An abomination that supposedly takes like vanilla beans but instead really has the scent of cheap perfume, or nasty, generic cream soda. Usually made from the chemical vanillin, which despite having the word vanilla in the name, does not actually come from vanilla beans or from anything natural that creates vanilla. It has a chemical structure that has somewhat the smell of vanilla.

Please either use real vanilla beans or get a good vanilla extract instead. You're not saving enough money buying imitation vanilla to make it worth the loss to your soul.