A desperate plea for help

[Wishdog]

I am fail. My DIY is the worst and I can make a single flavor taste like unclean shower drain.

Those who know, tell me what I can do with this stuff. Even if it's just single flavor.

(Though I do know how to make the peach and creme de menthe, single flavor, correctly.)

From Wizard (so TFA):
Caramel Origninal Flavor Concentrate (just read 1 drop per 10ml)
Coconut Extra Flavor Concentrate (just nasty at all concentrations?)
Hawaiian Tropical Punch Flavor Concentrate (not as good as Kool-Ade?)
Juicy Peach Flavor Concentrate (excellent, no issues)
Mtn Dew Flavor Concentrate (can't see what other's like about it)
Pina Colada Flavor Concentrate (nasty at different concentrations)
Watermelon Flavor Concentrate (odd, but not horrible)
Acetyl Pyrazine 5% PG Flavor Concentrate (satan)
Ripe Banana Flavor Concentrate (can't nail this down)
French Vanilla Flavor Concentrate (very strong maybe)
Sweetener Flavor Concentrate (can't tell when I use it)

On the way:
Healthcabin (Dekang?) Licorice
TFA Green Tea

I already know that the Acetyl Pyrazine is the devil. Anything I add it to tastes like rabbit butthole. I'm not understanding why people like the Dew, and I've done it at 10% and also 20% with sweetener and lemon juice, both of which are the forums favorite stregth/recipes.

I'm not giving up any time soon as I just bought 250ml of 24mg. But it's getting really old vaping only mint, peach, and failures.

Thanks guys.

 

[glassmanoak]

When you get the licorice, keep it LOW.. 5% to 10% MAX. To me, watermelon is ALWAYS awful.. period. Try mixing one of your successes and add 2% or 3% of something you might like to add.
To me, adding licorice to another mix at 2% always gives it an exotic flavor. Good luck and remember to KISS (keep it simple, stupid)

 

[Hoosier]

What taste do you get from just your base, no flavoring, on your testing atty?

 

[Ealisaid]

Before you started DIY, what flavors did you like? Have you tried any flavors besides TPA? It took me a while before I found a lot of flavors that I truly loved, and there's no way that I'd stick to just one flavor vendor. You may just not like any of those you've bought so far. Try some Flavor West, some Capella's, some Nature's Flavors, some of the super-concentrates from VZ or ECX.

That being said, you may have some of those super-sensitive taste buds and you need to use only a tiny bit of flavoring. Instead of measuring by %, try just one drop of flavor in 1 ml or 5 ml or 10 ml and see how that goes.

 

[Lyndagayle]

Welcome to the rude awakening of a DIY newbie. I was exactly where you are when I first started, all kinds of excited for my first flavors to arrive and then it happened....."...." syndrome. Hoosier brought up the most important point of all---test your base without any flavoring. If it's good then just realize that you probably have tapped into some flavors that are never going to taste good for you, but not necessarily. Sometimes a little tweaking can rescue a bad batch. You're on the right track because you do have a good bottle of Juicy Peach (which is one of my favorites), so you know there's hope. I like the TPA Mt. Dew at 18% and a few drops of champagne. Champagne just works to wake up most soft drink flavors. It seems to add the fizzy component. The ripe banana is very strong IMO, but good once it's nailed. Try it at 8% with a few drops of EM or cotton candy (same thing). The AP is wildly powerful and is used mostly to add a nutty or bread tone to other flavors but only in Hoosier's little phrase, butterfly fart amounts.

As Ealisaid stated, go flavor shopping but only buy small bottles until you see if you're going to like it. I've been doing this for 1 year and I'm still flavor shopping for certain tastes. It takes some time, patience and trial and error to get it the way you want it.

 

[zoiDman]

If Everything tasted Blah... Maybe something that goes into All of your DIY Recipes is Blah.

Like the Nicotine Base?

I bought some "On Sale" Nicotine base that everyone said was such a Great Deal. It was a Great Deal. The Only problem was it Tasted Like it was Mixed in Old Paint Cans and then Filtered thru Used Gym Socks.

I could Almost Mask the Bitterness by using Unholy amounts of Sweetener. But I couldn't get rid of the Chemical After Taste no matter what I did.

So do what Hoosier suggested and try Vaping Just the Nicotine Base in a New Atty/Carto. At 24mg, it might have a Slight Peppery Taste but it Should be Strongly Unpleasent.

BTW - Are you using any Sweetener. And if so, what kind?

 

[Wishdog]

I've vaped just the base before when I was having a "flavor crisis." My one savior from the flavor crisis times is my Lorann Creme de Menthe which has never let me down, but gets old. And nearly a month of just that and Peach has gotten very very old. The base is the one from Wizard. It's fine.

I think I'm making the mistake that I should realize is wrong based on the stuff in Hoos's blog. I try to make it stronger.

As for my taste buds, you might be right. Any premixed flavor that has caramel in it tastes horrible to me, I've never had a banana I liked and though some think that ECBlend's Dragon's Something is great, I found it foul.

