There are many different methods of going about determining what percentage a flavor should be used in your DIY e-liquids, here I will cover one such method that has worked for me.
Few flavorings are suitable for use as the only flavoring in a recipe, with that in mind this method seeks to find the percentage of flavoring that you are comfortable with, that tastes like something you can use in a mixture with other flavors if you will.
In devising this method I wanted to hasten the process as much as possible, to that end this method uses quite a few materials to test one flavor. I believe the initial cost is reasonable and certainly makes the development of recipes easier later on.
I assume you can measure fluids with a good degree of accuracy and aren't needing advice to that effect. Same goes for ratios of PG to VG, and how to determine nicotine levels in your test mixes. That being said I assume you have some collection of tools to mix fluids such as droppers, syringes, etc.
Things you will need;
A note book or similar method of safeguarding information you collect.
About 16ml of each flavoring your wanting to figure out a percentage on.
11 3ml (1 dram) containers for the test mixtures.
An accurate measuring device of some sort, 0.1% of 3ml = 0.003ml, a scale that measures to 0.001g will do the trick I use the Horizon PRO-50A (50g x 0.001g) it cost me $50.00 on ebay.
At least 78ml total of carrier fluids (PG/VG), nicotine as well if you so desire.
Your most often used vaping device.
Determine a list of qualities that are important to you for rating the flavorings you will be testing. For example I use; throat hit, vapor, smell, taste, color.
Come up with a rating system, in my system I have decided that the qualities have different levels of value to me, so I gave them numerical values; taste (16), smell (8), throat hit (4), vapor (2), color (1) the higher the value the more important that aspect is to me. When testing a batch I rate each aspect 1-10 in test one, 1-11 in test two, and 1-5 in test three. A single mix rating might look like this;
Test One
Flavor XXXXX at 5% 6mg/mL 50:50:0 PG/VG/DW
Week 2
Taste 7 x 16 = 112
Smell 4 x 8 = 32
TH 9 x 4 = 36
Vapor 5 x 2 = 10
Color 5 x 1 = 5
Total score = 195
Note: Throat hit dominates, flavor is more pronounced then last test and retains some chemical aspects.
Test One
Lets get on with it, the first step is going to cover a broad spectrum of possible percentages. The idea at this point is to both get you close as quickly as is possible and get lots of information recorded. I don't like to follow most posted suggestions as they often seem way way off, so I use the following percentages in my first run of a flavor (10 3mL vials); 1%, 3%, 5%, 7%, 9%, 11%, 13%, 15%, 17%, and 19%.
Now comes the fun part, rating the flavors you mixed. I check my mixes every 7 day for as long as 5 weeks, longer may be useful for some flavorings so use your judgement here. Take notes and score each mix every time you test. When you determine you've tested long enough pick out the winner based on your scores. If you want to be high speed you can plot how each percentage did over time, all sorts of graphs and geek opportunities exist with the data you've generated.
Test Two
In this test you are testing a range that is much more refined and based on the preference you found above. You can allow the flavor mixes here steep right up to the point you know it will start to shine, no need to test earlier. The basic premise is to mix a new batch of your favorite from test one and ten additional mixes, five higher and five lower. So if you selected 1% as your favorite you would use 0.1%, 0.3%, 0.5%, 0.7%, 1.0%, 1.3%, 1.6%, 2.0%, 2.3%, and 2.6%. This is a total of 11 new batches.
As in test one evaluate and score each mix and determine a best single percentage. It will be a little more difficult to do this time because the differences are not going to be as great between mixes. Take your time and pick a winner then move on to the next test.
Test Three
In this test you are refining the percentage down to the best 1/10th of 1% (0.1%). For most flavors this is going to be accurate enough if not more accurate than most will ever need. In any case at this point you will only be mixing five vials per flavor, the preferred percentage you found in test two along with two above and two below the one you found preferable in test two.
As you did in previous tests, test vape each one and evaluate the mixes to determine which is the best mix percentage. It should by this point be just very fine differences between one and another.
Please feel free to use this method or modify it to your liking, I didn't post every possible percentage mixture possibility because some folks will just not read anything with that many numbers.
I didn't exactly mention what to do with any extra e-liquid at the end of a test, well if you don't use it all there are a few options, one is to dilute it to a nicotine concentration of 0.1mg/mL or less using water and dispose of it in your normal drain system or follow local waste disposal law. Some people have a opps jar, into which all oops mixes go.
Once you have tested a number of flavors you will want to move on to my next blog that covers mixing flavors. The beginnings of great recipe design.
Here is a sneak peek,
When you test enough flavors you are likely to run across at least a couple that you really like or at the very least find good enough to vape without mixing with additional flavors. These are your base flavors.
Flavors that aren't stand alone flavors are your modifier flavors, these are going to be put to use to tweak a flavor just a tiny bit. Think of these as your spice rack.
