This contraption is our latest DIY. Welcome to the “Mont Strong” World of Distillation. OK, the name needs some work. But I think “Mont Strong” sounds a little better than “Arm Teith.” I’d love to come up with a tropical-styled name like “Fuente Pura” (literal translation Pure fount signifying the wellspring of the essence of things.) Agreed, needs a little work.
For those of you who know me a little too well, I predict what you’re thinking. No, our primary objective for purchasing a still is not to make booze. Is it just a coincidence that M decided to plant sugar cane last month? He’s wanted to grow sugar cane since we settled here and with the plethora of planting projects (how’s that for an alliteration), he’s only gotten around to it now. His motivation for growing sugar cane is our enjoyment in drinking a healthful glass of “jugo de caña.” Since the pandemic, our regular vendors who sell “jugo de caña” from the back of a truck or push cart are no longer around. We miss stopping for an ice cold glass of “jugo” during one of our heat-rash inducing slogs to the border. The Ticos praise "jugo de caña" with the power to reduce the body temperature and make men more "manly." Fortunately, the government is slowly lifting restrictions and I’m hopeful that this type of itinerant vendor will return to provide a boost of "manliness" that we all need.
Sugar cane is easy to grow. Like many tropical plants, you stick it in the ground and with no need for attention, it sprouts. Our friend Jorge gave M a bunch of chopped cane that look just like sticks. M stuck these sticks into the ground in various places around the property and already slim green leaf-like plants are emerging. The planting and harvesting of sugar cane requires relatively little effort; it is the juicing of the cane where heavy labor and energy is necessary.
A new motorized trapiche runs about $3000 USD and requires a 220V outlet. We enjoy a glass of “jugo de caña” but we’d need to drink liters of it every day to amortize that type of expense. Instead, M is considering a manual trapiche. Yikes! I’ve watched a motorized trapiche grind the lengths of 2-3 inch round hard fibrous cane. I’m not confident that M or I have the physical strength to rotate the handle of a manual grinder. To obtain a couple liters of juice, you have to grind and re-grind about a dozen 2 meter lengths of cane. That’ll require a massive amount of physical strength. In any case, the cane won’t be ready to harvest for several months. We’ll cross that bridge then.
As for distilling rum, it will be a fun future project. However, we have the advantage of shopping at the “duty free” stores on the Panama border. Our preferred distributor, Antony’s, sells a Brazilian dark rum that is delicious for $8 USD per 1 liter. Calculating a cost for the time and energy to grow the cane, juice, ferment and distill it, in my estimate home-brewed rum can’t compete on cost to the border rum.
What I am excited about distilling right now is hydrosol. Hydrosol (hydrating aerosol) is a distillation of water and plant matter into a liquid that carries the chemical essence of the plant. After distillation, the liquid Hydrosol is poured into an atomizer bottle
to spritz on skin for a refreshing lift. Our first distillation was ylang ylang flowers. The ylang ylang is a flowering tree that in the late afternoon/early evening emits a delicate floral scent similar to Chanel 5. M and I picked several dozen of the large, yellow flowers from the 3 trees growing closest to the house. The trees were planted about 4 years ago and are tall enough for M to harvest flowers from the upper limbs while standing on the 2nd floor balcony outside our bedroom.
With the help of the thin instruction manual provided with the equipment, as well as, YouTube videos, we successfully set up the distiller and fired it up for a test run. The source of heat is propane from the pizza oven tank. I dusted off the single burner cooking appliance that we purchased in January 2017 for our makeshift kitchen. Placing the flowers in the large stainless steel pot, I filled it about halfway with water from our spring.
The small pot to the left of the large pot is the condensing unit. There is a coil of copper tubing inside the condensing pot that connects with the metal flex tubing from the distiller pot. The copper tubing needs a constant bath of cold water in order for the steam from the distilling pot to cool back into a liquid. The system came with a small submersible aquarium pump that I set inside the blue ice chest filled with water. The biggest challenge is keeping the recirculating water cold in this warm environment.
We have 2 freezer packs for keeping food cold in the ice chest on our return trips from the border. But that kept the water cold for only 15 minutes. Getting creative, I sifted through the recycling stored in the garage to gather an odd assortment of items like plastic water bottles and tetrapacks of wine, juice and milk. I filled these containers with water and froze them. When these items had melted and the water in the condenser felt like a hot tub, I threw in as many ice cubes as our freezer could produce. I’ve managed to keep the water cold for about 45 minutes allowing sufficient time to distill 2 liters of ylang ylang hydrosol. The learning curve during this first attempt wasn't too steep. I learned that I used too much water in the distiller pot requiring over an hour of propane heat for the water to reach to 100C. The other learning experience was keeping the condensation pot from overflowing. With a small adjustment to the submersible pump flow speed, I was able to reduce the number of overflows that spilled the precious, cold recirculating water onto the terrace.
For my second project, I distilled fresh cucumber slices. I love the cool feel of a slice of cucumber laid over each eye. Lately, my eyelids are annoyingly itchy during the day. Instead of slicing up cucumber a few times a day, I’m hoping that a spritz of cucumber hydrosol will bring relief. Unlike the delicate floral scent of the ylang ylang hydrosol, the cucumber hydrosol was not what I hoped for. It smells more like cooked zucchini than the refreshing scent of cucumber. I poured the hydrosol into a glass bottle and placed it in the fridge in hopes that a cooler temperature will bring out the crisp cucumber scent.
I have all kinds of ideas for hydrosols like aloe, lemon peel and one of my favorite scents, shampoo ginger. The shampoo ginger flower draws moisture from the ground and stores it in layered pockets. It's called shampoo ginger because the Hawaiians traditionally harvested the liquid and bathed in it. The scent reminds me of luxurious days at the spa..
Essentials oils can be distilled through this system too. We have vetiver, a type of bunch grass growing along the top ridges of the steep slopes of our property. There's probably a kilometer's length of vetiver running in long lines like a natural fence. The dogs bury their noses into the dense thicket of narrow spiky leaves to hunt tiny lizards. The roots run deep helping to secure the soil that gets pounded with rain. Without the vetiver, the rain run-off causes significant erosion. Not only are the roots useful in the ground but also desirable as an essential oil. The roots are commercially distilled to produce an oil used as the base for many beauty and body products. Watching a few YouTube videos, it requires massive amounts of plant material to extract just an ounce of oil. I'm not sure if I want to sacrifice our erosion-prevention system for a few drops of oil. Besides, the roots are dense, deep and strong. The few times that M has transplanted established vetiver plants, he's had a heck of a time digging them up.
I love your Ylang Ylang hydrosol! I am growing shampoo tropical ginger but it doesn't look like yours;-) Ideas please...