Help w/ menthol crystals please

[sarsi]

Ok, I have been searching everywhere for help with this, but not having any luck!
I want to dissolve menthol crystals in PG for a concentrated juice to add to DIY recipes. I have searched everywhere for how to do this, however people are either using really big bottles & filling them ¾ up with crystals to do this or they do not give the amounts they are using at all. I originally purchased the crystals because I was under the impression I would have a more concentrated option, crystals would go a long way... Filling a bottle ¾ w/ crystals seems like a lot to me?Am I wrong, or is this the normal way to do it?

I only have a 10ml & 30ml bottle I can use right now.I only have .25 oz of menthol crystals which I crushed with a rolling pin, in double baggies.How much of the crystals should I use (or start off trying) for a 10ml bottle (or the 30ml if I have enough crystals) I will be using PG only to dissolve (not vodka).I understand, that taste is subjective & some people may want stronger menthol taste than others, but if I could just get a starting point that would be great! I just do not want to waste anything. Thanks for any help!

 

[Liv2Ski]

sarsi - menthol in PG disolves slowly and 3/4 full of any bottle is a lot. I make concentrate in a 15ml bottle. I add about 1 gram of crushed menthol then fill the bottle 3/4 full with pg. I place the bottle in a coffee cup filled w/hot tap water and shake occationally till dissolved. Then I add some more menthol and repeat. 1 gram in 15mls is pretty potent stuff though.

 

[sarsi]

Thanks so much! I just tried this & it worked great for me!

Although I am all new to the DIY & learning everyday, I thought filling a bottle 3/4 w/ the crystals seem waaay too much...I even found on a vape site where they sold menthol crystals, they suggested doing it 1/2 & 1/2. This did not seem correct to me either. These crystals are some potent stuff. I like mine prob a lil stronger than most right now, but it would be cheaper to buy it already mixed up in the pg if I was going to have to fill up my bottles with that much of the crushed crystals. Anyway, thanks so much! I am good to go now!

sarsi - menthol in PG disolves slowly and 3/4 full of any bottle is a lot. I make concentrate in a 15ml bottle. I add about 1 gram of crushed menthol then fill the bottle 3/4 full with pg. I place the bottle in a coffee cup filled w/hot tap water and shake occationally till dissolved. Then I add some more menthol and repeat. 1 gram in 15mls is pretty potent stuff though.

 

[Tona Aspsusa]

I'm also a bit bemused by these ideas of half and half - those crystals are STRONG.

I didn't know what the recommended way was when I got my supplies, but figured this would be easy and I wanted to do something, anything , NOW!
So out of ignorance I did something I haven't since seen recommended anywhere, but it was extremely easy, and it worked quite well enough.

I just filled a 10ml bottle with PGA, and dropped in one crystal, gave it a small shake. Next morning it had completely dissolved, but I had also read about being supposed to crush the crystals, mix half and half by weight and all the other stuff. So I added 5-10 crystals more. Shook. A few hours later it was all dissolved.

So my current menthol isn't overly concentrated or strong. I added a few drops per 5ml to a straight up FA Virginia (7% - way too strong), around 90/10 PG/VG, at around 10mg/ml nic. Worked good enough for me for a first try.
(My Menthol v2 was mixing some of that Virginia with a bit of slightly stronger unflavoured 70/30, and a bit of FA Burley (can't remember the % or PG/VG), to about 5.5ml liquid I added 8 drps of my "weak" menthol spirit. Still not perfect by a long shot, but my non vaping menthol smoking cousin didn't think it was too bad.)


I can sort of understand wanting to dissolve the menthol straight into PG, but personally I am very happy with my weak PGA - gives me lots of control over how strongly menthol I make my liquids. (If I hadn't happened to have PGA I would have used vodka, I'm sure that would work too, maybe dissolve a bit more slowly, but since I view this as an intermediate step - making up an ingredient for later use in mixes - IMO it doesn't matter much if it takes 2 hours or 12 hours. Why people feel the need to crush the crystals I do not get. After accidentally touching the corner of my eye (OUCH) after handling those crystals I want to minimize any handling of them.)