Maurice
Few flavorings are suitable for use as the only flavoring in a recipe, with that in mind this method seeks to find the percentage of flavoring that you are comfortable with, that tastes like something you can use in a mixture with other flavors if you will.
In devising this method I wanted to hasten the process as much as possible, to that end this method uses quite a few materials to test one flavor. I believe the initial cost is reasonable and certainly makes the development of recipes easier later on.
I assume you can measure fluids with a good degree of accuracy and aren't needing advice to that effect. Same goes for ratios of PG to VG, and how to determine nicotine levels in your test mixes. That being said I assume you have some collection of tools to mix fluids such as droppers, syringes, etc.
Things you will need;
A note book or similar method of safeguarding information you collect.
About 16ml of each flavoring your wanting to figure out a percentage on.
11 3ml (1 dram) containers for the test mixtures.
An accurate measuring device of some sort, 0.1% of 3ml = 0.003ml, a scale that measures to 0.001g will do the trick I use the Horizon PRO-50A (50g x 0.001g) it cost me $50.00 on ebay.
At least 78ml total of carrier fluids (PG/VG), nicotine as well if you so desire.
Your most often used vaping device.
Determine a list of qualities that are important to you for rating the flavorings you will be testing. For example I use; throat hit, vapor, smell, taste, color.
Come up with a rating system, in my system I have decided that the qualities have different levels of value to me, so I gave them numerical values; taste (16), smell (8), throat hit (4), vapor (2), color (1) the higher the value the more important that aspect is to me. When testing a batch I rate each aspect 1-10 in test one, 1-11 in test two, and 1-5 in test three. A single mix rating might look like this;
Test One
Flavor XXXXX at 5% 6mg/mL 50:50:0 PG/VG/DW
Week 2
Taste 7 x 16 = 112
Smell 4 x 8 = 32
TH 9 x 4 = 36
Vapor 5 x 2 = 10
Color 5 x 1 = 5
Total score = 195
Note: Throat hit dominates, flavor is more pronounced then last test and retains some chemical aspects.
Test One
Lets get on with it, the first step is going to cover a broad spectrum of possible percentages. The idea at this point is to both get you close as quickly as is possible and get lots of information recorded. I don't like to follow most posted suggestions as they often seem way way off, so I use the following percentages in my first run of a flavor (10 3mL vials); 1%, 3%, 5%, 7%, 9%, 11%, 13%, 15%, 17%, and 19%.
Now comes the fun part, rating the flavors you mixed. I check my mixes every 7 day for as long as 5 weeks, longer may be useful for some flavorings so use your judgement here. Take notes and score each mix every time you test. When you determine you've tested long enough pick out the winner based on your scores. If you want to be high speed you can plot how each percentage did over time, all sorts of graphs and geek opportunities exist with the data you've generated.
Test Two
In this test you are testing a range that is much more refined and based on the preference you found above. You can allow the flavor mixes here steep right up to the point you know it will start to shine, no need to test earlier. The basic premise is to mix a new batch of your favorite from test one and ten additional mixes, five higher and five lower. So if you selected 1% as your favorite you would use 0.1%, 0.3%, 0.5%, 0.7%, 1.0%, 1.3%, 1.6%, 2.0%, 2.3%, and 2.6%. This is a total of 11 new batches.
As in test one evaluate and score each mix and determine a best single percentage. It will be a little more difficult to do this time because the differences are not going to be as great between mixes. Take your time and pick a winner then move on to the next test.
Test Three
In this test you are refining the percentage down to the best 1/10th of 1% (0.1%). For most flavors this is going to be accurate enough if not more accurate than most will ever need. In any case at this point you will only be mixing five vials per flavor, the preferred percentage you found in test two along with two above and two below the one you found preferable in test two.
As you did in previous tests, test vape each one and evaluate the mixes to determine which is the best mix percentage. It should by this point be just very fine differences between one and another.
Please feel free to use this method or modify it to your liking, I didn't post every possible percentage mixture possibility because some folks will just not read anything with that many numbers.
I didn't exactly mention what to do with any extra e-liquid at the end of a test, well if you don't use it all there are a few options, one is to dilute it to a nicotine concentration of 0.1mg/mL or less using water and dispose of it in your normal drain system or follow local waste disposal law. Some people have a opps jar, into which all oops mixes go.
Once you have tested a number of flavors you will want to move on to my next blog that covers mixing flavors. The beginnings of great recipe design.
Here is a sneak peek,
When you test enough flavors you are likely to run across at least a couple that you really like or at the very least find good enough to vape without mixing with additional flavors. These are your base flavors.
Flavors that aren't stand alone flavors are your modifier flavors, these are going to be put to use to tweak a flavor just a tiny bit. Think of these as your spice rack.
Maurice
