Red Zinger tea flavoring turns black when added to nic juice!

[ThorX2012]

I discovered this bizarre phenomenon tonight as I made a new flavoring: Red Zinger tea by Celestial Seasonings. I made this flavor by dampening a tea bag with a little water, topping it off with VG, and heating it for a while. The taste is excellent- strong and tart. If you've never seen this tea it is a dark red color, like wine. I then made 5 ml of the juice: 30 nic (from 100mg), 40 VG, 30 Red Zinger flavor.

The juice turned a dark greenish-black color upon mixing! This is really weird. I know it's not the VG because I brewed it in that, and it was just red. The nic actually changed the color, like a litmus test. This has me a bit concerned since I don't know if it has been chemically altered by the nic reacting to one of the herbs somehow. Any chemist/herbalists out there that have seen this happen before or care to theorize on this? Is this safe? I really want to vap this but I'm holding off until I get some feedback.

The ingredients of Red Zinger are: hibiscus, rose hips, peppermint, west indian lemongrass, orange peel, natural flavors, lemon myrtle, licorice, and wild cherry bark. Maybe it's the peppermint or orange peel oil?

 

[Hotwire]

I mixed pure mint essential oil and Orange essential oil with juices and they never turned color.

Probably the tea tannins or the liqorice.

 

[player30]

What did it vape like?

 

[Cheeseburgermonger]

Probably the tea tannins or the liqorice.

You can test this by obtaining the ingredients in the tea, separately, then mixing them with nicotine to find the culprit.

I do not believe there are tannins in those ingredients.. there's no actual Tea leaf in there.

 

[Hotwire]

What did it vape like?

It was bloody delicious - the orange.

But man is it powerful. Made me feel stoned. I put too much in - 5 drops to 9ml of strawb juice that was weak tasting.

I then put two drops of that MIX to 7ml of a cruddy menthol I had and even that was too strong.

I'd imagine you'd only need like 1 drop for 20ml of a weak juice to give it an awesome orange flavor.

It IS a surfacant, meaning it is used in cleaning products. But I think one drop in 20ml would give a good orange flavor and not be harsh on the lungs as it is only from Orange rind and is vaporised in aroma therapy, although you don't inhale it as directly as you do when vaping.

There is no hard opinion out there yet in the vaping community as to whether it's safe to vape OE's (though jucie vendors must be using them in fruit and mint juices - but how much remains uncertain) so I wouldn't reccomend it and have thrown the mixes I made away.

Better safe than sick.