Extract vs. Absolute or what to do with cocoa absolute

[Guest guest]

What is the difference between an Extract and an Absolute? Is there one?

Wouldn't anything derived from something else be an extract? I suppose I am

looking for a trade definition here. Vanilla extract sold in stores is labled as

an extract, but is mostly water and alcohol. Are the methods used to get the

" vanilla " out in the ones sold in grocery stores for cooking, the same methods

used to extract out the " vanilla " in an absolute? If this is so, then is the

product sold in grocery stores safe to use in cooking only becasue it is so very

diluted? How much vanilla bean is needed to make an absolute? Vanilla beans

all by themselves are really expensive, so this is why I started to wonder about

it in the first place. In the second place, I have cocoa absolute, and am

wanting to know what I can safely do with it! On one web site I visited

regarding cocoa absolute, it said " use just like vanilla " , but vanilla what?

Vanilla Absolute? or Vanilla extract? What do you use vanilla absolute for? If

you should not use it for " therapeutic " (and I use this term loosley!) reasons

becasue of the solvents, then what are the reasons to use it? If you use it in a

lotion, you are still applying it to your skin. If it is as a perfume, it is

still being used on your skin. I really love the smell and was overcome with

delight and ordered it and now haven't an idea what to do with it! In some

articles on absolutes it says that there could be residues of solvents, so why

would you want to smell it all? I hope this isn't too much again! Love, Paris