Frequently Asked Questions
Find out more information about our products, shelf life, ingredients, availability and vanilla in the frequently asked questions below.
The easiest way to find an item when you cannot locate it is to head online!
1. Use the search bar on the Coles or Woolworths website to bring up the item on their website.
2. Click on the correct item once it appears in the search results.
3.1. On the Woolworths website, look over to the right under the product description to find “Check stock in our stores”. Click on the link, and you’ll be able to type your postcode in to find all Woolworths supermarkets near you, with the item available.
3.2. On the Coles website, you’ll need to log in, or create a Coles account to view the in store availability. Once location the product, select “Choose a delivery time” on the grey menu on the right side of the page. Within here, you’ll be able to click “choose another collection location nearby”, which will bring up a map of all stores.
If you’re unsure if the product is still available, please refer to our Deleted SKU list.
Unfortunately we do not have a great deal of influence over which stores stock our products. Our team work hard to put our products on your shelves, but ultimately it’s the retailers who decide which products they want in their stores which means that from time to time a much loved product is deleted from our product line.
As of December 2021, the products that are no longer available to purchase are:
Essences & Extracts
- Orange Essence
- Brandy Essence
- Parisian Essence
- Aniseed Essence
- Coffee Essence
- Mango Essence
- Strawberry Essence (replaced with Strawb’ry & Cream Flavour)
- Cherry Brandy Essence
- Imitation Chocolate Essence
- Choc Espresso Flavour for Icing
Limited Edition Flavours
- Mermaid Magic
- Pina Colada
- Ginger Bread
- Butter Popcorn
Colours
- Cochineal Food Coloring
- Green Food Colour Gel
- Yellow Food Colour Gel
- Blue Food Colour Gel
Decorations
- Icing Decorations Flowers
- Icing Decorations Unicorn
- Wafer Daisies
- Wafer Flowers
- Oetker / Queen Unicorn Wafers
- Soft Sugar Pearls
- Lime Baking Paste
- Raspberry Baking Paste
- Passionfruit Baking Paste
- Cinnamon Baking Paste
- Vanilla Bean Dusting Sugar
Syrups
- Sugar Free Blueberry Maple Syrup
A range of Queen products, including our Vanillas, Colours, Glucose Syrup, Maple Syrup and Extracts are available in larger volumes. Please browse the information available on our Commercial page, then get in touch via our Contact form to arrange a quote.
We’d love to assist you in stocking Queen products. First browse our Products section to discover which products in our range you would be interested in stocking, then get in touch via our Contact page. If you can give us as much info as possible, such as the products you’re interested in and the quantities, it will help our team greatly in sending you more information.
Our products are sold in Australia and New Zealand. In Australia, our products are available in Woolworths, Coles, IGA supermarkets and small retailers, while in New Zealand our products are available in PAK’nSAVE, New World and Countdown.
Unfortunately we do not have a great deal of influence over which stores stock our products. Our team work hard to get and keep our products on shelf but ultimately it is the retailer that decides which products they want in their stores. You could try asking the store manager at your local supermarket to add this product to their range, or fill in a customer feedback form.
For more detailed information, please visit the individual Product Page of the item you are looking for.
All our Queen Vanilla, Queen Flavours and Queen Colours are Gluten Free. For all other Queen products we recommend checking the label.
Good news! The majority of Queen Products are in fact vegan. Simply click on the product name to read more info.
Colours:
Black liquid colour 50ml
Blue liquid colour 50ml
Green liquid colour 50ml
Rose pink liquid colour 50ml
Pillar box red liquid colour 50ml
Yellow liquid colour 50ml
Rainbow Food Colours (4x7ml)
Black gel colour 15g
Blue gel colour 15g
Green gel colour 15g
Red gel colour 15g
Yellow gel colour 15g
Flavours:
Passionfruit Baking Paste
Lime Baking Paste
Cinnamon Baking Paste
Unicorn Dream Flavour for Icing
Bubble Gum Flavour for Icing
Choc Espresso Flavour for Icing
Natural Almond Extract
Natural Brandy Essence
Imitation Chocolate Essence
Natural Coconut Essence
Natural Lemon Extract
Parisian Essence
Natural Peppermint Extract
Natural Rosewater Essence
Natural Rum Essence
Vanilla:
Celebrating 120 Years Master Blend Pure Vanilla Extract
Queen Madagascar Vanilla Bean Paste
Organic Vanilla Bean Paste
Fairtrade Vanilla Extract with Seeds
Natural Vanilla Concentrated Extract
Natural Vanilla Extract
Natural Organic Vanilla Essence-Extract
Natural Organic Vanilla Madagascan Extract
Queen Finest Vanilla Extract with Seeds Vava’u
Queen Finest Single Origin Vanilla Extract Madagascar
Queen Finest Vanilla Bean Pods
Imitation Vanilla Essence
Baking Ingredients:
Sugar Free Blueberry Maple Flavoured Syrup
Sugar Free Maple Flavoured Syrup
Jel-it-In Vegetarian Gelling Powder
Glucose Syrup
Pure Maple Syrup
Glycerine
The main difference is that flavouring extracts are derived from the natural ingredient. For example, Peppermint Extract is made from Peppermint being soaked in a mixture of ethyl alcohol, glycerine and water. The flavour compounds of the ingredient infuse into the soaking mixture, then forming the extract. Essences, by contrast are a mixture of a commercial flavouring (which may be natural or synthetic) and depending on the recipe, ethyl alcohol, glycerine and water. Queen produces a range of Flavouring Extracts and Flavouring Essences as some flavours are very difficult to extract from the original ingredient while still giving a pleasant, characteristic flavour.
