Author Topic: Using the citrus blossoms - alcohol tincture?  (Read 461 times)

Peep

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Using the citrus blossoms - alcohol tincture?
« on: March 22, 2023, 08:53:58 AM »
Hello all,

As we all know, citrus flowers smell amazing, so I was hoping to capture that aroma. Orange blossom water is a thing, but for now I will not be able to harvest large amounts. My plants are small, some are too small to carry fruit, so I will remove flowers sporadically. Storing them to collect enough over time to make 'blossom water' doesn't seem like a practical thing, so I was thinking alcohol instead.

Could I just have a bottle of grain alcohol and chuck more flowers in it whenever I pick some of the plants? Should I strain and remove old flowers in between sometimes, or just let everything collect for half a year and strain it afterwards?

I'm also looking into if I should dry the flowers or not before putting them in the alcohol.

Anyone else that has been doing things with the citrus flowers? I'm curious about different things to do with them.

Kind regards,

caladri

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Re: Using the citrus blossoms - alcohol tincture?
« Reply #1 on: March 22, 2023, 01:02:21 PM »
With a small quantity, you might consider making a paste with sugar; I've never done it with citrus petals, but it works when I have small amounts of rose that I want to process and don't want to make rose water. If making a tincture, I would not dry the flowers first, as I would expect that would drive off some of the volatiles you'd like to capture, but someone with more expertise can give better advice.

Peep

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Re: Using the citrus blossoms - alcohol tincture?
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2023, 05:53:36 PM »
With a small quantity, you might consider making a paste with sugar; I've never done it with citrus petals, but it works when I have small amounts of rose that I want to process and don't want to make rose water. If making a tincture, I would not dry the flowers first, as I would expect that would drive off some of the volatiles you'd like to capture, but someone with more expertise can give better advice.

It's surprising to me that there is no better documentation on how to DIY a tincture with alcohol. Makes it hard to see a consensus on the best methods. I read a forum post that said to dry the flower only for a few hours, to reduce part of the water content, but not lose too much of some of the volatiles elements. I've also read a post that said to remove the flowers from the alcohol when they start turning brown, or to keep them in just for a short time. And also found the suggestion that something around 70% alcohol works best. Higher would extract some undesirable components.