How to make blue lotus tincture in 13 steps…

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You can turn Blue Lotus flower (and its active compounds) into a potent liquid tincture 15x stronger than Blue Lotus Tea. A tincture for natural euphoria. All from your own kitchen, with 6 simple ingredients.

 

Six ingredients for Blue Lotus Extract

 

 

 

And to think! Most folks go their whole lives without ever knowing about the amazing benefits of Blue Lotus Flower Tea, such as reportedly being a natural aphrodisiac. (I second that!)

Sadly, even many those who are aware of drinking the tea, or even of smoking blue lotus (future blog post/video topic), are not aware that you can create a concentrated liquid Blue Lotus extract to let you enjoy the effects of this beautiful, lovely flower.

I’m going to help change that! Time for DIY Alchemy.

(If you want this guide in an entertaining video format, watch Catboy’s video above)

 

13 STEPS – HOW TO MAKE BLUE LOTUS EXTRACT (Tincture)

1) Grind Flowers (00:46)
2) Mix Alcohol, Pickling Lime, and Citric Acid (02:02)
3) Pour Mixture Over Flowers (02:56)
4) Let Sit for 24 Hours (03:32)
5) Burp and Agitate Mixture (04:04)
6) Let Sit in Freezer for 24 Hours (04:21)
7) Repeat Steps 5 & 6 (04:43)
8) Repeat Step 5 (05:08)
9) Gently Simmer (05:38)
10) Strain Out Plant Matter (08:35)
11) Cook It Down to Your Liking (09:18)
12) Add Distilled Water (10:46)
13) Bottle it (11:03)

This recipe makes 1.5 cups of tincture.

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Step 1 | Grind Flowers

Turn those flowers into minced lotus! Time to chop them up to little bitty pieces.

You can use a coffee grinder (without coffee residue in it) or a kitchen knife, if you’re like me and like torturing yourself (from muscle aches), you can use a dull kitchen knife. Watch Catboy struggle through this process at (00:46).

Chopped Blue Lotus Flower on a cutting board

Be sure to weigh out your dried flowers now, so you can calculate the potency of your extract when it’s all done.

In this recipe, Catboy chose to use about 100 grams of flowers.

 

Step 2 | Mix Citric Acid and Pickling Lime into Alcohol

Measure out 4 cups of vodka or other strong, food grade, neutral spirits.

Now sprinkle the following into the spirits:
– ¼ Teaspoon Citric Acid
– ¼ of 1/8 Teaspoon Pickling Lime

Now mix thoroughly until it’s as blended as possible.
Watch Catboy do this at (02:02).

Step 3 | Pour Mixture Over Flowers

Put your dry blue lotus flowers into your large jar (02:56). Then, stir up your alcohol mixture to make sure any sediment is suspended, and carefully pour the alcohol mixture into the jar. Make sure to get any leftover pickling lime or citric acid residue out of the measuring cup and into the jar.

Step 4 | Let Sit for 24 Hours

Close the lid tightly and shake the jar thoroughly.
Now let the jar sit at room temperature for the next 24 hours. (03:32)

Jar of Blue Lotus Flowers soaking in alcohol mixture

Step 5 | Burp and Agitate Mixture

Jar of Blue Lotus Flower and Alcohol mixture, with an amber hue

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After 24 hours, the mixture should look like this —>
Air it out (04:21), then close the lid and shake it
as much as you can without making it leak or explode…(?)*

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*(Can it explode? I have no clue.)

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(If you know, please share your knowledge in Catboy’s comment section)

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Step 6 | Let Sit in Freezer for 24 Hours

After burping and agitating, your mixture is ready for its first 24 hours in the freezer. (04:21)

I say first, because this process will be repeated two more times.

 

Step 7 | Repeat Steps 5 & 6

After the first night in the freezer, you’ll want to open the jar and let it air out, like the day before. Only, this time, the lid will be very hard to open unless you’re a body builder. Catboy is a weakling, so he had to use a jar opening tool (04:43) and he still struggled.

Now close the jar and shake it up again, like before, and place it back in the freezer for another 24 hours.

 

Step 8 | Repeat Step 5

This is the last time you will be taking the jar out of the freezer.

