The Flavor of New England for over 100 Years

Our Roots

One of the oldest continuing businesses in Maine, the Dolan Flavoring Company of Portland has produced an array of full-flavored products and extracts for over a hundred years.  The company’s current feature item, Mount Williams Original Vanilla Flavor, contains a unique, homemade formula created in 1906 when Founder Harry A. Dolan sought an economical, better-tasting alternative to vanilla extract.  This product has provided rich, “grandma’s kitchen” quality flavors to New England homes, bakeries, specialty shops, ice cream makers and supermarkets for over a century.  For the purist baker, the Dolan Flavoring Company offers Autumn Lane Pure Bourbon Vanilla Extract, the rich essence of which is sure to enhance your ice cream, custard and pudding dishes.   

Our Flavors

Close your eyes and think back for a moment to the sweet aromas of Grandma’s kitchen and the heavenly taste of her baked goods. Butter and sugar creaming in the bowl. The oven door creaking open. A rack of cookies cooling on the counter that you weren’t allowed to touch just yet.

And right there beside them, where it always was, sat a bottle of Mount Williams Original Vanilla Flavor. Seeing it come out of the cupboard always brought anticipation of what was about to come.

Grandma trusted Mount Williams for a simple reason: it works. It won’t cook out, so the flavor that goes into the batter is the flavor that comes out of the oven. That’s true in a birthday cake, a holiday pie, or a batch of homemade ice cream. Every drop a unit of flavor, just like the label has always said.

That promise has held for 120 years. Since 1906, the Dolan family has carried the same beloved flavor from Portland, Maine, into kitchens across New England. The recipe has never been published, never been sold, and never been changed. It stays with the family, now four generations strong.