Over the past week or so I've done a few extractions from whole leaves (purchased from leafonly.com), and here are my first notes:
Leaves extracted:
Dark Fire Cured Wrapper
Aged Nicaraguan Ligero Seco
Organic Burley
Extraction Method:
My extraction method was a hybrid from Kurt's method and the usual hot/cold extraction using a crock pot. I heated up VG to 150 and poured it cut tobacco leaves (in a pint-sized mason jar). I then kept the extract on a yogurt maker (+/- 110 F hotplate) over night, but the next day the extracts were not as dark as that I had gotten from a NUB Connecticut cigar I had extracted a week earlier. I then brought out the crock-pot and set it on "warm" (which yielded +/- 140F) and left my extracts on a hot water bath for another day.
Filtration:
Extracts were then filtered in a Aeropress with the stock coffee filters (which, with a little pressure, was done in a matter of minutes). I squeezed the tobacco leaves to get every little bit of VG out.
I then tried to fit 7cm SEOH Qualitative Slow paper filters (which are rated at 2.5 microns) in the aeropress, which took some careful folding. Yet this proved to be a mistake, as putting pressure on the press must have caused the filters to burst (as evidenced by the visible debris in the extract). As it turned out, using the aeropress for the 2nd filtration is not needed, as the extracts filtered incredibly fast using a 7cm Büchner funnel I had purchased prior to the aeropress. Once the extracts were heated to 140 or so, pouring it over the Büchner funnel with the 2.5 micron filter fitted yielded a very clear looking extract in a couple of hours. At least, this was the case for the dark cured tobacco and the nicaraguan ligero seco. For some reason, the organic burley is taking a long, long time. It's been filtering for over a day now, and it's maybe a 10th of the way there. The culprit may be ambient temperature, which dropped from the 70s to the lower 60s or upper 50s in the past few days.
Taste:
I've not had a chance to taste all extracts, as I vape very little at the time (looking for a replacement to the occasional cigar, not really after a nicotine kick). The fire cured tobacco, diluted at 30%, yieled a very bold, smoky flavor. I found that I could only take a few puffs from it until I had my fill.
A day later I added a 30% dillution of the aged nicaraguan filler to my tank (yielding a roughly 50/50 mix of the two extracts), and ended up with a very smoky, cigar flavor. It's good, but still very bold. The fire-cured tobacco adds a nice smoky flavor, but needs to be scaled back quite a bit. Maybe 5-10% of the total e-liquid mix.
I've not yet tasted the nicaraguan filler alone, nor have I tasted the burley at all, but will report back once I have.
Nicotine content:
I ordered a nicotine test kit from eliquidtest.com, and from what I can tell there's little if any nicotine in any of the extracts. Testing the pure extracts is very difficult, because of their strong amber (or dark brown, in some cases) color. I see no blue or green upon adding the testing solution, only a yellow color (which get easier to detect as the extract is diluted by the testing solution, but does not seem to get any "more" after even a single squirt/drop). This indicates that there's no nicotine present, but with a 2 mg/ml margin of error, there might be some.
Just to be sure, I just re-tested two of the liquids at a 33% dilution (1ml of essence to 2ml of VG), and saw the same results. The liquid was obviously much more clear, but even so no color change (no blue or green) was seen once adding the test solution. Only a yellow puddle, which became no more yellow as more test liquid as added. The most that can be said is that the yellow was at first diluted into the e-liquid, thus with more yellow testing solution being added, the overall dilution decreased and the liquid became a more vivid yellow. But since the test solution seems to be a combination of Bromothymol blue and diluted sulfuric acid, the absence of a blue color at first indicates no detectable alkalinity in the liquid (i.e. no nicotine and, unless common sense is misguiding me, no significant amount of other alkaloids). So, testing the essences at a 33% dilution again pointed to no nicotine present, with a margin of error of 2mg/ml.
