Juice Rescue "Cheat Codes"

[Brewdawg1181]

Okay, need a little math help here. It's making my head hurt. Just started diy juice, and made a bunch of 10 ml samples. Unfortunately, I made them all at ~14 mg nic strength, thinking I could get by with that. I really need to make them 18+. I could do the math if I just wanted to double the size, but I want to know the quick and dirty answer for the minimum amount of 48mg nic I need to add to get to 18 mg. I can deal with how much flavoring to add to compensate. And precision calculating the final exact nic/flavoring percentages, or exact isn't important. You can assume that they now contain approx 6% flavoring if that helps. It's just that I found some of these flavors aren't my favorite, but I'm too much of a tightwad to toss them, so I won't need to re-create the recipes.

And while I'm on the subject, it'd be great to have a few ideas on any shortcuts you've found to rescue or adjust juices that didn't turn out to your liking. I'm sure as I progress, I'll have a need for some of those methods as well!

 

[NGAHaze]

Hey Brewdawg, you can add approximately 1.35ml of 48mg nic to bring your 10ml 18mg samples up to 18mg ( 18.04mg more precisely ).

As for a tip for rescuing juices that aren't quite making the grade, I usually start by adding a bit of vanilla to see if that helps at all.

 

[Brewdawg1181]

That's awesome - thanks a ton. You just saved about 100ml of weak juice!

Vanilla won't work for me, though...the longer I've been vaping, the less tolerance I have for even a hint of sweet or nutty. Seems I'm backwards from most. Guess I'll just have to add tobaccos I like until it diminishes the parts I don't like.

 

[DaveP]

And while I'm on the subject, it'd be great to have a few ideas on any shortcuts you've found to rescue or adjust juices that didn't turn out to your liking. I'm sure as I progress, I'll have a need for some of those methods as well!

One shortcut that will save a juice that's flavored too highly is to dilute it with unflavored nic base. You can make unflavored nic base the same way you do your regular recipe, except you just leave out the flavorings. Lots of us vape unflavored juice frequently. It has a mild flavor of its own and vaping it helps give your taste buds a rest when you get Vaper's Tongue and none of your juices taste right.

Unflavored nic juice is good for mixing up small batches to test flavors and is also perfect for diluting juices that are flavored too strongly.

Check out this recipe calculator. It's popular around ECF as are several others.
eJuice Me Up - Best eJuice Calculator

 

[Brewdawg1181]

Thanks, Dave - I feel like I know you from lurking on the Tobacco Flavoring thread. And yea, that's one of the things I learned there, is to start low on flavoring. Even so, I tend to like something stronger after a few beers, and probably overdid it strengthening a test batch. So I'll probably be doing that to tone down a Cohiba/TA Garuda/DNB recipe (from Danny) that I bumped up a little hard (funny, it was great late last night, but choked me this am!). I'll probably use it as well to run thru a tank before changing flavors when I don't feel like re-wicking.

 

[DaveP]

Thanks, Dave - I feel like I know you from lurking on the Tobacco Flavoring thread. And yea, that's one of the things I learned there, is to start low on flavoring. Even so, I tend to like something stronger after a few beers, and probably overdid it strengthening a test batch. So I'll probably be doing that to tone down a Cohiba/TA Garuda/DNB recipe (from Danny) that I bumped up a little hard (funny, it was great late last night, but choked me this am!). I'll probably use it as well to run thru a tank before changing flavors when I don't feel like re-wicking.

I think we've all created a monster flavor mix at one time or another. I still have three 50ml bottles from a crazy strong Red USA mix that I mixed a year ago using Hangsen flavor levels and later noticed that my Red USA mix flavoring was Flavourart. Hangsen are usually mixed at 5% to 7% and Flavourart is commonly 1% to 2%.

So, I diluted that 50ml bottle in equal parts with unflavored mix and I'm still vaping on the three 50ml bottles from that fiasco. After they steeped for months I think I could still dilute them half and half again. As I transitioned from smoking and my taste buds finally recovered I find myself mixing in really low percentages.

These days, I frequently fill my tank with unflavored and add a squirt of some other juice to make a mildly flavored vape. I find myself doing that often. The farther you are from your last cigarette the lower the flavoring needed to satisfy. That's one of the reasons I switched to DIY. Vendor juices were getting too strongly flavored for me. That, and the cost per ML is much cheaper in DIY at home.

