A 50-year-old woman from Connecticut was arrested for driving under the influence after officers found her sitting in her car with her eyes closed. When New Canaan police approached Stefanie Warner-Grise they said her breath smelled like vanilla and discovered that she had been drinking vanilla extract.
“Upon speaking with Warner-Grise, officers detected an odor of vanilla coming from her breath, her speech was slurred and she was unable to answer basic questions,” the police said in a statement.
Warner-Grise refused to take a breathalyzer test and was taken into custody. Officers found multiple empty bottles of pure vanilla extract in her car.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, vanilla extract must contain at least 35% ethanol alcohol by volume. Many brands contain more, though the alcohol is burned off during the cooking process. Drinking just a few shots of vanilla extract would be more than enough to put the average person over the legal limit to operate a vehicle.
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