All, please allow me to help eliminate the pain in the arse of the awful hot water bath once and for all-- I always hated the hassle of steaming liquid poured on my precious projects, with the fleeting nature of the hot liquid being the biggest failing, followed by the spill danger and general risk of getting your things wet.
Instead, I just use a coffee cup warmer!
Cheap as $5 and they're everywhere you look-- at grocers, online, department stores-- they get quite hot-- more than hot enough to quick-evap solvent (with appropriate placement of ventilation and a fan for breeze to keep vapors from collecting anywhere) but apropos to this thread, plenty hot enough to melt spice into leaf!
The great part is, it STAYS HOT until the job is done. Unlike water that cools off quickly in seconds to minutes.
It's also
very adjustable, as you can simply introduce layers of paper or cloth between the heating pad and your glass to down-regulate the transmitted heat. (seriously, you can boil certain solvents with some of these if you're not careful!)
I've used this for everything, slow-soak/cook MHRB base solution to free more spice for the solvent, on assorted leaves in a closed quart mason for 48 hours+ with practically no sediment or bitterness in the tea, completely dissolve crystal back into solvent to allow glassy re-x afterwards, and also melting spice in solvent to mix with my leaf. it's super fast to evap off alcohol if you use that to soak your spice into your leaf too-- just minutes from drippy to bone-dry.
Just be careful with the long-term use, because the cheaper ones can overheat if left on for days-- so you should keep them in a safe place and monitor them while on-- I had one melt free from its casing once-- it didn't burn up, but one should be aware that the cheapest models are cheap for a reason)
Say NO to water baths and steam-- and HELLO to Mr. Coffee!
