Hi DD and welcome (back)!
Now I have 3 favorite flavors ... COFFEE, CARAMEL, and my number one... MAPLE. I have bought these from many different E-juice brands, yet EVERY single one I ever tried had this really gross after taste. Now these were pre-made juice. Expensive brands all USA made .
My experience with much of the commercial juice out there is that it is
heavily flavored and this may be part of what you may have not liked. Especially since you have been vaping for several years. Our taste buds recover somewhat after we stop smoking and the strong flavoring we needed in the early days can become too much later on.
So, if you are still using commercial juice, you can try diluting the flavor by adding an unflavored PG/VG/nic% of your liking and see if that helps make that aftertaste go away.
I just read on The Flavor Apprentice sight about the " Custard" issues and issues with something called Diketone and how they sell DX formulas without it.
Does anyone know if THAT is what makes Coffee, Caramel and Maple flavors taste like crap?
Most likely not. These are most often attributed to rich/buttery/creamy/thick qualities in flavorings and are most often pleasant tasting (though I suppose
anything can be overdone). In fact one of their uses is to cover up the more chemical nuances of artificial flavoring.
The exception to this is the butyric acid as CagedSpam mentioned. This is a naturally occurring acid that is found in a lot of dairy-based products and it too can add that buttery richness in
very small amounts. Too much and you can start to get that sour vomit type of experience he was talking about. And a small portion of people are sensitive to it at any level.
I haven't noticed butyric acid being used a lot by flavor manufacturers though. Some, like TFA are using it in a few of their DX flavors, but they note their use in the flavor description in the same way they do diacetyl or acetion. Also, as an FYI, there is concern that butyric acid does not play nice with anything from the diketone family; that it (the butyric acid) can actually cause the diketones ind it's kin to remain active in our systems longer giving them a chance to do more harm. But I digress.
I have not made my own e-
juice in over 6 years. I had tried a many Lorann and I think its Capella or something. They were all HORRIBLE and maybe I was just adding too much, but never found one that tasted good.
I want to get back into Mixing my own juice and would like to be able to make Maple etc without that nasty taste.
For mixing your own I would recommend the following:
-- Go slow, baby steps. I started reading threads here on ECF, got excited, jumped in with both feet by buying tons of flavors, lots of gear, copying lots of recipes, and making a LOT of mediocre to bad juice.
I didn't get to understand my individual ingredients first. It was kind of like reading a recipe that called for "fish" and not knowing the difference between anchovy, trout, halibut, salmon, or Gorton's frozen fishsticks! They are all "fish" but they taste nothing alike.
Likewise, almost EVERY flavor manufacturer makes
at least one "coffee." and many will have 3, or more, when you start including kona, turkish, espresso, cappuccino, mexican, mocha, etc.... And the ALL taste different from one another. And they are all going to taste different to you than they are to me. I will like one at a higher percentage than you while a different flavor we may be the opposite. Unfortunately the only way to
know is to taste them your self.
Which leads me to my next recommendation:
--Taste everything separately
first. Put a few drops of whatever plain PG you are going to be mixing with on a freshly wicked dripper a vape it. Does have any unpleasant taste? If so, maybe try another brand. If not; repeat the process with whatever VG you are going to mix with and vape a few drops of that by its self.
Once you have tasted the PG and VG separately, you can add your nicotine concentrate to a PG/VG blend at your preferred ratio, to get your desired nicotine strength. Still no flavorings! Vape a few drops of this. This will let you know what your nicotine will taste like and how it might effect any future recipes. NEVER VAPE UNDILUTED NICOTINE!
Now you have an unflavored base that looks something like X%PG/Y%VG/Zmg per mL nic.
There are quite a few people who routinely vape this just as it is. The do it because it is easy/fast and you almost never get tired of it and it will satisfy nicotine cravings. Others, like myself, will vape it occasionally when our taste buds have gone into "flavor overload" and nothing tastes right/good. So we use an unflavored for a time until our taste comes back.
But what you are looking for here is what kind of flavor does this have to start. What sort of flavors is this base going to be adding to your actual flavors when you start tasting them. I have seen more DIYers blame a flavoring when it was actually a base component at fault.
Now comes the hard part; Pick a flavor. Just one flavor. and add it to your base. start at a low percentage and work your way up until you find
your sweet spot. It may be 1%, 3%, 10%, 15% or even more. And there are even a few that you may want to use at
less than one percent. It all depends on what tastes best to you.
I will add; don't expect every flavor to knock your socks off. Many of us might find a couple, or even a few, flavors that work as a stand-alone but most are going to need help. And that is where recipes come in. Right now your are just looking to see if this particular flavor
can work (doesn't have any of those objectionable tastes, aftertastes you don't like), and at what percentage you like it best (you won't always want to mix at this percentage depending on what else is in the recipe but it gives you a nice ballpark starting point). This helps when you are creating your own recipes or evaluating other's recipes. If someone posts a recipe that uses flavor X at 15%, but you know you prefer it at 3%, you will understand that you may want to cut the percentage down in the recipe to start.
I am going to quit right now before ECF starts charging me a publishing fee...
But I will add one final recommendation before I post this; there are lots of good and helpful blogs that others have already posted. I am tagging
@dannyv45 and
@BrotherBob, who both regularly post a list of those blogs, in hopes that one or both of them will jump in here and share them with you.
I hope this was some help. Best wishes on your new DIY journey!
