Anybody Naturally Extracting Spices?

[acidrain23]

I've been scouring the interwebs for more info, but other than the stickied post over at the Reddit DIY site, not coming up with much. I see some people have played around a little with natural spice extractions (or NSE's?)- but has anyone been successful with them? Have you mixed them into recipes and what are good starting points for how much to use? I know that is probably a highly variable question depending on your spices/base liquid ratio, but looking for a place to start. I'm guessing spice extractions are weaker than commercial flavorings in general, but of course that could be a total misconception (my cinnamon extract smells pretty strong at this point!)

I have cinnamon stick, nutmeg, clove, star anise, vanilla bean and szechuan peppercorn going right now. I used approximately 1 table spoon of whole spices (or very lightly crushed) to one ounce of 50/50 PG/VG. I've been placing the bottles in a hot water batch 1-2 times per day and letting them cool back down again slowly. Then resting for a week or two. I hoping to getting around to filtering them soon and start experimenting!

Of course there is the safety unknowns with natural ingredients, but I think that applies to all of the other flavors we use too. Obviously I'm not going to start burning down 10 ml of spice extract per day. Let me know what you think!

 

[Smoky Blue]

try doing a search for nets here.. i have a bit but no pix..

 

[Woodsman]

I've been scouring the interwebs for more info, but other than the stickied post over at the Reddit DIY site, not coming up with much. I see some people have played around a little with natural spice extractions (or NSE's?)- but has anyone been successful with them? Have you mixed them into recipes and what are good starting points for how much to use? I know that is probably a highly variable question depending on your spices/base liquid ratio, but looking for a place to start. I'm guessing spice extractions are weaker than commercial flavorings in general, but of course that could be a total misconception (my cinnamon extract smells pretty strong at this point!)

I have cinnamon stick, nutmeg, clove, star anise, vanilla bean and szechuan peppercorn going right now. I used approximately 1 table spoon of whole spices (or very lightly crushed) to one ounce of 50/50 PG/VG. I've been placing the bottles in a hot water batch 1-2 times per day and letting them cool back down again slowly. Then resting for a week or two. I hoping to getting around to filtering them soon and start experimenting!

Of course there is the safety unknowns with natural ingredients, but I think that applies to all of the other flavors we use too. Obviously I'm not going to start burning down 10 ml of spice extract per day. Let me know what you think!

I think the Reddit post about the split vanilla bean is what sent me toward spices. I have (whole or broken into large pieces that don't need to be filtered out): Cardamom Seeds, Nutmeg Nuts, Allspice Berries, Whole Clove, Licorice Root, Star Anise, Sassafras Root, and Cinnamon Sticks. I've vaped some Cardamom, Cinnamon, Star Anise, and Clove. Cardamom and Star Anise are my favorites to date. I put about a teaspoon of spice into a 30ml glass dropper bottle with 70VG/30PG no-nicotine base. Then I just put the bottles in a cool dark place and forget about them for awhile.

 

[Jaaxx]

I haven't tried with spices, but I do make a few NETs. My method is submerging the tobacco in a mixture of 75% PG and 25% Ethanol in glass jars. Then lightly capped and into a sous vide machine at 150F for 36 hours. Then uncapped (to allow the alcohol to evaporate a bit) for 12 hours. They are allowed to cool, get tightly capped and run through 4 one hour cycles in the ultrasonic cleaner.

After that they are strained, filtered 3 times through coffee filters in a press and then filtered 5-6 times through 5 micron lab paper.

 

[dnezarmichael]

I've made a few of my own flavorings, the key is, lots of flavor producing "spices" , and either WGA processing or simple PG/VG extraction.

Coffee
Cloves
MJ
Cardamon
Black Tea
Turkish Ceylon Tea
Bahārāt (Mix of local arab spices, usualy by not always, Allspice, Black peppercorns, Cardamom seeds, Cassia bark, Cloves, Coriander seeds, Cumin seeds, Nutmeg, Dried red chili peppers , paprika, mint)

I'm going to make some cumin flavor this week, as a joke to a friend =)

Here is a helpful link on the topic (you can find TONS more online)
http://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/comments/1sost6/creating_extracts_to_be_used_in_ejuice/

 

[Woodsman]

I remember Sassafras Tea from long ago, so bought some Sassafras Root. Reading that

I've made a few of my own flavorings, the key is, lots of flavor producing "spices" , and either WGA processing or simple PG/VG extraction.

Coffee
Cloves
MJ
Cardamon
Black Tea
Turkish Ceylon Tea
Bahārāt (Mix of local arab spices, usualy by not always, Allspice, Black peppercorns, Cardamom seeds, Cassia bark, Cloves, Coriander seeds, Cumin seeds, Nutmeg, Dried red chili peppers , paprika, mint)

I'm going to make some cumin flavor this week, as a joke to a friend =)

Here is a helpful link on the topic (you can find TONS more online)
http://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/comments/1sost6/creating_extracts_to_be_used_in_ejuice/

Yeah, that's the link that got me started on the idea of soaking spices in base liquid. Must be the same link acidrain mentioned. Not much info out there about soaking spices. My latest plan is to soak Sassafras Root even though it contains Safrole (banned by the FDA and used in making Ecstasy)...

 

[dnezarmichael]

There is tons of info online, about extracts of every kind. However most are not vaping, but cooking related. However if you can get the flavor in WGA or PG/VG, its on like donkey kong.

 

[Smoky Blue]

I love to do my nets and extracts..
been doing them for a long time..
was surprised, a friend last night requested one of my favs..
hot gingerale

another couple months, my ginger will be coming up and it will be on!

 

[BigNasty]

Careful with the cinnamon. Depending on the region it is sourced from Ceylon region not the garbage cassia cinnamon.

 

[Woodsman]

Careful with the cinnamon. Depending on the region it is sourced from Ceylon region not the garbage cassia cinnamon.

And the Star Anise...the wrong type is poisonous!! (Chinese Anise Good. Japanese Anise Bad.).

 

[Lost]

Not starting a new thread because... only step #1.

Coriander
2 tablespoons pulverized coriander seeds
8 tablespoons PG
Very clean jar

Will have to sit for a good while. Probably a month if I don't help it along, which will give me time to read up on things. Coriander smells like Fruit Loops.

Any spice you get in the grocery store will be insanely overpriced. The trick is to find a bargain without having to mail-order a pound of something. Sometimes you can find stores that sell affordable spices out of bulk jars.