Our Products section lists the ingredients and allergen status (eg Gluten Free) of every single Queen product.
Queen uses Green Palm palm oil. GreenPalm provides a market for RSPO certified growers and producers to sell and receive a premium for their certified tonnage. Compliance with the RSPO principles & criteria prove they are environmentally and socially responsible, are not destroying primary forest, and are developing plans to continually improve their operations. For more information please visit http://greenpalm.org/the-market/green-palm-members
Each Queen product has its ingredients listed on the packaging. Ingredients information is also listed in the Products section of this website.
The batch number is a 6 digit number usually located on the back or base of our bottles and packets, often contained in a small white box.
The quality of our products and your enjoyment of them is very important to us. Please get in touch via our Contact page and provide us as much information about the product as possible to allow us to best assist you.
We receive a large volume of collaboration enquiries each year, and it warms our hearts to know that Queen is loved far and wide by Aussie bakers!
We’re in the middle of scoping an exciting Queen Collaborators project – details TBC! This project is likely to go live later in the year via our Baking Club. So if you haven’t already, make sure you join here (it’s free!) so we can keep you posted with all the latest news, products and recipes.
Unfortunately opportunities for sponsorship are closed at this time, but please check back in the future!
You can reach us via our Contact page. Our website contains as much information as possible about our products, so please feel free to browse our product pages and these FAQ’s – hopefully you’ll find the answer you’re looking for.
Queen Vanilla extracts are made by combining pure vanilla beans with a mixture of alcohol (sugar cane-derived ethanol) and water. This allows the flavour compounds from the pure vanilla bean to infuse into the alcohol/water mixture, which then forms the pure vanilla extract. While vanilla beans can be extracted without alcohol, it is very slow, ineffective and results in a lower quality vanilla extract. At Queen we want to produce the very best vanilla for your baking, which is why our extracts are made through the alcohol extraction method.
Does the alcohol cook out?
The highest percentage of alcohol Queen Vanilla contains is 35%. This means that if you use 1 tsp Queen Vanilla extract in your baking (5ml), you would at most add 1.75ml alcohol to your cake (a tiny amount). The high temperatures achieved during baking will cause most of this alcohol to evaporate out of your cake with the flavor remaining intact, as the alcohol is simply a carrier for the flavor.
What alcohol free vanilla do you have in your range?
Queen Finest pure vanilla beans are the only alcohol free vanilla in our range at this time.
Queen Imitation Vanilla Flavour is another option for your baking but this is not a vanilla extract, only an imitation vanilla flavour and contains less alcohol.
In conclusion;
In short, alcohol is the most effective way to extract the true flavour from the vanilla bean that you love in your baking. That rich aroma when you crack open a bottle, and the incredible flavour when used in baking are all achieved by the extraction process that we have perfected here at Queen over the past 120 Years!
Our Red Label Vanilla is one of our oldest Vanilla products. For a long time, the term ‘essence’ implied the natural concentrated form of Vanilla. Over time, the term ‘extract’ has come to be used to describe pure vanilla instead. We keep the word essence on the label so that our long-standing customers still recognise this Vanilla as the one they have been buying for 30+ years, however this product is a true Vanilla Extract from premium quality Vanilla Beans.
The process to grow and cure Vanilla Beans is very time and labour intensive. It takes 3 years for a vanilla vine to bear fruit and once the vine flowers, each flower must be pollinated by hand within 12 hours of opening. After pollination, the vanilla pod will grow and take 9 months to reach maturity, at which point it must be hand picked at peak ripeness, right before the pod splits. After harvesting the vanilla pods, these green pods are then cured and stored for the Queen Vanilla flavour you know and love to develop. With more than 12 months needed to produce a single vanilla bean, it is a costly process but truly worth it for the wonderful flavour it brings to desserts and baking.
