Maddening flavor issue.

[magus7091]

Long post, bear with me.
A long time ago, I tried making a cotton candy liquid, theoretically a simple prospect. I failed, dismally. Even when using flavoring at 20-30% I couldn't really taste anything. At. All. I tried Lorann, tfa, and even high concentration diluted ethyl maltol.
Finally, it was suggested to try adding a berry, or some other fruit flavor. I went with strawberry. Then blackberry. Then blueberry. After all of this tweaking, I had a sour, bitter, terrible terrible terrible TERRIBLE flavor. And I used all of my strawberry in the process. I've given up completely on trying to do ANYTHING with cotton candy. This brings me to today.

I was inspired by a liquid I've recently tried to do a mix of peach, pineapple, and strawberry. I finally picked up the strawberry yesterday, and there's a familiar HIDEOUS taste to what I've created. I started with a low flavor concentration, and I had a sour, bitter, almost dish liquid taste. So I added more of everything. No longer tastes like dawn, but still awful. The ONLY flavor they have in common is strawberry.

Let me be clear: strawberry is one of my favorite flavors. If anyone here has had similar problems with Lorann strawberry, and can recommend a solution, or a GOOD, CONCENTRATED alternative... Please let me know.

 

[IDJoel]

Hi Magus and welcome to ECF! Glad you joined us.

I used some LorAnn flavors in my early days of DIY as it was one of two flavor manufactures my local brick and mortar shop stocked (TFA was the other). I have to say it was never a favorite, and I have since found other manufacturers that do better for pretty much any flavor, but that is just me and my taste buds.

Since you didn't offer much in the way of specifics (percentages, names, brands, nic amount, base ratio, and aging/steeping methods {if any}); I am just shooting in the dark. But...... based on what you did say, both on the cotton candy attempt, as well as your current effort, I am GUESSING that is might be the use of too much flavoring(s).

Just as an example, here is what another site has accumulated as common Strawberry-LA (LorAnn), based on the user input and recipes on file:

If you are way outside these ranges you may want to move closer. Too much flavor can cause chemical-like, "off," generally unpleasant, taste. It can also cause the intended flavor to "disappear" where it doesn't taste like much of anything at all.

Of course, taste, and therefore strength, is HIGHLY subjective and can vary A LOT based on individual preference. So this is far from concrete. But it might give you a better reference point.

Type of device/atty, build, temperature, and maintenance (how crusty your coils are) will all influence what you taste too.

Honestly, the best way to understand your ingredients, is to spend some 1 on 1 time with each one individually FIRST. Start at a minimal percentage, and add a bit at a time, tasting each time, until you find the amount that is right for you. Be sure to take detailed notes while you do this so you can repeat it later.

As to your question about strawberry: I am partial to a combination of 2% Sweet Strawberry-CAP (Capella) and 3% Strawberry Ripe-TFA. The two work well together and the combination tastes better than either does alone. It works for me.

If you ever decide to revisit "cotton candy; I would suggest first doing the single flavor taste testing I described above, and then once you find your optimal percentage of Cotton Candy (or Ethyl Maltol 10% dilution), try adding a SMALL amount of vanilla (for pink type) or raspberry (for blue type). By "small" I am thinking just a drop or two in a 10 mL sample. I have also read bubblegum being an alternate for "pink" as well.

 

[Alter]

I did a bunch if trial and error cotton candies when I was trying to mimic a commercial cotton candy for my wife. They all ended up as syrup made as standalones and tasted like schite. Loranns and FA cotton candy mixes were 15% then 10% then 5% then 2.5%, all turned into syrup in a matter of a couple weeks.
My success was having a drunken stooper and accidentally mixing a HS desert ship into a cola atty I was vaping and it was surprisingly good and got better and I vaped the atty down, the desert ship made the cola flavor pop. I then began to experiment with the cotton candy and HS desert ship with a couple mixes at 5% CC and 5% DS...too sweet, began to cut the CC down and ended up with a mix of .75% Signature Circus Cotton Candy and 4.5% HS Desert Ship with 3 weeks to a month steep. The exhale smells like the cotton candy vendor at the fair, her coworkers love the smell and she has raised many eyebrows in public vaping this blend, its been her ADV for over a year and a half now. Its easy on the coils, 2 weeks+ vaping 50mls a week on a 1.4ohm clapton.
You could probably substitute a mild tobac like HS Highway, HS Virginia, HS No5 or FA 7leaves for the desert ship and could still work.

