Am I doing something wrong?

[LitchOfDoom]

Ok, so I have been making my own juice for about a month now. While for the most part I feel I have been quite successful with the results so far, there are a few that I feel that the flavors are just not there. Here are what I feel are my problems:
1) Not Steeped enough.

I have been using a speed steeping method passed down to me from a fellow DIY, with my own variants of course. I have an electric kettle that can bring water no higher than 212 degrees, the temperature water boils at. I put the temp just below that and then I place each bottle into a separate coffee mug and then pour the water over them till just about the top. I leave them this way for about 45 minutes, or whenever I get to them after the 45 minutes, and normally seem fine but I have a few that just seem to not have "kept" their flavors strong over time, about 3 weeks. Am I doing this correctly? Do I need to use a different method?​

2) Not enough Flavor

The other thought I had that could be the problem could be is that I am not adding enough of my flavors themselves. I am producing my juice in 15 ml glass bottles of which I do around 5%, .75 ml, of the flavor. When ever I ask my friend for advice on it, he normally says "just do what you think will work and just dial it in until you get it right." but I am the kind of guy that wants to hear what everyone else does, give it a try, then tweak it into something different with my own personal touch (exp: when I use a recipe to cook, I look up around 5 to 10 different ones, log the main ingredients, then take what I like of each and use them in one). Should I go up to 10%? or even 15%? How much is too much?​

 

[Bunnykiller]

making juice is like cooking..... you have the basic ingredients, and the spices... you add spices to taste... you sample then decide if it needs more, keep track of how much you add... or you can make several bottles with different values of flavor percentages, let them all age at the same time and then sample each and find out which one tastes best to you... if some are weak, add more flavor, if too strong add more PGVG... then you end up with a bunch of good juice

 

[readeuler]

Do you have some specific examples of mixes that you've found off? From the looks of it, I can't tell if you're making juice with a single flavor, or if your total flavors are 5% of the volume. Whose flavors are you using?

Regardless, I use much higher percentages and don't steep at all before vaping. Here's my current favorite recipe, all TFA:

Vanilla Cupcake 10%
Strawberry 5%
Vanilla Swirl 3%
Whipped Cream 3%
Bavarian Cream 2%
Cotton Candy 2%

I know that with TFA flavors, lots of different flavors are way more than the sum of their parts. Just one or two of the above would be far inferior to the entire recipe.

I also know that I could cut all the above percentages by 80% for a 5% total mix, but I'd probably have to wait weeks for the flavor to develop.

But that's TFA and using a style that works for me, I'm not sure what you're mixing/mixing with. Hopefully with more details, someone can come along and help.

There isn't one true way to mix, but the above techniques work for me.

 

[ckquatt]

I almost gave up on DIY a few weeks ago cause I couldn't get anything to taste right. All the recipes I saw that were for flavors I like tasted like nothing or if it did it had very little flavor. I figured out my drops/ml were WAY off for the type of dispensing tool I was using.

I always read that 20 drops/ml was the standard, but mine ended up being 40!

Now everything is much better! I've actually made 3 juices that are tasting great!

 

[hooplah101]

I have found that with certain flavors crockpot steeping actually degrades the flavors! Almost all of my fruit flavors are shake in vape, baking flavors need a little aging, and tobaccos need a lot. 212 degrees is way too hot from what I understand the sweet spot is 150 degrees! I also like a lot of flavor so I go in with a target of 20% flavor . For many that is too strong though, why the personal preference thing is so important.

Shake n Vape
Pickled Peach 6 mg 10 ml

1.3 ml Cap Juicy Peach
0.4 ml TFA Clove
0.3 ml malt vinegar
0.6 ml 100 mg/ml nic
7.4 ml PG/VG

4 hours in crock pot at 150

Creamy Cookie 6 mg 10 ml

0.3 TFA Banana Cream
0.3 TFA Rasberry
0.6 CAP Sugar Cookie
0.3 CAP Coconut
0.2 TFA Bavarian Cream
2 drops Lemon Juice

Danny posted on a thread not to long ago with a table that showed the times for different types of flavors, fruits were only at 30 min, 4 hours for the longest!
Hope this helps! Good Luck

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/diy-e-liquid/648463-steeping-crock-pot-slow-cooker.html

 

[Hoosier]

1. What did they taste like before heating them up in kettle water?

2. Your friend has the essence of it and isn't far off of my blog on getting the greatest amount of flavor's method.

All your flavorings work at the same %?!

 

[LitchOfDoom]

I have a vast combination to use but my more consistant % are something alone the lines of 5.35 ml VG 8.25 ml PG and 1.5 ml flavor, which is broken down depending on the number of flavors I am doing, usually 1 ml of one and .5 ml of another