Slow Cooker Extraction of Tobacco and Tea

[scarf-ace]

Any Teavana fans out there?

I got some Tropical Rooibos and Strawberry Lemonade for Christmas and decided to make some extracts today. I did 1 part tea to 2 parts PG and then cooked it double boiler style in coffee cups for 1/2 hour.

I am waiting on the 'official mixes' with the nic and all, but I put 2 drips of this and two drips of VG in the atty and it was AWESOME!

Thanks Scarf-Ace for all of your knowledgeable sharing. <3

You are welcome! Those teas sound delish. I haven't tried any herbal teas/tisanes but I am thinking of making some honey vanilla chamomile with low nic for bedtime

First tobacco batch is steeping. I took a taste test before putting it away and it was already very good. Good enough that I already have a second cook started.

YAY! I was very keen on that cocoa-vanilla-bacco you described. I saw raw cacao nibs at the store... might pick some up.

Do you think your technique could be modified for raw tobacco that I grow myself? And if so, how many plants would I need to produce a liter of 100mg nicotine liquid, do you think?

The only way to know would be to try it and let the rest of us know But I do know that commercial tobacco goes through a lot of processing before being sold, even the good stuff. So you'd have to research those methods on your own. But do report back if it works.

I can attest to this. I used another method (heating VG in a small saucepan, tossing in some tobacco, and letting it simmer for a few minutes, and then cool, then strain and filter it) with some Jasmine-flavored Shisha about a month ago. The initial product looked like REALLY thick Tobacco Absolute--thick, black and sticky. It SMELLED wonderful--just like the shisha I used in the process.

But when I mixed a few drops in some unflavored nic liquid it tasted like the most foul thing imaginable. Bitter, chemically and just plain nasty with a thriat hit like vaping chloring gas mixed with fiberglass. Yuck AND ouch...

But now that it's beein steeping about a month, I tried it again. 3 drops of it in 10ml of 18mg 30/70 PG/VG, with a tiny bit of vanilla flavoring and about 3% ethyl maltol to sweeten it up, and let it steep for a few days and WOW. It was a completely different animal. The vape was smooth, sweet and rich--not quite like smoking shisha in a hookah, but it was flavorful and pleasant.

So now I'm REALLY excited to try the "ScarfAve Method" with some shisha, and perhaps sacrificing some of the fine cigars I still have in my big humidor (Like perhaps a Fuente Hemmingway, or a La Gloria Cubana, or maybe a Partagas Corojo...) First thing I need to do is get to a store and pick up an inexpensive crock pot though--I don't want to use the one I use for cooking food.

I'll be sure to keep y'all updated when I start my experiments. I have a LOT of high-end cigars, and I'm eager to see how they work as concentrates for flavoring my DIY e-liquids...

Please do Stereo! My two cigar juices were made with pricey Cubans...the first one was a Montecristo maduro which I shared with some other forum members and got great feedback. The one I am vaping even as we speak is a Ramon Allones Celestial which is, er, celestial. I can assure you that quality cigars yield excellent results.

I need to find some shisha, as I am keen to try it with this method.

 

[scarf-ace]

I went to a pipe & tobacco store/cigar lounge today and picked up 2oz each of 4 tobacco varieties to steep into my own glycerites today. Excited to give them a try. Hopefully this curbs my hardware "ooh, pretty, shiny" obsession a bit.

(Edit - I looked up what I purchased)
•MacBaren Symphony: Long matured to bring out this mild and cool superior blend. A very harmonious smoking tobacco. Ready rubbed tobacco of Kentucky-Burley, Virginia and Cavendish leaf tobaccos. All specially palatable tobaccos with a light, sweet, and cool smoke.
•MacBaren Black Ambrosia: This is a special blend of choice, fully ripe Burley and matured Virginia tobaccos. A mild and tasty pipe tobacco with an exciting aroma.
•McClelland No. 715 Raspberries in Cream: This is an elegant aromatic with the fragrance and flavor of fresh red raspberries in cream. Soft, light bodied, artfully flavored, this mixture of old American Virginias and Special Black is delicious all the way down the bowl.
•McClelland No. 2015 Virginia Flake and Perique: Made from orange and red Virginias to which enough Perique has been added to create a refreshing smoke with a satisfying richness and depth of flavor. Well-balanced, dark matured cake.

