Caffeine Distillation

Caffeine molecule illustration

Traditional step by step process

1. Boil water
2. Brew teabag in boiling water for 10 minutes
3. Remove teabags
4. Pour tea into a given container
5. let the tea cool to room temperature
6. refrigerate for 8 hours
7. pour solution into a container through a traditional coffee filter
8. Collect crystals from the filter
9. Dry the crystals
10. YOUR DONE! ready to use the caffeine for whatever homemade drinks you want.

(the order and minor details of the steps might be different in my particular demonstration)

1. Boil Water

I started off by boiling 1.7 liters of water in a normal kettle that took about 5 minutes to reach boiling point

2. Pour Boiling Water

just simply pour the 1.7 liters of water into a container, i will be using this large metal bowl so that cooling occurs quicker later on. it also helps to have a high surface area of the top layer of liquid.

3. Add tea bags

for tea bags I used "British Blend - Premium Black Tea". These contain on average 45 mg of caffeine per teabag I used 8 tea bags and let them brew over a period of 10 minutes.

4. Remove teabags

I removed the eight teabags into a glass cup, then drained them completely and re-poured the liquid into the solution.

5. Cooling

I then let the bowl and solution cool to room temp, this took about 40 minutes.

6. refrigerate for 8 hours

I left it in the refrigerate for 8 hours after which crystals started to form on the surface of the solution

7. Filter

I poured solution into a sink through a traditional tea filter and collected the crystals from surface of the solution

8-9. Dry and Collect

I collected "paste" from the filter by ripping the filter open. I then let it dry in a window for 8 hours during the day. after that I collected the dry crystals into sample dish

10. Final result

YOUR DONE! ready to use the caffeine for whatever homemade drinks you want. overall I'm really happy with how this experiment went and it was a easy process that I could perform over a weekend. if I ever want to make any homemade energy drinks in the future this could be a awesome way to go to get caffeine in a quick, safe and cheap way