# Creating Extracts to be used in eJuice



## kimbo (28/9/14)

Found this on Reddit

In the past week we have had a plethora of posts asking about the process of making natural fruit, spice, and other flavor extractions.
Being the hoarder I am, and knowing that Reddit is notoriously hard to search of old informative posts, I have chatted with /u/onions_can_be_sweet (our resident extraction-aire) and will start collecting home-made extraction recipes and methods/techniques in this thread.
*How are commercial flavors created?*


Most artificial flavors are created by combining a carboxylic acid with an alcohol- thus creating a compound called an Ester.
Esters are basically the part of fruits which give the fruity smell/taste. Some taste nice, some taste like glue- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ester#List_of_ester_odorants
*Can I create fruit extracts easily at home?*


Short answer- no. Fruits contain too much sugar, which besides the fermentation issue, sugar burns at the temperature we vape at releasing potentially toxic smoke.
*The following is from posts written by /u/onions_can_be_sweet:*

*Regarding the issues facing fruit juice extraction:*
Sometimes with evaporation and cooling you can get sugars to crystalize, depending on the sugars. But some sugars (fructose, for example) doesn't really want to crystalize even if concentrated, plus there are compounds in fruits that act like antifreeze and work to prevent crystalization. If you can get crystalisation to happen, however, sometimes a physical process like straining or filtering can then get the crystals out.
Sugar refining is done by mixing raw ingredients (sugar cane, sugar beet) with water then filtering, sometimes with charcoal beds. The water can be removed afterward with the methods I discussed above. These processes are not for making flavours, however. I have tried to look into this... how do you get the flavours out of the charcoal or filters without damaging them? I have not found anything about people doing that, I don't know if it's even a possibility, certainly technology to do so isn't accessible to the home lab or kitchen.​*Other extraction techniques:*
*Vanilla bean*... two vanilla beans split down the middle leaving the ends intact in a test tube with 10ml - 20ml of PG, capped and left in a drawer (no light) for two weeks or more results in a very nice natural vanilla extract suitable for mixing in a e-juice. I have some that's been sitting for a couple of months, I mixed up a juice with it at 5% the other day and it completely overwelmed the other flavours... so next time I will go 1%.
*Coffee* is also easy. A heaping tablespoon of freshly ground coffee in 15ml - 25ml of PG mixed in a glass jar then heated in a simmering water bath for about 20 minutes, then filtered yields a very strong coffee extract. Mix about 2% - 10% in e-juice for a very fresh tasting coffee that doesn't taste burnt like many coffee flavourings.
*Dry spices*... I've done allspice, ginger, cloves, cinnamon (stick), nutmeg, corriander, cumin, cardamom, anise, tumeric. Take a look for my pumpkin pie recipe (and others) in the November recipe thread for my method on those.
I used some *tamarind* concentrate (the very dark stuff, with the consistency of bearing grease) mixed at 25% in PG for a tart fruity tamarind extract.
*Lemon and lime juice* (fresh sqeezed) can be used at 1% or more to make an e-juice sour or to enhance fruity flavours. Citric acid works too... dissolve 1/4 teaspoon in 10ml PG, use at 1% or more.
Tobacco is supposed to work too, but I haven't tried it yet.
VG or alcohol ought to be able to be used instead of PG in all of these methods. I read of a method one fellow had of extracting *tobacco* by steeping it in alcohol with a bit of heat and time (days or a week) and then evaporating the alcohol until all that was left was solids, which he then dissolved in PG. If you do tobacco, make sure to use good stuff (not cigarettes, use a good quality cigar or raw tobacco) and be careful with your extract it will contain nicotine.​
WARNING: Don't ever boil PG or VG... they boil at a very high temperature (like oil) that will cause whatever you're extracting to combust. If heating to extract, always use a simmering water bath.
 
http://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/comments/1sost6/creating_extracts_to_be_used_in_ejuice/

Reactions: Like 1 | Informative 5


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## kimbo (28/9/14)

*Chocolate/Cinnamon*

*DIY E-Liquids from Natural Extractions: Chocolate/Cinnamon*







Freshly hand-crushed cinnamon stick​In a bid to reduce the amount of artificial stuff I usually vape on, I recently began experimenting with creating my own natural flavourings for my e-liquids. Through a process of trial and error, I now have a couple of crystal clear extracts, which are highly realistic and very satisfying in terms of flavour-especially considering they were so simple to make.



DIY natural cinnamon extract​


I tried extracting flavours from coffee, ginger and tea, but these weren't particularly nice; chocolate and cinnamon are the two that really stood out as powerful characteristic flavours, and these two have now replaced my regular artificial flavours as my staple all-day vapes..The chocolate one in particular is the best chocolate flavour I have ever tasted- not like cocoa at all- a really warm and full flavour. Unless you have distilling apparatus (unlikely unless you are a chemist, bootlegger or sorcerer) and are using pure grain alcohol or some other powerful solvent that you can evaporate down to a few drops, the extracts you can make at home are generally a lot more dilute (you might need up to 60% of extract per mix of e-liquid).