One thing I will mention: be careful with Perique or Perique containing blends. It is an infamous atomizer-murderer. I put up some St James Flake which has a high proportion of Perique in it and it wrecked a brand new Nano clearomizer within about 0.5mls. This is true of commercial Perique liquids too (Vaperite and Goodejuice)

I am thinking of using 500 SS mesh, the same kind used in rebuildable atomizers, as a straining medium, especially for stickier tobaccos like Perique where the paper filters just aren't cutting it. When I acquire some more I will try it out.

 

[Jonner]

I'd like to try this, and plan on ordering some nicotine liquid. Are there any inexpensive reliable methods for determining nicotine content in a liquid?

 

[StereoDreamer]

Started my forray into the Tobacco Extraction process tonight!!!

Currently on the boil:

--Primo Del Rey Cazadore Maduro cigar
--El Rey del Mundo Flor de Lavonda cigar
--Santa Damiana Robusto cigar
--Arturo Fuente Chateau Fuente Maduro cigar

All were chopped into small bits with kitchen shears, then put into 1/2 pint Mason jars, and topped with straight VG.

I put them in my big crock pot on "low" in a water bath with BPA-free lids loosely set on each jar. (I want them to breathe, but since these are four VERY different cigars, I didn't want their flavors and aromas mingling too much, so I covered each jar...)

I'll let everyone know after three days what the initial extracts are like.

I chose these four cigars because:
1) I have a LOT of them in my humidor from when I still smoked, and
2) these were four of my favorites, so I am familiar with their flavor and aroma, and I sort of know what to expect.

I'll be doing some La Gloria Cubana Grand Coronas next, and maybe some Padron 2000 Maduros. I also have a BUNCH of Partagas and Punch maduros in the humidor that I'm eager to extract.

Looks like I need to find a bulk source for VG though. These four batches took about 10oz of VG. IF 2-2.5oz of liquid is about average for a robusto-sized cigar (about 13-15g of tobacco), I'm gonna need a LOT more VG, and the $10/16oz bottles at my local health food store are going to start getting expensive...

PHOTOS:

My first selection of cigars using Scarf-Ace's NET crock-pot extraction method...

This is what a well-aged, 15-year-old $12 Santa Damiana Robusto looks like after being chopped up with kitchen shears...
(I'll admit, this was done with mixed feelings--glad I'm not smoking anymore and excited to see how it vapes, but sad to shred such a finely-crafted cigar that I fondly remember REALLY enjoying--especially one that had such high ratings and was very difficult to obtain...)

My first four cigars in their jars, in the crock, running on "low" overnight...

 

[purelyscientific]

Yes, sulfuric acid and bromothymol blue titration.= less than 10$

 

[Uno mas]

Subscribed! Very interesting reading, got the gears turning...

I probably have close to 1K cigars in various humidors around the house that I will probably never come close to putting a serious dent into at this point. This however has sparked a real curiosity, true tobacco flavor, got to give it a shot

 

[StereoDreamer]

Update on my experiments:

My new, dedicated NET-brewing crock pot. Picked it up at Goodwill for $10, NIB...

Jars of tobacco in VG in the crock, with the lids off after 1 day of brewing...

 

[cals]

can you show us the pic of the juice when strained, or better yet more picssss

 

[StereoDreamer]

can you show us the pic of the juice when strained, or better yet more picssss

Well, today is "day 3" of the brewing, so there's still not much to see in pics, except more pics of tobacco/VG goop in jars... ;-)

But tomorrow evening, I will be straining and filtering the goop, so I'll take lots of pics of that. I'm going to use a coffee press to do the initial straining, and then pour the liquid through unbleached coffee filters in a funnel into glass bottles for steeping and storage.

