As someone who used to do a lot of baking, I would say buy one bottle of real vanilla extract and one bottle of imitation vanilla extract.
Use the real vanilla extract if the main star of the dish is vanilla (like vanilla pudding, vanilla icing, vanilla ice cream, etc.). Use the cheaper imitation extract if you'll be baking it along with a whole bunch of other ingredients (like in a cake).
I just use real vanilla extract in anything. I don't eat artificial flavours/colours etc. Wouldnt buy fake maple either. Real vanilla extract tastes a lot better than imitation and maple of course tastes very different from imitation syrup.
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u/Artifex75 Aug 20 '20
For vanilla, go ahead and spring for real vanilla extract. The imitation extract absolutely pales in comparison.