Tinctures Part IV - Jasmine Blossoms Disaster

I've been tincturing these past few months.  I used 151 proof Everclear, jam bottles, and different aromatics like cherries, blueberries, orange peel, rooibos tea, and jasmine flowers.  I finally checked on my jasmine flowers tincture today.  The jasmine flowers floated like yellow pompoms in the alcohol.  I opened the jar, and took a whiff.  Too large a whiff.  Eww!  The most horrible stench filled my nostrils, stung my eyes, made me sneeze.

Yikes!  What went wrong?  How did a quarter pound of what started as fragrant buds of organic jasmine end up smelling like toxic waste?  

Organic jasmine buds await an awful fate

After dumping the mess in the sink and blowing my nose for about an hour to blow out the horrible fumes, I think I figured it out.  When I first mixed the jasmine with the Everclear, I distinctly remember a few buds sticking out from the surface of the water.  I told myself at the time that they would eventually settle/sink after being soaked with alcohol.  A key step in tincturing is to fully cover the tinctured plants with alcohol.  This prevents the stuff sticking out from molding, decaying, putrifying, if you will.  


My jasmine buds had not sunk, they were floating on the service.  They had gone, in a word, bad.


Now I think I will go blow my nose again.  Lesson learned.