So, I like sweet juices. I want to use sweeteners in my juices, but I find EM to not do the job (doesn't really sweeten... either blends flavors well or becomes cotton candy flavored without actually doing any sweetening). Then there's sucralose... Never been a fan of artificial sweeteners and I'm certainly not going to use one that only came into being because a scientist working on a pesticide forgot his hearing aid that day and "tasted" that pesticide instead of "testing" it like he was supposed to. Besides, when sucralose is heated it can decompose into carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and Hydrochloric Acid. I don't know at what temperature this decomposition occurs or if it's even possible through vaping, but I do know that Hydrochloric Acid is something I definitely do not want to inhale.
When it comes to my coffee and whatnot, I use real sugar or stevia. So I've been looking for a good liquid stevia that I can use to sweeten my juices.
First one I tried was NuNaturals Liquid Stevia from GNC. This was quite awful, to be honest. Altered the flavor of my juices and left a horrible taste and odor in my atty. It's ingredients were stevia, water, pure grain alcohol, vegetable glycerin and natural flavors. This one was very very strong compared to what else I've tried (having over 200mg of the stevia extract per serving). What the other "natural flavors" were I don't know, but whatever they are they certainly didn't appeal to my taste buds or my atty
Next I stopped by the local Whole Foods market and picked up some of their stevia liquid extract. This one didn't have anything but the stevia, water and some pure grain alcohol. I would have tried their alcohol free varieties, but that brand was a 4oz size and way too expensive. The Whole Foods brand stuff was way better than the other stuff from GNC, though less potent (still really damn sweet though). It did leave a bit of an aftertaste in my atty, but it wasn't awful... actually, it was a bit better than the typical dry atty taste/smell. It did seem to affect the flavor of my juice a bit though.
Luckily, while I was at Whole Foods I picked up some of the pure powdered stevia extract too (same whole foods brand). This is just the extract, no alcohol or questionable water source.
So I mixed some of this up with some distilled water in a 50ml dropper bottle and so far it's pretty great! I can't give you a recipe or drops/ml yet, as I just kept adding the powder, shaking and tasting til I felt it was sweet enough, but eventually I will have a predictable mixture to work with. If I had to guess, I would say I used less than a teaspoon of powder to make this 50ml bottle. I would have mixed it with some VG if I had some, but I don't at the moment. I even tried mixing the powder directly in some juice and that worked pretty well too... but it took quite a while to fully dissolve and it'll be tough to get the right dosage this way.
All I can say at this point is that I'm not getting any residual taste/odor left over in my atty and it doesn't seem to have an adverse affect on the flavor of my juices. The best part is, it takes so little of this powder to make a 50ml bottle of liquid sweetener, I don't think I'll have to buy any powder for a very very very long time. I'm guessing I could make roughly 500ml of liquid sweetener with this 1oz, $8 bottle of powder! At only a few drops per 10ml of e-liquid, that's a lot of sweetened e-juice!
So, unless you've already found a brand/formulation of liquid stevia that works for you, my suggestion would be to just get the powdered stuff and mix it into a liquid yourself. That way you know exactly what you're getting. Because you never know what else is in the pre-mixed stuff. The water may just be filtered and not distilled, it may contain other ingredients like that NuNaturals stuff I got, or the alcohol in it might throw off the taste.
Happy vaping!
When it comes to my coffee and whatnot, I use real sugar or stevia. So I've been looking for a good liquid stevia that I can use to sweeten my juices.
First one I tried was NuNaturals Liquid Stevia from GNC. This was quite awful, to be honest. Altered the flavor of my juices and left a horrible taste and odor in my atty. It's ingredients were stevia, water, pure grain alcohol, vegetable glycerin and natural flavors. This one was very very strong compared to what else I've tried (having over 200mg of the stevia extract per serving). What the other "natural flavors" were I don't know, but whatever they are they certainly didn't appeal to my taste buds or my atty
Next I stopped by the local Whole Foods market and picked up some of their stevia liquid extract. This one didn't have anything but the stevia, water and some pure grain alcohol. I would have tried their alcohol free varieties, but that brand was a 4oz size and way too expensive. The Whole Foods brand stuff was way better than the other stuff from GNC, though less potent (still really damn sweet though). It did leave a bit of an aftertaste in my atty, but it wasn't awful... actually, it was a bit better than the typical dry atty taste/smell. It did seem to affect the flavor of my juice a bit though.
Luckily, while I was at Whole Foods I picked up some of the pure powdered stevia extract too (same whole foods brand). This is just the extract, no alcohol or questionable water source.
So I mixed some of this up with some distilled water in a 50ml dropper bottle and so far it's pretty great! I can't give you a recipe or drops/ml yet, as I just kept adding the powder, shaking and tasting til I felt it was sweet enough, but eventually I will have a predictable mixture to work with. If I had to guess, I would say I used less than a teaspoon of powder to make this 50ml bottle. I would have mixed it with some VG if I had some, but I don't at the moment. I even tried mixing the powder directly in some juice and that worked pretty well too... but it took quite a while to fully dissolve and it'll be tough to get the right dosage this way.
All I can say at this point is that I'm not getting any residual taste/odor left over in my atty and it doesn't seem to have an adverse affect on the flavor of my juices. The best part is, it takes so little of this powder to make a 50ml bottle of liquid sweetener, I don't think I'll have to buy any powder for a very very very long time. I'm guessing I could make roughly 500ml of liquid sweetener with this 1oz, $8 bottle of powder! At only a few drops per 10ml of e-liquid, that's a lot of sweetened e-juice!
So, unless you've already found a brand/formulation of liquid stevia that works for you, my suggestion would be to just get the powdered stuff and mix it into a liquid yourself. That way you know exactly what you're getting. Because you never know what else is in the pre-mixed stuff. The water may just be filtered and not distilled, it may contain other ingredients like that NuNaturals stuff I got, or the alcohol in it might throw off the taste.
Happy vaping!