*Ingredients and equipment:*
All you need is some good cocoa powder (NOT drinking chocolate-should just contain powdered cocoa and nothing else-I'm using Bournville Cocoa Powder in UK) or a fresh cinnamon stick, some Propelene Glycol and a clean drinking glass or bowl. You also need a couple of pieces of kitchen roll or regular Kleenex (don't use coffee filter papers-they aren't fine enough). If you have a small funnel or sieve/colander, these will also come in handy, but are in no way essential.
​​*
Procedure:*
These two recipes should give you about 8-10ml of delicious extract, which you can then top up with what ever nicotine solution you prefer.You always lose a bit of PG in this process, as some of it gets absorbed into the powder dregs which you discard. Because cocoa powder is more absorbant than cinnamon sticks, you will get a bit more PG wastage, so you will need more PG to get your final mixture up to 10ml.




*----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*
*EXTRACT RECIPE: CINNAMON *
*1*. Pour 15ml of Propelene Glycol liquid into a small bowl or glass
*2*.Add one large, freshly hand-crushed cinnamon stick and mix well
*3*. Leave to infuse for at least 1 hour, or overnight for a really strong flavour.
*4*. Place one sheet of clean kitchen towel (or two sheets of Kleenex) over a drinking glass or small bowl



Pour hot mixture through filter​*5*. Heat your PG/cinnamon mixture for *7 seconds* on full power in your microwave, or a few seconds in a larger bowl of hot water- this is just to make the liquid thin enough to go through the filter. It should be hot, but not boiling.
*6*. Pour hot mixture through paper filter very slowly-it should take a few minutes. Putting a plate or something else over the filter paper will stop the whole lot falling through and ruining the filtered liquid-or put your filter paper over a sieve or colander. DO NOT poke or tease the mixture in the filter paper, and do not squeeze it to get the last few drops out, as this will result in a cloudy extract.
*7*. After a few minutes remove filter paper and discard contents-you should now have a clear liquid at the bottom of the glass. Leave to cool and mix with your favourite unflavoured nicotine base.
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*EXTRACT RECIPE: CHOCOLATE*
*1*. Pour 20ml of Propelene Glycol liquid into a small bowl or glass
*2*.Add 5 ml of fresh cocoa powder and stir until fully absorbed

*3*. Leave to infuse for 10 mins (any more and the mixture can become too starchy)
*4*.Follow instructions 4-7 as above in cinnamon recipe




Choco mixture can take longer to filter​------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Mixing with your extracts:*



Filtered extracts ready for nicotine​When you have extracted the liquids as shown above, check that they are crystal clear and free of particles before mixing with them. I would recommend that your flavour extract makes up around 40-60% of your final e-liquid mix. If, like me, you are dripping with a 510 or similar device, you may want to make the liquid thicker before you use it in your PV. I thicken all my finished extracts with a heavy VG/nicotine mix (Platinum Ice 54mg from Ecig Wizard UK works very nicely and is very good value). If on the other hand, you use cartos, you will not need to thicken - a pure PG/nicotine mix will be ideal for your device and you will also get a stronger, fuller flavour.

*Improving the flavours further:*
These natural home made essences do not really need anything added to them - they taste great as they are, but if you want to really pop the flavours out, you can add a few drops of Ethyl Maltol solution (you can get this from ECigWizard (or Cotton Candy flavour-try Lorann Flavours). Alternatively, you can try sucralose sweetener, which will serve a similar purpose.

http://www.vapemeup.com/2011/11/diy-e-liquids-from-natural-extractions.html​

Reactions: Like 3 | Informative 5


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## huffnpuff (28/9/14)

Or if you have +40-60K to play with you can also try a Rotovap..ie Rotary Evaporator. Used to extract aroma,flavour and essential oils, or a VERY expensive way to make mampoer

Reactions: Like 3


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## bluegray (20/10/17)

This does not seem too complicated to do. I think I'll try it. Anyone tried extracting cacoa using the method described above?
Is it safe?

Reactions: Like 2


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## Hooked (21/10/17)

kimbo said:


> *Chocolate/Cinnamon*
> 
> *DIY E-Liquids from Natural Extractions: Chocolate/Cinnamon*
> 
> ...



Very interesting post @kimbo ! I just don't understand how one can pour hot liquid through a paper towel or Kleenex. Obviously the paper towel / Kleenex is going to simply dissolve?

Reactions: Like 1


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## bluegray (21/10/17)

I've actually tried this out last night. It seems to work pretty well. I haven't vaped on it too much though, would like to steep it a little to see how it changes flavour. There is definitely a chocolatey taste, but not too much. I have some vaper's tongue atm, so I would not trust any judgement on taste from me... 

I don't think the intention is for the liquid mixture to be very hot, just a little to make it pass through the filter faster. You can probably skip this step if it's not too thick to filter. Slower is probably better. Mine dripped slowiy for about 20-30min - I heated it only slightly in some hot water. I did end up filtering it twice, since there was a tiny trace of sediment from the first filter. The second time went a little faster.
I used normal paper kitchen towel, folded into a funnel shape. The end product was clear and without any sediment I could see.

Started with 20ml of unflavoured PG and 5ml cacoa powder, which after filtering left about 10ml of flavoured PG. I mixed that 50/50 with 10ml of unflavoured VG.

Reactions: Like 2


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## Hooked (21/10/17)

Cocao has a slightly bitter taste, so could I add a few drops of Stevia (shop-bought artificial sweetener) to it?

Reactions: Like 1


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