 

[DaveP]

Brewdawg1181, if you haven't tried some of the better Hangsen and Flavourart tobaccos and you like a strong and flavorful juice, try FA Virginia 2% or Hangsen Highway 7%. Those are great flavors for a flavorful tobacco that satisfies.

If the cig-a-like feeling isn't there, there's always Black Fire Tobacco added to either of the above. Black Fire tobacco adds an ashy taste that rounds out the sweetness in some regular tobaccos. You might want to adjust the mix by the suggested recipe in the link below. I'd start with .5% Black Fire Tobacco. It's a really ashy taste in higher percentages. In low amounts it can change a sweet tobacco to something that reminds you of a real cig while maintaining the character of the sweet tobacco.

Black Fire Tobacco by FlavourArt

 

[Brewdawg1181]

Hey, appreciate the heads up DaveP. I'll hit you up for reviews and recommendations on the tobacco thread. Seems to be withering and I want to bump it when I can to help keep it alive.

But how does the BF compare to DNB? Love the stuff, but seems to soften up the overall flavor more than I'd like.

I'll post reviews on these and others soon when work lets up a little, but I'm loving HS gold and silver. Tab is ok. They were out of highway when I ordered. FA DS is much too sweet for me. Meant to order HS version, but guessing it'd be different but similarly sweet

 

[DaveP]

Hey, appreciate the heads up DaveP. I'll hit you up for reviews and recommendations on the tobacco thread. Seems to be withering and I want to bump it when I can to help keep it alive.

But how does the BF compare to DNB? Love the stuff, but seems to soften up the overall flavor more than I'd like.

I'll post reviews on these and others soon when work lets up a little, but I'm loving HS gold and silver. Tab is ok. They were out of highway when I ordered. FA DS is much too sweet for me. Meant to order HS version, but guessing it'd be different but similarly sweet

There are far more experienced DIY people here on ECF. I've only been mixing my own juice for a little over a year. A year or so before that, I'd just add flavor to weak vendor juices that were really bland and needed a little more kick. I finally decided that I needed to learn true DIY and I bought scales, 2 liters of nic, lots of flavors, pipettes, droppers, and a case of 60ml bottles, and started mixing. I still have lots to learn myself.

 

[Hawise]

Okay, need a little math help here. It's making my head hurt. Just started diy juice, and made a bunch of 10 ml samples. Unfortunately, I made them all at ~14 mg nic strength, thinking I could get by with that. I really need to make them 18+. I could do the math if I just wanted to double the size, but I want to know the quick and dirty answer for the minimum amount of 48mg nic I need to add to get to 18 mg. I can deal with how much flavoring to add to compensate. And precision calculating the final exact nic/flavoring percentages, or exact isn't important. You can assume that they now contain approx 6% flavoring if that helps. It's just that I found some of these flavors aren't my favorite, but I'm too much of a tightwad to toss them, so I won't need to re-create the recipes.

If you ever need to calculate this again, the formula is:

Initial - refers to the juice you're doctoring (your 10 ml samples, in this case)
Volumes are in ml
Concentrations are in mg/ml

Volume of base to add = [Initial volume x (target nicotine concentration - initial nicotine concentration)] / [base concentration - target concentration]

So, for your example you get:

Volume to add
= [10 ml (18 mg/ml - 14 mg/ml)] / [48 mg/ml - 18 mg/ml]
= 1.33 ml

 

[Brewdawg1181]

Great, thanks! Something tells me I will need it again.
I've snipped and pasted into my ejuice notes doc.

 

[Brewdawg1181]

These days, I frequently fill my tank with unflavored and add a squirt of some other juice to make a mildly flavored vape. I find myself doing that often.

You saw my future Dave. A month later, and I don't leave the house without 2 atties- one has tobacco, the other unflavored, with maybe a few drops of my flue cured (mixed) to add a tiny bit of flavor. I generally go back and forth throughout the day. It's kind of odd, but in
I've learned that, for me, unflavored actually has a little better throat hit that I still crave. I'd forgotten you said this until I came back to this thread.

 

[DaveP]

You saw my future Dave. A month later, and I don't leave the house without 2 atties- one has tobacco, the other unflavored, with maybe a few drops of my flue cured (mixed) to add a tiny bit of flavor. I generally go back and forth throughout the day. It's kind of odd, but in
I've learned that, for me, unflavored actually has a little better throat hit that I still crave. I'd forgotten you said this until I came back to this thread.

