world's first cupcake bakery.
Instant pudding is an instant food product that is manufactured in a powder form and used to create puddings and pie filling. It is produced using sugar, flavoring agents and thickeners as primary ingredients. Instant pudding can be used in some baked goods.
Hostess CupCake is an American brand of snack cake produced and distributed by Hostess Brands and currently owned by private equity firms Apollo Global Management and C. Dean Metropoulos & Company. Its most common form is a chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing and vanilla creme filling, with seven distinctive white squiggles across the top. However, other flavors have been available at times. It has been claimed to be the first commercially produced cupcake and has become an iconic American brand.
Hummingbird cake is a banana-pineapple spice cake originating in Jamaica and a popular dessert in the southern United States since the 1970s. Ingredients include flour, sugar, salt, vegetable oil, ripe banana, pineapple, cinnamon, pecans, vanilla extract, eggs, and leavening agent. It is often served with cream cheese frosting.
Applesauce cake is a dessert cake prepared using apple sauce, flour and sugar as primary ingredients. Various spices are typically used, and it tends to be a moist cake. Several additional ingredients may also be used in its preparation, and it is sometimes prepared and served as a coffee cake. The cake dates back to early colonial times in the United States. National Applesauce Cake Day occurs annually on June 6 in the U.S.
The old-fashioned doughnut is a term used for a variety of cake doughnut prepared in the shape of a ring with a cracked surface and tapered edges around it. While many early cookbooks included recipes for "old-fashioned donuts" that were made with yeast, the distinctive cake doughnuts sold in doughnut shops are made with chemical leavener and may have crisper texture compared to other styles of cake doughnuts. The cracked surface is usually glazed or coated with sugar.
Strawberry cake is a cake that uses strawberry as a primary ingredient. Strawberries may be used in the cake batter, atop the cake, and in the frosting. Strawberry cakes are typically served cold.
Clementine cake is a cake flavored primarily with clementines. It may be topped with a sweet glaze or sauce, powdered sugar, honey and clementines, or candied clementines. It may originate from an orange cake in Sephardic cuisine. In popular culture, the cake played a minor part in the plot of the 2013 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
Beer cake is a cake prepared using beer as a primary ingredient, and other typical cake ingredients. Chocolate beer cakes may include stout and chocolate stout beer, and some gingerbread cakes include beer in their preparation. The Rabha tribe in India uses a type of beer cake prepared with rice to create rice beer and fotika, a liquor. Beer cake variations exist, such as root beer cake.
A banana cake is a cake prepared using banana as a primary ingredient and typical cake ingredients. It can be prepared in various manners, including as a layer cake, as muffins and as cupcakes. Steamed banana cake is found in Chinese, Malaysian, Indonesian and Vietnamese cuisine. In the Philippines, the term "banana cake" refers to banana bread introduced during the American colonial period of the Philippines.