DIY tobacco leaf juice?

[Mark]

I hope this doesn't cause upset or offence (as I said earlier, my understanding is too limited for me to have any "educated" opinion, and my lack of understanding is causing questions to pop up in my head!) - but it seems to me that you can't just be obtaining a flavour - no more than you are obtaining only a flavour when you make a cup of tea or coffee - you are steeping caffeine, tannin and all the other "goodies/baddies" etc. So, to my thinking, there must be more in the resulting liquid than flavour? Again, it's probably me being too much of a worrying tart. As Mark said earlier, whatever you end up with is probably better than smoking, and the counter-argument to my point is that the effects of inhaling food flavourings are largely unknown too, and I'm doing that without too much thought!

See? Arthur or Martha - I'm not entirely sure what I am!

I love your musings Ethelking

 

[EthelKing]

I love your musings Ethelking

You want to try carrying this disordered mess of a brain around 24/7 Mark!

 

[leisureliquids]

Lee, my understanding is on par with yourself, but this is a great place to debate and share knowledge or lack of it!

From what I have read, when you steep the leaves, all you are doing is extracting the flavour created by the developed plant matter. You are not actually extracting the nicotine or associated contents of the plant matter. For this you would need actual chemicals for the breaking and extracting process, which is why you don't get nicotine (or minimal nicotine) in the steeping process

Dr Leisure
POTV

 

[EthelKing]

Lee, my understanding is on par with yourself, but this is a great place to debate and share knowledge or lack of it!

From what I have read, when you steep the leaves, all you are doing is extracting the flavour created by the developed plant matter. You are not actually extracting the nicotine or associated contents of the plant matter. For this you would need actual chemicals for the breaking and extracting process, which is why you don't get nicotine (or minimal nicotine) in the steeping process

Dr Leisure
POTV

Thank you LL. I suppose it's got to be a bit harder than making a cup of tea, otherwise the "what are we going to do when the government bans vaping?" question would never be an issue - we'd just steep leaves in PG and carry on. See? With a bit of encouragement, I can think rationally!

 

[leisureliquids]

I'm sure someone with a bit more knowledge of the process will correct the thread if the above is wrong. You know PF, I may just give this a go myself

 

[Mark]

I have emailed eBaron of Houseofliquid for access to his tests. Ill keep everyone posted

 

[Purplefowler]

I'm sure someone with a bit more knowledge of the process will correct the thread if the above is wrong. You know PF, I may just give this a go myself

Ooh you should. As well as getting a deeper knowledge of the product, we can share and compare notes

 

[Bryan123456]

Steeping is easy. If you read the way some of the guff some of the old guffers on other forums post you'd think it was hard work.

I use a 1 litre sistema storage pot (with integrated basket - with handle and hanging clip) - £3 ASDA
The steeping bags from www.leisureliquids.com
VG or PG

The key things to do are:

1) |Wash the leaves in cold water and dry them straight away - so they absorb no water but any nasties on the surface are driven off.
2) If the leaf is too moist - I want it dry and crumbly - I stack it between sheets of non bleached kitchen towel and store it somewhere warm for a few weeks
3) Crumble the leaf up into the smallest possible pieces and pour it into one of the bags
4) Pull the bag draw string and get rid of any leaf that's on the outside
5) stick the bag into the sistema basket, so it stands up. Tie the string to the basket handle. Cut off the excess string (found out the hard way this is important - the strings can act like wicks).
6) Boil some deionised water and let it cool to the temperature of a cup of tea or coffee.
7 Lob a bit of the above warm water over the steeping bag - a little if your using PG a lot if its VG
8) Add VG or PG - but not to above the top of the steeping bag
9) Put the top on and put it somewhere warm
10) Have a check every couple of days gently swoosh
11) If there's VG involved and bags have not sunk or things aren't happening - whack the pot in the microwave for a few minutes at medium - do this until the bottom part of the pot gets warm and the viscocity of the VG drops, the bag drops and swooshing is possible

After a couple of weeks - oik up the basket, hang it on its clip and let thigs drain into the liquid ( - those of a miserly persuasion can also gently squeeze the bags).

Decant the liquid into bottles - stand in these closed bottles for a few weeks to see if there's any sediment. I have never had any sediment. The above method seems to prevent it and all the old farts messy filtering needs and methods can be avoided.

The end.

edit - I have yet to optimize the amount of leaf I use but one of Terry's bags will hold about 10 grams. With the bag standing upright in the basket, on its bottom, about 250-300ml is the optimum amount of PG or VG. 1 x 10 gram bag takes about 4 weeks to steep out. My latest steep (oriental tobacco) has 2 x 10 gram bags in it and this is too much - I will probably get a second steep out of it. Amounts required seem to vary by leaf type. Sorry for the edit .

 

[EthelKing]

I love terms such as "lob", "swoosh" and "oik" Bryan - my kind of cooking! So what is the resulting liquid like taste wise? I would love a natural taste as a base for one of my recipes that needs tobacco, but every one I've tried so far (of the synthetic variety) is too "perfumey". RY4 is my usual safe choice, but I don't need the caramel type flavour. I love the Dekang tobacco (thanks leisureliquids) flavours - is it something along those lines?

My plan was to see if PF grows a willy, or if LL's drops off. If neither happened I was going to have a go - now I'm thinking of just having a go. If I grow a better one, it's a bonus - if the one I've got drops off it's no big deal as it's largely redundant anyway!

 

[leisureliquids]

I was hoping #Bryan123456 would share his steeping tobacco tips. Thank you, sorted!