My favorite flavors in pre-bought are Licorice, any strong mint, and TopVapor Grandpa's Blend (which I believe is caramel watermelon with something else.)

I'll keep trying. Good to know that the watermelon might just be a total miss. I was really looking forward to that. My issue with the Mt Dew is it has a sharp flavor. I tried adding about 4 drops of vinegar per 5ml and that either did nothing or made it sharper, same with lemon juice.

When my base comes in, I'm thinking of diluting both the Mt Dew and my punch to 1/2 of what I have them at. Maybe that's the sharpness they have.

Oh, and all my fails have steeped 10 days at this point. I've been mint and peach only for that whole time. Except I just unscrewed my mint and put the punch on. Just tastes like sharpness, a spikey throat hit. I think I have it too high a %.

Basically, I need to find recipes that use the stuff I have, but I've noticed most use FA and not TFA. I'm reluctant to buy more since this has been quite a mistake so far. I'm so looking forward for that Licorice to come in. Geez, I hope it doesn't have to steep.

Again, thanks guys. I think it would be better to vape barely flavored stuff rather than full flavor yuck.

(I'm not used to asking for help so much, so sorry if it seems I'm just wallowing in greif here)

 

[aurea]

I bought some "On Sale" Nicotine base that everyone said was such a Great Deal. It was a Great Deal. The Only problem was it Tasted Like it was Mixed in Old Paint Cans and then Filtered thru Used Gym Socks.

Just had to say this totally cracked me up!

@Wishdog, I just started the DIY train myself and a couple of things I can say that did help me out:

• Start with a very, very small sample of what you want to make (personally I start at 3ML or less)
• Use a drip tip so you can try the flavor in small quantities, that helped me avoid filling and emptying or worse having to vape the entire carto then refill
• Start with the minimum amount of flavor and work up from there with flavoring
• Vape each flavor alone with the exact same amount, for me at least I started out trying to make awfully elaborate juices by smell and then adjust, and then adjust, and then adjust some more... (you get the picture) I finally went back to ground zero made very humble 3ML bottles of all of the flavors completely alone with the exact same amount of flavor in each one. Then I took notes. Was it a heavy flavor? Was it a mild flavor? Did it taste like I expected it to? Blah, blah, blah and so forth. By the time I was done it was much, much easier to put together a good juice because I sort of understood the flavors I was working with.
• Not all flavors are made the same I purchased a Cappuccino juice from a vendor and it was absolutely AWFUL. I've since purchased it from another company and it is awesome. So, I decided to try and DIY it. I picked up a bottle of cappuccino flavoring, as soon as I opened it I knew who the company with the awful juice was purchasing their flavoring from.
  
  Rather than give up I found three other companies that make cappuccino flavors and I'm going to try all three of them to find the one that I like. I like the good cappuccino's enough that I think it's worth the investment.

 

[BakuPeg]

I found going through the forum here E-Liquid Recipes helps a lot.

Good to know what you intend to mix up, and then buy flavors. St8's cake recipies are to DIE for.
I don't have all of the flavors you have, so I can't really give you mixing tips. I usually go through the TPA and other flavor reviews to have a guess whats good and what tastes like pants. My husband loves the TPA watermelon when jazzed up.
I made 10ml, 12mg nic. Think I went 12% watermelon + 2% koolata +2% Juicy peach +1% Pomegranete +1% Bav Cream +3 drops Cap sweet strawberry. 4 drops Cotton candy (Otherwise known as EM). 1 drop lemon juice. 50/50 pg/vg. Steeped 2 days (He didnt let it steep a week like I suggested). I call it Cooool Melon Twist. It was gone in a day. I should mix up some more for him.

DIY is kinda like cooking. You'll get the hang of it.

edit: He said the Tpa Mountain dew was pretty good. I cant remember the % without notes. I just added 3% champagne and 3% cotton candy on the back end.

BTW TAKE NOTES!

 

[Wishdog]

Cut my "RY3" (caramel and vanilla, no tobacco cause I don't have it) strength in half and it's vapable. Probably needs another cut.

Re: Note taking. What I need is a notebook. I've been taking notes on random peices of paper and they're just lost in the random peices of paper on my desk. I was keeping up pretty good using Simplenote, but that wasn't something I was too happy with. Like, I didn't document my cutting the RY3, or that the Punch was quite vapable yesterday, but it sure didn't taste like punch.

When my nic liquid comes in, everything's strength gets cut in half. Unfortunately, Wizard is having issues with personell/shipping and the stuff I ordered last Friday morning just shipped now. I'm not really in a flavor crisis except I vaped away all my mint. And I'm looking forward to trying to find a caramel/watermelon/green tea mix that tastes good. I'm shooting for a flavor not unlike TopVapor's Grandpa's Mix. Not duplicate it exactly, but get to that kind of "mystery flavor."

Thanks much, I didn't have time to mess with my stuff much yesterday, but that just means extra steep time.