The topic subject basically sums up the main info: My name is Vasco, I hail from Portugal, Coimbra, and I just gifted myself my first copper still (alembic?) for Christmas with the intention of getting into the production of hydrosols and essential oils. So yeah, I'm a complete newbie, I haven't even started with my first distillation. Born in April 2000, which makes me 23 y.o. at the time of writing.
As for my alembic, it's an artisanal 10L split top rotating column copper alembic still, which I got from Iberian Coppers (https://www.copper-alembic.com/en/). The reason I'm mentioning the shop is because I actually came into this forum through one of their posts on their website. They're really sweet fellas, the website is full of info and tips and references, one of which was this forum and I'm super grateful for it
I first got this idea after participating in a science activity with some kids where they were making their own organic toothpaste. Most of the ingredients were readily obtainable, so I was already daydreaming about never buying toothpaste again - then the activity guide had them use some essential oils, which got me thinking how to actually produce that kind of stuff. Fast forward a few months, I'm walking around town and I'm invaded by this most wonderful scent, really strong one. I was obsessed with finding out where it was coming from - turned out to be some lavender bushes nearby. I wanted to OWN that fragrance. That's when I made up my mind to get out there into the world of essential oils. Little did I know of the rabbit hole I was about to get into. Now here I am, scratching the surface with some more confidence after getting overwhelmed with information overload yesterday.
I'd like to try distilling something every month. January is a hard month cause almost nothing seems to be in season, so I was struggling to decide. I realized I have almost no knowledge about plants (city boy here). After some research and questions I ended up deciding on eucalyptus because we grow a lot here in Portugal (but I'll take suggestions!). I can barely wait to grab a bag of eucalyptus leaves nearby and get them into the column of my alembic. At the same time I'm quite anxious about doing it right, not just because mistakes could be dangerous but also because it feels like I'll be using a lot of gas, so I don't want to waste resources.I end up overthinking a lot, especially since there's so much to learn. On that note, the first advice I'd ask is on how not to overthink this and actually get started. I'd also like to ask y'all about your first ever distillation. How did it compare to expectations? Did you also experience information overload at first?
Looking forward to becoming a member of this community!