Hey there witches! I’ve covered water infusions aka Hydrosols before, but it’s time to move onto the hard stuff: alcohol
A tincture is an extract which has an alcohol base. Traditionally, these were herbal infusions used for medicine, but for today’s topic, we’ll be talking about tinctures in all forms, but it’s up to you as to what’s for consumption, and what may be used as a perfume, floor wash, or ritual spray etc.
Tinctures can be a lot easier to make because they have a cold infusion method, as in no heat source is used to speed the process. Alcohol absorbs plant matter and dissolves quite easily, so heating it is a dangerous step not necessary for the occasional infusion.
What can be made into a tincture?
Flowers
Berries
Leaves
Roots
Stalks and barks
Spas and resins
Seeds
These can be dried or fresh.
Especially for flowers, some fragrance doesn’t carry once the flower withers, so using fresh can be super helpful if the fragrance is important!
What do I do to make one?
Take your container like a mason jar
Fill with plant material about halfway*
Add in your alcohol**
Shake and let infuse***
Strain and decant into its new container
Now it’s simple, but you do have to make some decisions like if you’re making individual tinctures or a blend. Individual tinctures can be blended later of course, but takes more containers and individual checking than throwing it all together. Go by instinct and research until you’ve got the experience.
That sounds simple, but I want some more tips:
Break apart or cut up ingredients so more of the matter gets mixed and infused. It releases fragrance, juices and gives more surfaces for the base to interact.
Shake your tincture while it’s infusing every day. You may want to infuse for a day, a week, or a full cycle of the moon, you do you!
If you’re using a mason jar or other metal lid container, a piece of Saran Wrap/cling plastic can protect the lid from corroding.
You can get a high proof alcohol and dilute it with distilled water.****
If taking internally, do so with care, and dosage is usually only a few drops at a time. Check with your doctor before starting any regiment.
If you want to make a ritual tincture for a salt bonfire, the alcohol has to be minimum 100 proof or it won’t catch fire. Don’t burn yourself.
I have a ginger tincture I use for upset stomachs. Just a few drops in mineral water and it settles right down (think ginger ale).
For tooth aches, I use a few drops of clove tincture in warm water and swish around. Plus my breath smells great afterwards.
Just remember, it’s concentrated, and in a lot of cases may not taste great by itself, just like if you took a spoon full of vanilla extract. Start small, dilute, or use in ritual.
Thinking about how the world is colored by our connections to other people. Small details in life that would mean nothing to us otherwise. For me, it’s things like how car haulers will always remind me of my grandfather, how papayas will always remind me of my high school best friend. I can’t help but think of my sister when I hear certain songs. Tulips are my favorite flower because they’re the reason for one of my first memories with my grandmother.
The people we know, have known, will know breathe life into our existence. The way we see the world is underpinned by the people in it with us. We’re not meant to do this alone. We were never meant to be in this alone
I am in love with the things humans create. Language. Cities. Stories. Little trinkets, grand mythologies, small gardens and radical engineering, close-knit book clubs and revolutionary movements. I am in love with it, with us. I want all of it
Thinking about drastic change being so central to the human experience. We’re supposed to shift, we’re supposed to be fluid, we’re supposed to adapt and survive any situation we find ourselves in. To remain static or stable is unnatural in the long run. Everything around us swirls and changes, and while we think we’re the fixed point in all that commotion, we’re in just as much flux as everything else. The only consistency is no consistency.
Maybe that’s what keeps us going, at the end of it all. The urge to see what happens next
01.23.19 // on my way to LONDON for the next three months!!! I can’t wait to have tooons of new original travel content to share with y’all! Currently I’m in the middle of a four hour layover in Atlanta but I’ll be in my dream city in just a few more hours.
I also have a studyblr (@southern-studies) if you’d like to follow along with more of the academic side of my trip :)
