Process for obtaining flavour constituents from Spent Vanilla and marks. The Vanilla materials are ground to increase their exposure to enzyme activity, after which an aqurous mixture of the ground materials is formed. The mixture is agitated to form a surrey consisting of liquid and solid phase and the surrey treated with a micro organism selected from the group consisting of bacteria and yeast and having the ability to produce an enzyme capable of degrading the plant cell system of the material for a period of time and that a pH and temperature such that the said cell system break down and release their flavour constituents. The enzyme is selected from a group consisting of β-glucosidase and other enzymes. The mixture is incubated for a period of time sufficient to effect substantially complete reaction and release of the constituents, and the flavour constituents are then recovered from the mixture.