Air it out and shake it up… one last time (05:08)

 

Step 9 | Gently Simmer

QUICK TIP: Don’t be like Catboy (05:38) and put freezing cold alcohol mixture on the stove. It will take hours. First, let it sit at room temperature for several hours while you do other things, then come back and it will heat more quickly

Pour the mixture out of the jar and into a pot at med-low heat on the stove
(CAUTION – FLAMMABLE – Electric stove only. No sparks/flames. Put vent on high)

Now stir, stir, stir (every 5-10 minutes), test the temperature, and adjust the heat to keep it heating evenly. If you have a thermometer, you want to get the temperature to float around or slightly above 47 C or 120 F. Alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water (cause science).

Don’t be afraid to let it simmer a bit, or it could take 3 hours to cook, like it did for Catboy.

 

Step 10 | Strain Out Plant Matter

Once your mixture has reduced (cooked down) a good amount and spent a good 30 minutes consistently steaming and simmering, you can pour it through a strainer into a measuring container. (08:35)

“ Pour slowly, but not too slowly” – Catboy

Pour too fast and your precious pink Blue Lotus flower petal sludge will splash or miss the container. Pour too slow and the liquid will drip down the side of the pot (curse you, fluid dynamics!)

 

Step 11 | Cook the Blue Lotus Extract Down To Your Liking

According to Catboy, this is where things get easier (09:18). Now, all you have to do is pour the liquid back into the pot and cook on the stove.

Reduce it (cook it down) to your liking. Just make sure not to let it come to a full boil. You want it to gently simmer, and steam with visible vapors coming out.

Float the temperature around 47 C or 120 F, just like before, though the temperature will be harder to measure as the liquid reduces. Eyeballing it works fine.

 

Step 12 | Add Distilled Water to Blue Lotus Extract

Once you’re satisfied with how reduced your purple sludge is, you can pour it back into the measuring container. (10:46) Beware, this stuff is THICC.

Now, it’s time to add distilled water to your mixture to thin it out a bit, for bottling. You want the water to make up 30 to 40% of the final volume of the tincture. Before adding water, Catboy had about 7.5oz of pure purple goop.

In the end, Catboy ended up with 1.5 cups of Liquid Blue Lotus extract.

 

Step 13 | Bottling your Blue Lotus Extract

For bottling, I like to use 2 ounce glass dropper bottles (note to self: add affiliate link here someday XD).

 

Once you have a funnel that fits, place it in the bottle and slowly pour your tincture into the funnel. You want to lift the funnel slightly so there is airflow, otherwise the tincture won’t drain into the bottle.

Don’t be dumb like Catboy, who fiddled around with spoons and sticks for 10 minutes before figuring out the secret. (11:03)

Congratulations! You now know how to make blue lotus tincture! 🙂

 

Reviewing the Results and Measuring Potency of Blue Lotus Extract

Reviewing the results – Sampling the Blue Lotus Extract (11:51):

The following is a quote from Sober Catboy:

“The effects [of this 15:1 Blue Lotus Extract] can be described as a pleasant light-headedness, which lasts about 30 minutes. It was much stronger than the tea, but still mild compared to what I expected.”

Hey, at least it’s stronger and more portable than tea! I like to take it with me when I go out on errands.

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To learn how to make it more potent, subscribe to Catboy’s channel and/or the Herba Rosa mailing list to stay tuned for a video on making dry Blue Lotus extract.

Measuring Potency:

How did Catboy come up with 15:1 potency (15x stronger than tea)? The only way to really measure your concentration is to turn your tincture into dry extract (instructions for that in a future blog post/video).

After I poured a half cup of tincture into bottles, I took the rest (1 cup) and turned it into 4.5g of dry powder extract.

If 1 cup is 2/3 of the original volume of liquid, then one cup of tincture contains 2/3 of the original ~100g of dried flowers. Divide 70g by 4.5g and you have approximately 15. Hence, 15:1.

 

Making Blue Lotus Tincture is Too Much Work? I Can’t Disagree

Herba Rosa now has its own 188x potency Blue Lotus tincture available on our website, made from dry extract, mixed back into a liquid tincture.

This tincture is more than 15 times stronger than what was described in this article.

Blue Lotus Tincture

 

 

We also have have radiant Whole Blue Lotus flower at unbeatable prices,
so you can start your own Blue Lotus Extract, or just make tea!

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