Hey David, I was wondering why Lemon Balm is noted to be extracted at 30% alcohol? Is that mainly to pull out the flavonoids and phenolics? It's just so aromatic and has the terpenes and triterpenes I would imagine 30$ wouldn't pull those out very well.... Which brings up another general question about prepping fresh herbs. We just brought our Melissa into the lab to prep it fresh. It says to do it at 1:2.5, but what constantly happens when I go to prep fresh herbs is the menstruum doesn't cover the herbs completely. We're definitely grinding it up as fine as a fresh herb can be ground (using a big Hobart HCM mixer) and am doing all the fresh herb, water content etc. calculations.... When I was in the Bastyr lab, Dr Yarnell taught us to not pack the herbs into the menstruum too tight so that the alcohol/herbs have room to move/penetrate. When you prep tinctures do you pack the herb down so the menstruum will cover it? Just curious if this is something you've ran into with medicine making and what your approach is. I've learned different things from different people and sometimes it gets a little confusing as there's conflicting opinions. I feel like this happens a lot with fresh herbs and when trying to follow good ratios (1:2 for fresh) I just don't understand how people are getting to those numbers without either packing the herbs in (which to me seems like it yields a lesser quality medicine) or extracting them multiple times (which gets complex with fresh herbs due to water content). Thoughts? Guidance? Thanks!

Think about Lemon Balm does it make a good tea ? The answer is yes, so much of what you want is water soluble and when you add the fresh herb to a menstruum with 40-50% ETOH (remember you have water in the herb which you need to account for) it tincts (colors) in seconds and has the full flavor and smell of the herb. Your Hobart may not be grinding the fresh herb finely enough, if it is really finely ground it easily goes into a 1:2.5 menstruum. If not ground well enough it is problematic. We always have a 1/2” to 3/4 “ of menstruum above the herb and we do not mash it down.