Funnily enough, vanilla is actually very dark. The bean itself is dark-brown-almost-black, and the extract is also a dark brown liquid. Vanilla ice cream is whi

Funnily enough, vanilla is actually very dark. The bean itself is dark-brown-almost-black, and the extract is also a dark brown liquid. Vanilla ice cream is white because milk is white, and because it doesn't take a lot of vanilla to flavor it. If you have a good vanilla ice cream, you'll see little black specs in it; that's the vanilla.