Hangsen is my favorite flavor company, followed closely by Flavourart. I also like some of the Inawera flavors, and a few from various other flavor companies. Every flavor company has their stellar flavors, so you might want to read up on the reviews on flavor sites to see who likes what and why they like it. That's a good way to decide what you'd like to try. I like to buy in 10ml sizes first and then decide if I want more later.

You can spend a lot of money buying flavors that others rave over, only to find that your sense of flavor is completely different.

 

[Brewdawg1181]

Hangsen is my favorite flavor company, followed closely by Flavourart. I also like some of the Inawera flavors, and a few from various other flavor companies. Every flavor company has their stellar flavors, so you might want to read up on the reviews on flavor sites to see who likes what and why they like it. That's a good way to decide what you'd like to try. I like to buy in 10ml sizes first and then decide if I want more later.

You can spend a lot of money buying flavors that others rave over, only to find that your sense of flavor is completely different.

I've only tried Inawara, Hangsen, and FlavourArt. I'd have to say so far, I'd rank them in that order- although I've only made 10 flavors total so far. And yeah, I only ordered in 10 ml each. But even if it's something I like, a 10 ml bottle will make (assuming ~5%) about 200 ml. - and it'd take me several months to vape that single flavor, since I only do about 2-3 ml a day. So I'll probably continue to order small bottles since I always need to change flavors. I do the same with beer - when I'm home, I'll rarely drink 2 of the same beer in a row. I just have JADD or TADD (juice or taste ADD).

I picked my first DIY order, literally, by going thru the entire tobacco thread, and making a "scorecard" of each positive mention of a particular flavor. Got some great ones that way, but a couple I don't like quite so much, but at only around $3 a bottle, big deal, right? Plus, a couple I didn't care for originally are really coming around after a couple months of steeping/aging. For instance, the FA Desert Ship was WAY too sweet for me, even at a month, but when I tried it again recently, the tobacco started to finally show itself (and maybe my taste buds changed, too). Now I don't vape it straight, but occasionally put a few drops of the steeped mix in a tank of HS G&S or Cohiba to smooth them out a little, and add just a tiny hint of sweet.

But I do still keep a tank of unflavored on hand, and switch back and forth throughout the day. And you're right about varying taste, of course. FA 7 Leaves got a ton of raves, so I ordered it, only to find that it reeks of anise, making me sorry I even opened the bottle to smell it!

 

[DaveP]

For instance, the FA Desert Ship was WAY too sweet for me, even at a month, but when I tried it again recently, the tobacco started to finally show itself (and maybe my taste buds changed, too). Now I don't vape it straight, but occasionally put a few drops of the steeped mix in a tank of HS G&S or Cohiba to smooth them out a little, and add just a tiny hint of sweet.

Flavors are highly personal in terms of percentage. That's why I start at the low end of the manufacturer's suggested mix level. It's much easier to add some more flavor and wait than it is to split the over-flavored mix into 2 or 3 bottles and add unflavored. It's not that uncommon to end up with 3 bottles of something you really don't like after all the trouble.

Like you, I have some mixes that I like, but only when added in small amounts to a tank of unflavored. That's easier than trying to cut the big bottle down. Once you get a feel for how much it takes for a tankful then you have an idea of how over-flavored it really is and how much to cut the larger mix to get closer to your personal taste.

 

[Brewdawg1181]

Like you, I have some mixes that I like, but only when added in small amounts to a tank of unflavored. That's easier than trying to cut the big bottle down. Once you get a feel for how much it takes for a tankful then you have an idea of how over-flavored it really is and how much to cut the larger mix to get closer to your personal taste.

Exactly right - I have days when I want full flavor, so I still mix the batch at the recommended percentages, roughly. So at times when I want it lighter, I just put in some of my 14% nic VG base in the tank to dilute to taste. I may adjust a flavored tank several times a day. That's part of the reason I don't really need 4-5 ml capacity, and am happy with a KM3 2 ml.

 

[dc99]

My favorite go to is TFA RY4 dbl. Hard to beat it. We've all made recipes that sounded great but taste like crap. In those cases I just add 3-5% RY4 and go from there. Instead of all the math just download a calculator like ejuicemeup.