One of the most popular economical grocery store franchises is Costco, as the company has over 100 million members worldwide. For some chefs browsing Costco aisles, the first stop has to be the baking aisle, where bottles of pure vanilla extract are available at a ridiculously low rate.

Pastry chef Keya Wingfield, who won the Food Network competition series "Spring Baking Championship," feels that Costco's pure vanilla extract is one of the best purchases a baker can make. She explains that the Costco brand bottle of fragrant essence is among the best commercially available vanilla extracts and is incredibly affordable.

In her recently published piece, Wingfield asserts that a 16-ounce bottle of Costco vanilla extract will run you $11.99, but former chef and writer Lizzy Brisken said in Business Insider that the vanilla costs $15.99, which is the price posted on the official Costco website. However, the extract has been subject to some extreme swings in price — once, in 2020, a bottle cost $24.89.

Many recipes call for no more than a teaspoon of vanilla extract, and a single 16-oz bottle of Costco extract contains roughly 96 teaspoons of vanilla extract. This means that if you were to make chocolate chip cookies with your newly purchased bottle of Costco vanilla, you could churn up enough batter for around 768 cookies.