What does your mesc extract taste like?

[voodoobutter]

SWIM just finished a few more pulls on his second mesc HCL extract using powdered T. Peruvians, following the standard FOAF tek.

He feels kind of crazy b/c it turned out very, very white (with a very slight hint of yellow/tan) compared to his first run, which was very Sanchez-ish. I'm sure nobody would complain about very white results with no re-x, but SWIM was wondering if he screwed something up.

He told me that it does have that slightly sweet earthy smell (though very faint smell) and it tastes like a crushed pill. It did burn the tongue slightly, but no Xylene/plastic taste or smell, more like a tingle. It doesn't taste like salt at all.

SWIM won't have a chance to bioassay this stuff before heading camping this weekend, but wonders what mesc tastes like to you? He read somewhere about a flame test as well - should it burn redish or what?

He said pics will follow after work.

[EmmisonJ]

the "burn" taste is residual xylene which also is to blame for the yellowish hue most likely, if real yellowish yellow could be xylene, a brownish yellow could just be organic impurities from going a little too acidic which is no big deal. but the burn is definitely residual solvent and you need to get it off before actual consumption. it is not going to kill you but there's a good chance you can get a nasty headache as a side effect from ingesting even residual xylene. it's best to crush up your powder as fine as absolutely possible and then do a (or few) real nice acetone washes (anhydrous acetone preferred to minimize loss of actual product) and you should be able to wash away this residual solvent if done properly. a hint of tan is no big deal, yellow needs cleaning though.

if you "freeze separate" the xylene/water then you're going to potentially get a good bit of residual xylene locked in your crystals, which is why you want to crush them up real well before the wash. if you use a sep funnel there will be considerably less xylene in your end product but i'd say always do an acetone wash, if for nothing else then your own long-term health if this is something you want to do regularly. why acetone? because your mescaline hcl is not soluble in it at room temperature (or colder temperatures) but many of the impurities are including xylene which is the nastiest impurity you're going to have in there outside of NaOH (but to get NaOH in your product you have to screw up big time so that's not a real worry). you will lose some real product during the wash as well because store-bought xylene has a small amount of water in it and mescaline hcl is soluble in water. the loss is typically not a big deal though unless you have excess water in your acetone, if you're worried about it then dry it with MgSO4 or to get it fully anhydrous use 3a sieves. if you use truly anhydrous acetone then all the weight you lose is impurities and you won't lose any of the mescaline hcl, the more water in your acetone the more mescal you lose. also FYI acetone is not nearly as toxic as xylene/toluene, if you had to ingest residual solvent: either acetone or one of those np solvents then acetone would be the safer choice. also acetone is much more volatile than xylene/toluene or water for that matter, so the residual acetone on your mescaline hcl will evaporate very quickly under a heatlamp or a little air being pushed over the surface (fan turned on low, just be sure not to blow your powder all over the room) leaving no remaining solvent in your product. whereas xylene's bp is around 140C and is not as volatile so it will sit there on/in your crystals for a nice long time. yuck.

any decent mescaline hcl should just taste bitter, not salty, no burning. it doesn't take much to get mescaline of this quality. washing with acetone is the answer.

ultra pure mescaline hcl will have no smell, it takes some effort to get the mescaline this pure. recrystallization with good technique is the best way to get mescaline of this quality.

[voodoobutter]

Yeah, it's more of a tanish than yellow but that kind of tingle had him worried. Just couldn't tell if it was Xylene or the nature of the beast. But only one pan turned out that way. The others were white and pill bitter, he said.

[Frequency]

It could also be residual lye responsible for the burning sensation. SWIM's extract salts have smelled of fresh cucumber/cactus due to what SWIM is assuming is plant matter that came over with some of the solvent. The taste is a combination of bitter chemical and fresh vegetation. Yum.

[voodoobutter]

BTW, thanks for chiming in so fast guys. SWIM owes a great deal to suggestions in threads by both of you. Really helped refine the tek.

SWIM just did a quick finger dip before work to be sure it wasn't salt. Couldn't tell if it was a burning sensation or just the extreme bitterness of the final HCL salts. Closer examination tonight, plus pics to follow - that might help, eh?

Thanks again.

[Shadowlord]

Don't worry VooDoo,
I'm sure what you have there is Mesc HCl. I was amazed at how white mine came out the first time too and was wondering if I had salt or some other such thing, but it has never failed me every time I have assayed it. The first pull must have had too much Hcl in it pulling more of the other alks.
Thanks to this site I have learned to extract mescaline, something I never thought I would get the chance to try. It's an awesome thing.
Congratulations on your successful extraction and enjoy your Mescaline!

[voodoobutter]

And yet another person SWIM owes huge kudos to! Thanks for stopping in Shadow.

[voodoobutter]

Here's some pics SWIM sent last night. In the first pic, the pile on the right was the one he was paranoid about.

He also told me that after another sample last night, he thinks it's more of an extreme bitter than a burn. No numbness or anything like that, just a painfully bitter taste.

[whatchamacallit]

SWIM's washed white mescaline HCl tasted like ecstasy, bitter, with a funny tingle. He didn't experience any burning, at all.

[voodoobutter]

Yep, that pretty much sums it up Whatchamacallit.

SWIM assayed 100mg last night with no adverse side effects other than a slightly gassy stomach. No headaches this morning either and he's very prone to migraines.

[Frequency]

Originally Posted by voodoobutter

SWIM assayed 100mg last night with no adverse side effects other than a slightly gassy stomach. No headaches this morning either and he's very prone to migraines.

Grea to hear voodoo! Now slam 400mg and give us a report! Very nice looking piles you've got there.

[EmmisonJ]

Originally Posted by voodoobutter

Yep, that pretty much sums it up Whatchamacallit.

SWIM assayed 100mg last night with no adverse side effects other than a slightly gassy stomach. No headaches this morning either and he's very prone to migraines.

sounds solvent-free to me. nice work!