H20 Tea Extraction Attempt Number 1

[PRIMER]

I'm a cook at a tea house.

Tonight I did some water extractions on some of the teas.

Method:

Boil a large amount of tea in an equal amount of water (about 2 cups of each)

Filter

Reduce (low heat) by half

Filter

Reduce until dark and thick (syrupy)


I ended up with about 30ml of each highly concentrated tea flavor. Some were more traditional teas and some were aromatic blends of tea, dried fruit, nuts and spices.

Honey Spice Rooibas
Super Berry Green Tea
Chocolate Mate
Caramel Rooibas
Super Chai
Grannies Apple Pie
Canadian Maple Leaf

They all smelled great while reducing but are hella bitter.

Does any one know how to use these in DIY? They're water based so maybe it's a no go, I saw one thread that described steeping in pg. Any guidance with tea extraction for DIY would be great since I have access to a couple hundred varieties of tea.

 

[Rin13]

The extraction I've seen were done in PG. Not water. Most people do not use larger amounts of water in their eliquids... so the amount it would take to be detectable would make the amount of water too great. (for example, I've never seen anyone use any more than 10% water and that amount is really high)

 

[PRIMER]

I'm wondering if I could add PG to the water extract and let the h20 evap off...
I spent like five hours plus on these.

 

[jazon1]

yea i would try to let more water evaporate and use some pg and vg to keep things moist and hopefully keep it from molding.

 

[PRIMER]

I wonder if I added pg and simmered to evap h20? Or would the pg evap off first?

 

[jazon1]

maybe just boil it down as is until its really thick then add some pg to make it usable.

 

[unloaded]

I'd say the heat is what caused the bitterness.

 

[glasseye]

There are some tips in scarf-ace's extraction thread. I read she tried some teas and the tannins made it bitter. I cannot remember what method she used. I tried some Jasmine green tea the other day with a quick cold extraction but I think it's not concentrated enough. What I did was put some in a cup with PG to cover, heated in the microwave for 10-15 seconds. Let it cool and then strained it a few times. I'm going to try it again and let it sit for a week or so, but so far I'm having no luck on any tea.

 

[glasseye]

I may have spoke too soon. I just spent a couple hours mixing some things. It seems the jasmine green tea is just fine. I made a 10ml batch adding a little at a time and 1ml of the tea extract was getting there. Instead of adding more I put in 5 drops of TFA Sweetener and 2 drops of TFA Pomegranate. The pom and sweetener brings out the tea and the jasmine nicely. I'm pretty happy with it, there was no bitter taste at all.

 

[PRIMER]

UPDATE -
This works! Mixed up some of the chai and honey rooibas @ 10% in 50/50 and they taste awesome!
I'll try the PG extraction next time but for now I am VERY excited about the results of this simple procedure.

 

[Dougiestyle]

My flavor extraction process goes like this:


10ml PG in tempered glass container
Mark level with Sharpie
Ground tobacco/spice/tea/herbal 2-5gram
Add 10ml PGA
Stir
Heat on coffee plate/candle warmer plate until PGA evaps
Add 5ml PGA
Stir, then strain
Return to heated plate
Allow to evap until level falls to first measurement line
You now have pure extract suspended in PG!
EM added helps to prevent bitterness

This works well for me. Good luck to you!

 

[PRIMER]

My flavor extraction process goes like this:

10ml PG in tempered glass container
Mark level with Sharpie
Ground tobacco/spice/tea/herbal 2-5gram
Add 10ml PGA
Stir
Heat on coffee plate/candle warmer plate until PGA evaps
Add 5ml PGA
Stir, then strain
Return to heated plate
Allow to evap until level falls to first measurement line
You now have pure extract suspended in PG!
EM added helps to prevent bitterness

This works well for me. Good luck to you!

Awesome!
Vendor on PGA?

 

[unloaded]

Local liquor store, PGA is Pure Grain Alcohol or Everclear.

 

[PRIMER]

oH I misread that thought he meant PEG.

 

[ninfreak]

i have made tea extracts with just soaking the tea in pg...cooking tea releases the bitterness and oils. for the concentrations we need to use you want to keep as much bitterness and oils out.

 

[buffaloguy]

As someone who has extracted teas and coffee for nearly a year now I can say that extracting into pg is likely more shelf stable than water would be. I have pg coffee and tea extracts that are a year old and as good as the day they were made.

Water extractions would likely MIX best into a VG base. VG is thicker and usually requires some distilled water to get it to wick properly. I work in all VG base and some of my recipes (especially tobacco types) require as much as 16% DW. If you were to extract flavors into that water being used for thinning then omo that could be a bonus.

All my juices end up being 80%VG and 20% a combo of flavoring (that is usually a pg or pga base) and distilled water.

You can extract anything into either pg or pga. Even VG if you like. I just never thought to do it in plain H2O. I use a mini crock pot and cook my extractions in its even temp water bath for a couple hours. Strain thru a coffee filter TWICE. and voila, finito.

Theres no reason it shouldnt work flavoring your water like this and reducing it down like a good cook making a yummy sauce or glaze... lol.

My suggestion would be to use a vg base to give you more play so your juices arent too loose and lose viscosity. Plus youll get much... much... more vapor.

 

[PRIMER]

It's weird but these don't have the bitterness they did at first, now they're all tasting like nice semi-sweet extract and the flavor's coming thru well in the vapor.

I'm refrigerating to try to keep em from mold.