Distilling Mint Oils

General Fruit Growing
1

Does anyone here have any experience distiling the mint oils (fragrance essential molecule) out of the mint generally grown in our gardens?

Mike

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I don’t have experience with it Mike but here is how to do it the right way https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwHFxXRl-Ig. It effectively is like a whiskey still. I have seen people use vinegar and alcohol to make a concentrated liquid from garlic and berries etc. (this is the cheaper way to get some mint liquid but its not a true concentrate) This link documents the process fairly well http://www.wikihow.com/Extract-Mint-Oils-from-Leaves. These machines can extract cooking oil from seeds but i’m not sure about plants leaves (not a distillation to concentrate) https://www.amazon.com/Automatic-Small-Press-Machine-Stainless/dp/B011UBWY6A/ref=pd_sim_sbs_469_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=51kMGIwpqGL&dpSrc=sims&preST=AC_UL320_SR294%2C320&psc=1&refRID=K6AJ8VEHD69FD5SFSQ71. I know it’s not mint but the process is similar. Here is how to make slow gin from sloe berries and gin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SKy7BjVwvk and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YbEGCrPBDo. These are the blackthorn bushes https://www.forestfarm.com/product.php?id=3724

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Before someone asks here is the distiller for making essential oils https://www.amazon.com/Ding-Glassware-Essential-Distillation-Apparatus/dp/B015AB07HE/ref=pd_sim_sbs_328_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=51hvHJgnkbL&dpSrc=sims&preST=AC_UL320_SR214%2C320&psc=1&refRID=2TRJ4VYX9C7KXD5SGTHV. For essential oil production on a budget https://www.amazon.com/LabStock-Distillation-Glassware-Kit-1000ml/dp/B011CJEBS4/ref=pd_sim_sbs_328_6?ie=UTF8&dpID=51%2B1luYaMML&dpSrc=sims&preST=AC_UL320_SR240%2C320&psc=1&refRID=6B6FT99TEK8612QBYA6Y#customerReviews

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The caveat on that is that anyone in the U.S.A. needs a federal permit to distill alcohol as in making gin, and possibly state and local permits as well.

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5

Muddy,
Yes I would definitely not advice anyone make the gin rather buy the gin and add the sloes as noted above. The distiller is for the essential oil.

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6

Does anyone else grow mint? I was curious if anyone knows if mint extracts require a special permit to sell it? Had not considered it before now but distillation of mint might require a permit.