 

[Lavaca5]

I've been following your progress, and I Look forward to seeing your results. Following your lead, I'm also headed out to Goodwill tomorrow to look for a crock pot. I've been getting almost all of my peripheral vape supplies and paraphenalia through Amazon, but it's such an odd mix of stuff - precision tools, electronics gadgets, lab glass, wine filters, syringes, wicking material, butane torches - I'm concerned that they might think I'm a terrorist. Might be best if I spread my purchases around a little.

 

[StereoDreamer]

Filtering the first batch of NET Cigar Juice...

The first batch of NET sludge to get filtered--a Santa Damiana Robusto, loaded into the coffee press for initial straining.

The Coffee Press loaded up, and the paper coffee filter in place in a strainer to do the second straining of the juice.

Pouring the NET juice into the paper coffee filter.

Now we wait. This juice is THICK--I imagine it will take all night to seep through the paper filter, and I'll probably have to change the paper filter several times. Total yield looks like it will be about 2oz of juice (from an initial brew of 15g of tobacco and 2.5oz of VG.)

 

[StereoDreamer]

"scarf-ace", I was wondering, when you steep your NETs, do you steep them with the lid off for a few days, or do you just cap the bottles after filtering and store them away for a week or two?

And also, do you steep the concentrated NETs first, or do you mix them with your nic liquid and PV/VG, and then steep THAT?

I've got the Santa Damiana and El Mundo del Rey filtered and bottles (5 times through unbleached coffee filters, after pressing the solids out in a coffee press), and I should have the Primo del Rey and Fuente filtered and bottled before I go to bed tonight. They are all thick and very dark (I used VG to steep them) and they all four smell AMAZING. It's interesting how different they smell from each other...

Another interesting thing is that the two Maduro cigars (Fuente and PdR) seemed to drip through the filters at about half the rate of the non-maduro cigars. So just a heads-up to other people who are going to try this--maduro tobacco seems to filter a LOT slower than EMS-wrapped cigars (the standard light brown cigars)...

I mixed up some of the Santa Damiana in nic liquid Thursday, and tried it out Friday. It was VERY real-tasting--had that smooth, creamy taste of an SD like I remember--including the "burning bite" of a real cigar on the finish. Although it makes for a VERY "realistic" vape, I can honestly say I don't like it as much as I thought I would. I need to smooth it out with some sweeteners, and maybe a little vanilla or caramel or something.

In the end, I think that people who are trying to replicate REAL cigars or pipe tobacco with an e-liquid will be happy vaping these NETs mixed with nic liquid as a "single ingredient juice", but I will more likely use them as a "base note" in more complex, flavorful juices. These NETs may, in fact, be the "missing link" to perfecting my Jasmine Shisha juice that I've been struggling with for the last month...

 

[scarf-ace]

Stereo, I steep both the raw concentrate and the finished juice. Not intentionally, the straining process of the concentrate usually takes a few days. I then dilute it which requires a bit of trial and error...a very strong extract will require more dilution. Usually somewhere in the neighborhood of 33%-50%. However I have noticed that the lower the dilution rate, the more issues you run into with particulates ruining your atomizers. This will occur no matter how fastidiously you strain.

 

[scarf-ace]

Anyone seeking a slightly sweet and fruity pipe blend, grab ahold of some Samuel Gawith Firedance Flake pronto. This blend, cooked lightly (one day instead of three) has become one of my very favorites and I daresay, as good as any retail NET I've bought. Try it.

Another random note: I have been experimenting with the microwave method of extraction. I have made two extracts of the same tobacco (Samuel Gawith Scotch Cut, a Virginia/Burley/Latakia blend), one using microwave (high heat, short time) and one using the slow cooker (low heat, long time). The microwave makes a more aesthetically pleasing liquid--lighter in color and not as opaque--but the flavor is diminished correspondingly and can burn much more easily. The slow cooker is much more forgiving and adjustable. If you prefer a lighter extraction, just cut the cook down to one day.

