Adams® Flavors, Foods & Ingredients, LLC

Adams® Flavors, Foods & Ingredients, LLC produces well over 100 extracts, spices, and food colors in a variety of sizes, but the company will always be best known for its vanilla extract, ADAMS BEST®. Adams® traces it beginnings back to 1888 when John Anderson Adams sold extracts in the harsh Michigan climate. In 1905 he moved his family to Texas. At the time, most vanilla was sold to pharmacies and was often labeled “Do not bake or freeze.” John A. Adams, whose imagination was stirred by his wife’s yearning for a flavoring that wouldn’t bake or freeze out, announced that he could produce a better vanilla than the one his wife was currently using. Working with just $6.71 worth of materials on top of an old icebox, Adams discovered the formula he wanted. To test this product, his wife whipped up a cake for the family to try. “John, this is the BEST flavoring I have ever used,” she announced. “Well, that’s old man Adams BEST,” he responded. The name stuck. Shortly after World War II, Adams® began diversifying its product line and expanding its operations. By the early 1960s a spice & seasoning division was added. In 2002, Adams® Extract & Spice was moved to Gonzales, TX operating under the name, Adams® Flavors, Foods & Ingredients, LLC.