Distillation to create DIY liquids

[panda]

i was thinking of a way to use common drinks or food and extract flavors from it to use in some e liquid. I was thinking that by heating up something like coca cola in a test tube and then condensing the vapor would extract the flavor that could be used for e liquid. Since the sugar and residue would be left in the original test tube, the condensed liquid would be vaporizable ( i don't know if thats a word ). To sweeten the flavor you could add VG, which is supposedly very sweet.

Just an idea.

 

[Anunnaki]

Theoretically, you should be able to distill some of the aromatic oils and other volatile substances from these products but in practice its very hard to isolate minute components in complex mixtures of liquids. Some of the important flavor components of coca cola for example might have boiling points higher or very similar to the major constituent (water), this would make it almost impossible to isolate the desired fraction of distillate.

I have a reflux still that i make moonshine (for bio-fuel purposes only ;-) and essential oils with. Luckily, most of the essential oils and other compounds that give plants their smell and flavor have boiling points lower than 100 deg C and are easy to isolate.

If your going to have any success with this project, your going to have to work on a bigger scale than distilling a test tubes worth. Microscale distillation can be done but it requires some pretty expensive hardware and also an impeccable scientific technique.

 

[panda]

thanks for responding. I think if i wanted to separate only one substance of a mixture i could fractionally distill it by seeing the specific boiling point of the pure flavor and only condense that specific flavor. I think i will have to try this when i order my 901.

 

[Anunnaki]

Glad to help. For a start, why dont u try distilling maybe lemons, oranges or other citrus fruit. You would get good results with only basic equipment.
Try steam distilling the outer peel of lemons (not the pith as it contains bitter components) and isolating the essential oil in a separatory funnel.