Ginseng Extract

We are taking a week in Vegas for several reason; we need to buy stuff for our tasting room, we need to meet with our distributor, I plan to find an old Chinese herbalist and learn to make ginseng extract, and perhaps most important, we need to unwind...and as we all know and value, what happens in Vegas.....

Yesterday I found an old Chinese gentleman willing to talk to me about ginseng. I learned a bit on the formula for making extract. It is complex...and varies greatly depending on what root you use and how old the root is. Red ginseng from Korea with a root six years old is best...it can cost over $120 per ounce though. American or white ginseng is far cheaper. To compare red and white ginseng is not really fair since they have a different effect on the body.

Like everything at Don Quixote, we use the best ingredients and have already found a supplier for organic red ginseng roots. Red ginseng is the best panax root. Panax is an ancient Greek word for "cure all". Red ginseng speeds up the body system while white ginseng slows things down. Both help with stress and men's virility. Both help reduce sugar levels in blood, help stimulate brain efficiency, and help remove toxins from the body. White ginseng is native to Northern America and Southern Canada.

Making ginseng extract is far more complicated than vanilla extract. To make vanilla extract you literally simply soak vanilla beans in spirits wait three months and are done. While I won't reveal the recipes I am learning, it involves a more elaborate process.

The first matter we have to resolve is will we produce a pure extract at 35% alc. like our vanilla extract that is meant to be diluted when used or will we make a ginseng wine that is flavored to be drinkable without dilution. The ginseng wine would be much lower in alc....probably around 9% alc. If we make a wine, the issue becomes what the wine should taste like....hum...