Store all Queen Vanilla products, including Vanilla Bean Paste and Vanilla Bean Pods in cool, dry conditions away from heat and sunlight, such as the pantry. To help keep to its full shelf life, ensure the lid of your Vanilla Bean Paste is clean and screwed on properly when stored, and use a clean spoon to measure out the paste each time. There’s no need to store Queen Vanilla products in the freezer or refrigerator. Queen Vanilla Extracts and Vanilla Bean Pastes and Pods will keep for 4 years and 6 months.
Here’s a handy reference to understand the differences in our vanilla products. Luckily it is hard to ‘overdo’ vanilla in recipes, so don’t worry if you add a little more than the recipe calls for.
The use of the term ‘bourbon’ to describe a vanilla bean means that the bean is grown in Madagascar or other islands in the Indian Ocean, such as Comoros and Réunion. The term does not describe that the alcohol ‘Bourbon’ has been used, but instead is derived from the old name for Réunion, which was known as the Île Bourbon. Sometimes vanilla from this region is simply referred to as Bourbon Vanilla, other times Madagascan Bourbon Vanilla or simply Madagascan Vanilla. It is a strong, creamy, woody, intense vanilla that gives a wonderful vanilla flavour in all types of dishes.
Vanilla Extract, Vanilla Bean Paste and Vanilla Pods can all be used in a range of ways, while there is no absolute for each, here are a few ideas to make the most of these different vanilla types:
- Vanilla Extract – Excellent for everyday baking such as cakes, biscuits, tarts, breads, pies and cooked dishes. Gives a pleasant, mild vanilla flavour.
- Vanilla Bean Paste – Ideal for a strong, aromatic vanilla flavour in everyday baking such as cakes and biscuits. The vanilla bean seeds are especially pretty in cream-based treats such as buttercream icing, shortbread, custards, meringue and creme brulee. It is also delicious in smoothies and milkshakes.
- Vanilla Bean Pods – Vanilla Bean Pods can be used in the same way as Vanilla Bean paste and are great for making home made vanilla sugar as well. Depending on the recipe, you might find our Vanilla Bean Paste gives a stronger vanilla flavour.
- Vanilla Bean Grinder – Perfect for finishing cakes, desserts or even over coffee. The vanilla beans are lightly dried to allow for easy grinding.
Our Fairtrade Vanilla Extract with Seeds is produced with Fairtrade certified vanilla. Fairtrade certification means farmers receive a higher dollar value for their crops and improved terms of trade, giving them the opportunity to improve their lives and plan for the future. Our Fairtrade Vanilla Extract offers our customers a powerful way to reduce poverty through their every day shopping.
Please discover more about Queen Vanilla and our Vanilla Programs over in the Queen Vanilla section.
Unfortunately we don’t offer printed copies of our eBooks, with the exception of our Vanilla Recipe Book. But don’t despair! All of our eBooks are specially designed as PDF files to make it easy to print at home. If you don’t have a printer, give your local Office Works or newsagent a go.
Sorry to hear you’re having trouble! If the eBook is not downloading or opening straight away, you may find that clearing your cookies/cache is an easy quick fix to the problem.
If you’re still having trouble, here are some helpful tutorials for opening and saving PDFs on your device:
It’s easy – sign up to our free Queen Baking Club! This gives you access to our recipe database, exclusive member offers, news and competitions. And of course access to our full collection of free recipe eBooks. Hitting ‘subscribe’, gives you immediate access to our extensive recipe eBook library.
Store all Queen Vanilla products, including Vanilla Bean Paste and Vanilla Bean Pods in cool, dry conditions away from heat and sunlight, such as the pantry. To help keep to its full shelf life, ensure the lid of your Vanilla Bean Paste is clean and screwed on properly when stored, and use a clean spoon to measure out the paste each time. There’s no need to store Queen Vanilla products in the freezer or refrigerator.
Our Colours and Extracts are best stored in cool, dry conditions away from sunlight such as the pantry, even after opening.
A lot of our products have a very long shelf life, meaning for a long time we didn’t label a best before date on them. Approximately 2 years ago we started labelling best before dates on our products to assist people in knowing how long to keep them for. Our Colours, Essences and Vanillas have a shelf life of approximately 4 years and 6 months. If you are unsure of when you purchased the product, it is probably best to discard it.