Now, I am no chemist, so if any chemists out there want to chime in and critique my reasoning, please do!
Leaves extracted:
Dark Fire Cured Wrapper
Aged Nicaraguan Ligero Seco
Organic Burley
Extraction Method:
My extraction method was a hybrid from Kurt's method and the usual hot/cold extraction using a crock pot. I heated up VG to 150 and poured it cut tobacco leaves (in a pint-sized mason jar). I then kept the extract on a yogurt maker (+/- 110 F hotplate) over night, but the next day the extracts were not as dark as that I had gotten from a NUB Connecticut cigar I had extracted a week earlier. I then brought out the crock-pot and set it on "warm" (which yielded +/- 140F) and left my extracts on a hot water bath for another day.
Filtration:
Extracts were then filtered in a Aeropress with the stock coffee filters (which, with a little pressure, was done in a matter of minutes). I squeezed the tobacco leaves to get every little bit of VG out.
I then tried to fit 7cm SEOH Qualitative Slow paper filters (which are rated at 2.5 microns) in the aeropress, which took some careful folding. Yet this proved to be a mistake, as putting pressure on the press must have caused the filters to burst (as evidenced by the visible debris in the extract). As it turned out, using the aeropress for the 2nd filtration is not needed, as the extracts filtered incredibly fast using a 7cm Büchner funnel I had purchased prior to the aeropress. Once the extracts were heated to 140 or so, pouring it over the Büchner funnel with the 2.5 micron filter fitted yielded a very clear looking extract in a couple of hours. At least, this was the case for the dark cured tobacco and the nicaraguan ligero seco. For some reason, the organic burley is taking a long, long time. It's been filtering for over a day now, and it's maybe a 10th of the way there. The culprit may be ambient temperature, which dropped from the 70s to the lower 60s or upper 50s in the past few days.
Taste:
I've not had a chance to taste all extracts, as I vape very little at the time (looking for a replacement to the occasional cigar, not really after a nicotine kick). The fire cured tobacco, diluted at 30%, yieled a very bold, smoky flavor. I found that I could only take a few puffs from it until I had my fill.
A day later I added a 30% dillution of the aged nicaraguan filler to my tank (yielding a roughly 50/50 mix of the two extracts), and ended up with a very smoky, cigar flavor. It's good, but still very bold. The fire-cured tobacco adds a nice smoky flavor, but needs to be scaled back quite a bit. Maybe 5-10% of the total e-liquid mix.
I've not yet tasted the nicaraguan filler alone, nor have I tasted the burley at all, but will report back once I have.
Nicotine content:
I ordered a nicotine test kit from eliquidtest.com, and from what I can tell there's little if any nicotine in any of the extracts. Testing the pure extracts is very difficult, because of their strong amber (or dark brown, in some cases) color. I see no blue or green upon adding the testing solution, only a yellow color (which get easier to detect as the extract is diluted by the testing solution, but does not seem to get any "more" after even a single squirt/drop). This indicates that there's no nicotine present, but with a 2 mg/ml margin of error, there might be some.
Just to be sure, I just re-tested two of the liquids at a 33% dilution (1ml of essence to 2ml of VG), and saw the same results. The liquid was obviously much more clear, but even so no color change (no blue or green) was seen once adding the test solution. Only a yellow puddle, which became no more yellow as more test liquid as added. The most that can be said is that the yellow was at first diluted into the e-liquid, thus with more yellow testing solution being added, the overall dilution decreased and the liquid became a more vivid yellow. But since the test solution seems to be a combination of Bromothymol blue and diluted sulfuric acid, the absence of a blue color at first indicates no detectable alkalinity in the liquid (i.e. no nicotine and, unless common sense is misguiding me, no significant amount of other alkaloids). So, testing the essences at a 33% dilution again pointed to no nicotine present, with a margin of error of 2mg/ml.
Now, I am no chemist, so if any chemists out there want to chime in and critique my reasoning, please do!