 

[BrotherBob]

A long time ago, I tried making a cotton candy liquid, theoretically a simple prospect. I failed, dismally. Even when using flavoring at 20-30%

I have read that plain CC is primarily composed of EM (Ethyl Maltol). TFA Circus CC is said to be different.
If you used plain CC, my notes from others are:
Enhances sweetness. Brings richness & moistness-a bit of sweetness like burnt caramel. Adds little body with sweetness,Tritates out at over 5%. Will reduce flavor around 1%. Slight muting effect. Use EM with tobaccos (only w/o CC in recipe) In the 1-2% range.0.5% EM (10%) = Cotton Candy -- Use MM for a sweetener.
I use CC only as a mix enhancer.

TFA Circus CC : Very light pleasant vape. Not particularly unique or stand out though.
TFA desc. : This is a different style of cotton candy that is more similar to "Blue" Cotton Candy.
This is not a "strong" flavor. It is made with ingredients that are crystals/powders, and if we try to make it much stronger then these crystals will start to "precipitate" out.

 

[magus7091]

I'll definitely play around with different flavors. As far as the percentage of the strawberry flavor, I know it wasn't too high, because my initial mix was only at 0.5%, and the flavor only got worse as the concentration rose. I've heard other recommendations for TFA circus cotton candy, so maybe I'll piece together an order from TFA here in a few weeks. Thanks for all the advice, guys.

In the meantime I'm enjoying a raspberry pie flavor I concocted. Happy vaping!

 

[dannyv45]

It's funny you mentioned your issues with strawberry because I just broke out a bottle of a strawberry cream I mixed a few months ago that I just couldn't vape so I gave it another try and right away I noticed that chemical taste you speak of. This was made from 10% OSD strawberry milk and 7% TFA strawberry ripe. So I had a bottle of OSD's lucky shot mixed up which is a creamy caramel mix. I mixed them both together which diluted the strawberry by 3/4's and this gave the caramel mix just the right amount of strawberry note.

So what I'm trying to say here is this told me the strawberry mix was way over flavored. So flavoring choice and percentage has much to do with the end result. Try drastically lowering the strawberry percentage and try different strawberry flavorings until you find what you like.

What I usually find with strawberry flavorings is they taste better as an additive note then it does as a stand alone mix.

 

[SupplyDaddy]

6.7% flavoring is the highest I go after years of DIY. Isn't it just a coincidence that Wizardlabs sells their flavors in 8ml little bottles that equal out to ... 6.7% when used in a 120ml bottle?

Some flavors need steep time, can't help that. Some don't. You have to try them to see which is which.

 

[DaveP]

After hearing people talk about food, drink, and candy flavors I guess I'm going to have to try some in my DIY experimentation. I've always vaped about 80% tobacco flavors, but I have tried premade juices in fruit, candy from various vendors and found most of them unimpressive. After finding out that I can beat the heck out of vendor juices in the tobacco line, why couldn't I do that with anything else?

I think the best flavors in vendor juices have been Dekang, especially the fruit and sweets line. Dekang Watermelon is pretty impressive. Hangsen is still my favorite Tobacco.

 

[magus7091]

There are tobacco flavors you can get from various vendors. I've usually been a fruity flavors guy, but I do have a few mixes I've put together with tobacco. With the vapor tax in West Virginia now I don't buy liquid unless it's online. I'm working with a peanut butter mix I threw together the other day. Do love my sweets though.