Herb tincture or infused oil presses?

February 20, 2004

If anyone knows of an source of reasonably-priced presses, PLEASE post. I

asked this question a few days ago on another list, and I have received a

number of great replies, but no jackpot.

Here's the story: I make a lot of infused herbal oils and herbal tinctures.

Like many I just squeeze the plant matter in cheesecloth to get the

'goodies'. It's the way it's been done for centuries, but it is rather

incomplete is getting all the liquid out. For large quantities, like the

oils, a fruit of wine press would work best. For the small amounts of

herbal tinctures, there are herb presses. They are all rather expensive,

from $85 up to $400 or so. A dinky herb press (6-12 oz capacity) from Italy

is around $100. I have searched for an alternative, and here's what some

recommended:

-Use a French press coffee maker for the tinctures. (C-M and another rec'd

this.)I did this today, and it is pretty good! Got all but a few

Tablespoons of tincture, which I squeezed in a cheesecloth (!) and then

refiltered. It was a lot less messy than the old way of just putting the

whole load into the cheesecloth and squeezing. The plant matter was rather

dry by the time it was 'pressed' and the last bit went quickly.

-Go to Ebay. Well, they have all the fruit/wine/meat/lard/cheese presses

there, but they are *very* popular, and go for big bucks.

Any of the herbalists on this group have any good, reasonably-priced sources?

PS the idea of using a used 'lard' press -- ewww!

PPS I think folks in the Midwest or agricultural or rural areas would have

a better time finding used presses in thrift stores, etc. I'm in Miami, a

town with little history of homecanners, etc., so I'm out of luck with the

thrift stores.

Recommended Posts