Anybody out there playing in the kitchen?

[qsplan]

It was a long time ago, that I've read an article saying that it's easy to make your own esresso (or other coffee) concentrate... according to that, you take a #1X4 filter for coffee, you fill it with coffee of your choice and then you place it into another one #1X4, so the coffee be fully covered by the filter...

you place it in a bowl and cover it with 0nic PG and you leave it in a dark place...

40 days (or more) later, you remove the filters to another bown and with the back of a spoon you slightly press it so to extract the most of the absorbed PG from the coffee and then throw away the filter (with the coffee)... you combine the content of the 2 bowls, then you filter it so to remove any coffee particles and you store it in the way you store your other concentrates...

To be honest, I was not that happy with the result... it was so weak in flavour, no aroma, nothing that could make me say WOW...


And then one day, I was in the kitchen and said WOW...

Personally I love garlic!!! But couldn't find any garlic concentrate (FA added it lately in their stocklist)... 

So I got a whole garlic (12 little cloves in it), peeled it, used a garlic press and got all of those 12 cloves through the press into an old blender/chopper thing... I added 100ml of 0nic PG and gave it a go for 5 minutes...

I tranfered it to a 250ml amber bottle and stored it for a couple of months... everyday I was gently shaking it... 2 months later, I filtered it and kept the extract in a 100ml amber bottle for a month...

My extract was ready... a full of garlic smell one... a lovely one...

I added one drop of it in 15ml of the base I use, left it for 2-3 days and started vaping...

Well... it's not something you will crave for it to vape it the moment you open your eyes in the morning... neither the one you would love to vape when you enjoy a pint in a pub, or a glass of wine at home...

But it is really a good choice for a few vapes, after a nice meal...


Next projects... some vegetables (tomatoes, brocolli, aubergine, etc)... or even some pita-gyros...


As people are saying, the only legit Queen of the kitchen is the Fantasy, and sometimes Innovation!!! and sky is our vape limit...

[sleedale]

Interesting qsplan probably not something I would choose to vape, I do like garlic in food, but to vape? Not my thing. Vegetable flavoured liquid is again probably not something I'd like but fruits, now if we could make fruit concentrate, but maybe it's cheaper to just buy the concentrates ready made and eat the fruit? Have fun though, you'll become the Heston Blumenthal of the vape world.

[qsplan]

sleedale I will definately give it a fruity try... in case I'll find any fruit I cannot find in ready concentrates... or I might make a lemon one on my own and compare it to a market's concentrate... probably will have some interesting conclusions...

Heston Blumental... not bad, not bad at all to be honest I'm closer to Gordon Ramsay in F Word or in Hell's Kitchen (based on the way I react sometimes... my wife's eternal complaint... but, it's ok... WOMEN... lol)

The funny thing is that if you spell Heston, in Greek it sounds like "shit on him".... (that's the useless information of the day... lol)

[sleedale]

Loving the Greek translation of Heston , quite appropriate for some of his recipes I think! Good luck with making concentrates, I would just be aware, if you use lemon or orange that you might possibly get oil from the peel? In which case it wouldn't be good to vape. Easy to test though, just drop onto water and see if it separates? Think that's the case. Happy mixing qsplan

[miltiades]

Hi qsplan , already have some homemade concentrates on the basement.

Though i've used everclear for extraction. I've tried with PG and takes 3-4 times more to achieve an extraction.

I've found out that with alchohol is faster (around 2-3 weeks) and the taste aroma is outstanding.

The method i'm using is the following:

1. Around 3 weeks with 100% proof vodka
2. The solution is diluted with filter paper grade 1
3. The final clean liquid is mixed with PG. My sweet spot is around 10% , 1 part concentrate with 9 parts pg

I've tried with vanilla Madagascar , vanilla Tahiti, Ceylon cinnamon.

I don't know about coffee (not a concentrate fan).

good luck with Pita Gyros

[rughead121]

Hi miltiades

I just want to add a note of caution if you are using pure alcohol for extraction. This may act as a solvent and extract more than you want. You may extract some nasty chemicals along with the flavourings.

I don't know enough about it, I am not a chemist but I am sure that Frogster (The Alchemist) mentions something about this in his tobacco extraction guide. maybe Kevin or *-SARIN-* (I think he is a chemist) can say whether I am talking total nonsense or not.

[miltiades]

Hello rughead121 ,

you are correct about alcohol. My friend that his profession is chemical engineer told me that alcohol cannot be used in everything in order to make an extract. For vanilla and cinnamon is safe but for other products isn't. I don't know more information to be honest so i guess the other guys may help.

[Perpetua]

Call me unadventurous . . . but I'm more than happy with the vast range of concentrates already available to us through Vendors.

There's more than I can realistically buy.

But if you enjoy the tinkering, good luck to you.

[*-SARIN-*]

rughead121 qsplan

Alcohol is indeed used as a solvent to extract compounds from certain "stuff" however as rughead121 mentioned, there can be some nasties extracted along with the good stuff that you may not want. In real life the chemist would not worry about this as they would choose the suitable solvent in the first place or refine it using other chemicals or techniques later in the process. However if a chemical lab and the required knowledge is not available to you then there are certain steps that you can take to reduce the risks.

1) Generally citrus fruits are high in oil, it's what either attracts or defends against insects. Oranges, lemons, limes etc are all high in oil and these flavourings in eliquid are synthetic rather than natural extracts.

2) The same can be said for a lot of the spices and mints. Again, these tend to be synthetic flavours for this reason.

3) The oil test mentioned by sleedale above would be a worthwhile test for oil.

4) Lots of vegetables contain added "ingredients" during the growing process, the classic example being neonicotinoids, although rarer these days. These are the compounds that are affecting the bees and have been given a 2 year ban by the EU but they are still in the soil and distribute to every part of the plant during growth. Other insecticides contain potentially harmful compounds.

5) Coffee needs to be handled with care as again the coffee bean contains oil. If you look up the process for making decaffeinated freeze dried coffee from coffee beans then you will start to see some very nasty chemicals in the process as the caffeine is an alkaloid, just like nicotine. Benzene and the di/tri chloro solvents are used in the process extensively.

6) A bit of researching has thrown up Ethyl Acetate as a potential safer solvent that could be used in the extraction of fruit flavours as it is naturally found in the chemical make up of fruit aromas.

FINAL WORD

I am not advocating any of the process mentioned above as safe. The majority of the pre extracted flavours that we use in eliquids are only tested for consumption, not inhalation and a lot of research is still ongoing into the effects of these products after heating and inhalation. We are very much on the forefront of trials in this area and only time will tell if there are any long term problems. BTW you may know this or maybe not but 100% proof vodka does not mean that it is 100% alcohol. Alcohol proof is twice the alcohol content by volume so your vodka is only 50% alcohol, the remaining contents will be water and ???

TL;DR

If you're not familiar with chemistry best just to buy pre extracted flavours. There's so many potential pitfalls using chemicals it's unreal, one missed step or miscalculation and things can go very wrong, very quickly with very serious consequences. Saying that, nothing new was discovered by playing safe

[rughead121]

Thanks *-SARIN-* for the explanation.

Fair play I missed the 100 proof, I just saw 100% and thought oh dear

Personally I think there are enough (relatively) safe flavourings available commercially so I probably wont be cooking up any of my own. Having said that I do mix menthol crystals with PG (Frogster (The Alchemist) has an excellent guide for this) and I am just about to have a go at mixing Vanillin crystals with PG.

[Frogster (The Alchemist)]

Yes I reiterate all that *-SARIN-* has said in the above post.
Nothing really to add to that.
Kev