Home Distiller

so over this weekend i made a small essence still (1L capacity) that i plan to used for making esstial oils to flavour my vodka. I was thinking mint or orange (or both combined?).

what is the best way to go about this?

1)make essital oils from herbs in water and get the essitial oils, seperate from the water, and add drop wise to my vodka

OR

2)soak hearbs in my vodka for some time (until it tastes good) and redistill in the small still to get a clear, but flavoured drink

i plan on adding NO sugar. I have soaked vodka in orange peel before, but didn't redistill it (then watered it down to 55%), and it tasted fine... but this time i want to try to make vodka w/o color.

with the mint i am trying to produce something similar to rumplemintz (peppermint snapps... no sugar?)

any suggestions, or hints?

thanks!!!

rumplemintz has LOTS of sugar in it.

I use 10-15 little drops of peppermint oil and a cup or 2 of sugar in a liter bottle, and then top it up with 90-100proof vodka.

There is an approximate 20C difference in distilling temperature between the two proposed techniques. Hotter could be better (coz you get more of the higher-boiling oil fraction, especially if steam distilling) or it could be worse (coz some delicate volatiles are denatured). It all depends upon the particular oil. Another point to consider is that the oil may not necessarily separate cleanly from the water, which means that the more polar fraction could be left behind. Once again, could be better, could be worse.

I have alcohol-distilled citrus, and the oil doesn't seem to be concentrated in either the heads or the tails.