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?
Regarding the issues facing fruit juice extraction:
http://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/comments/1sost6/creating_extracts_to_be_used_in_ejuice/
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
- 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.
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: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.
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.
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/