 

[scarf-ace]

Oh and another thing Stereo,

For sure, the pure cigar extracts are hardcore and unadorned. They're not for everyone, not even me I have been using a drop here and there of flavoring but just in situ in a clearomizer. I have not actually come up with NET recipes yet...most of the flavors I have enjoyed come from pre-flavored pipe tobaccos. (See my Firedance Flake raves, above)

 

[StereoDreamer]

Changed my straining method from a coffee filter in a strainer, to a coffee filter suspended in a pint glass, held in place with rubber bands. I find that a narrow, taller container holding the filter seems to work faster than a wide, shallow container--because of the increased pressure from the liquid in column, vs in a "bowl". For my next batch, I may try filtering it in a graduated cylinder, to get something even more closely resembling a "filter column" like is used in more industrial chemistry applications...

Got the first batch (Santa Damiana) strained and in the bottle--total yield: 60ml

Got the second batch strained. This was the El Rey del Mundo, and it yielded almost 90ml.

All four cigar NETs strained and bottled! The two maduro cigars took a LOT longer to drip through the filters for some reason, but all of them yielded about 60ml.

The El Rey del Mundo yielded more extract because it was a bigger cigar (almost 20ml of tobacco, versus 13-15 for the other three) and because I started out needing more VG to cover the tobacco from it in the jar.

For now, I'm storing them in these little 60ml Nalgene bottles I got at Container Store (for an obscene markup). Future batches will be in glass dripper bottles that I'm going to order online by the case for my other DIY juice projects...

 

[StereoDreamer]

Anyone seeking a slightly sweet and fruity pipe blend, grab ahold of some Samuel Gawith Firedance Flake pronto. This blend, cooked lightly (one day instead of three) has become one of my very favorites and I daresay, as good as any retail NET I've bought. Try it.

That sounds tasty--I may have to see if I can track some of that down. I get the feeling that it might be difficult to find here in the states. Many of the tobaccos from UK or EU sources are getting more and more difficult to obtain here in the US, because tariffs and FDA regulations are making is increasingly cost-prohibitive to import tobacco products.

It looks like I can get it online, but the local tobacco shops in my immediate area are pretty slim on good pipe tobacco. I'll have to call around, and see what I can find locally...

Another random note: I have been experimenting with the microwave method of extraction. I have made two extracts of the same tobacco (Samuel Gawith Scotch Cut, a Virginia/Burley/Latakia blend), one using microwave (high heat, short time) and one using the slow cooker (low heat, long time). The microwave makes a more aesthetically pleasing liquid--lighter in color and not as opaque--but the flavor is diminished correspondingly and can burn much more easily. The slow cooker is much more forgiving and adjustable. If you prefer a lighter extraction, just cut the cook down to one day.

We sold our microwave about 6 months ago. And to be honest, I don't miss it, and our warmed-up food tastes a LOT better for it...

 

[Lavaca5]

Has anyone tried or considered using a steeping bag or even a tea ball to hold the tobacco? Basically, we're just talking about brewing tobacco tea, right? Seems like a steeping bag would make the filtering MUCH faster since most of the plant matter would be contained. I'm just wondering if the bag would absorb too much of the oils or resins or whatever it is that carries the flavor in tobacco. Anyone have any experience or thoughts on this?

 

[Trick]

Well, now I'm doomed... I've got a shop not far from here that does custom pipe blends, so I stocked up on a few in preparation for the VG that should be arriving early this week. I've already thrown some into some alcohol-filled mason jars where it'll be extracting for a while, but the rest is going into the crock pot as soon as that VG shows up.

Though I do have about 100ml or so here somewhere, now that I think about it... Where the hell did I put that?

 

[scarf-ace]

Stereo, the Firedance Flake is available in the USA here:

Samuel Gawith Bulk Tobacco

Most of my pipe extractions have been using this brand. My favorites are the Firedance Flake, Scotch Cut (smoky Latakia-heavy blend), St. James Flake (lots 'o' Perique), and Pistachio.