Best attempt at a tobacco flavor so far --Full Credit to Nuck

[Misty]

I ordered the ethyl maltol, tobacco absolute, and menthol. THe purpose of the menthol is to smooth out the blend? I hope no menthol flavor remains.

The menthol defininitly just freshens the mix if you stick with the proportions Nuck suggests.
I taste no menthol at all (which I don't like either!) and actually do prefer the mix with that tiny drop of diluted menthol !

What a great mix though! - haven't vaped anything else since

 

[Lucacri]

I'm trying your recipe but the problem is with the Ethyl Maltol because I receive it today but it is in crystals and, after mixing it with the rest of the recipe (0.1ml of crystals in 10 mls of total juice), the crystals don't mix that well!
How do you do it?

 

[Misty]

Hi Lucacri,
I just used a smidgin of ethyl maltol -( tip of a sharp knife for 10 ml).I shook it well and seems all dissolved well on my end..
The Ethyl Maltol consistency I got is like white tiny crystals like sugar - I didn't notice any solids at the bottom left..
Maybe Nuck has a better solution to help you out..

 

[Lucacri]

I did basically the same and i shook it for an hour (I even strapped the bottle to the electric drill and nothing changed), now i can see few of those little .......s but the situation seems nicer.
I didn't use the menthol (i don't have it now) and it tastes awful... Should I add some LorAnn flavor? Which one?

 

[Misty]

Attaching it to a drill?!very original guess it beats shaking endlessly!
What else is in the mix you have so far? did you add the diluted tobacco absolute?

Which Lorann flavors do you have on hand that you like?

 

[Lucacri]

the drill was fun hihih

I made a mix like this:

- 5 ml of 36mg totally wicked marlboro
- 4.7ml of VG
- 2 (about, might be a bit more) drop of diluted tobacco absolute (I mixed in another little bottle one drop of absolute in 2ml of vodka)
- 0.1ml (in the meaning that i put enough crystal to reach the 0.1ml line in the syringe) of the ".......s" (as i call them) crystals of ethyl maltol

I don't have the distilled water nor the menthol so i didn't add them...
I was thinking about trying to refresh the taste by adding watermelon or banana. I have also several other flavors (and no, i don't have the wintergreen, i forgot to take it grrrr)
Probably even pineapple or mango would be "freshy".

Any suggestions? Quantities?

 

[Misty]

Distilled water is just to thin out the VG - so it won't change the taste which is your problem..
Is it the ashtray taste from the tobacco absolute that is driving you nuts? cause that's what the menthol does..softens it..
But since you don't have menthol.. watermelon or mango ?though those are fruity rather than fresh..which is least fruity?..
Flavor usually is 10-20% of a mix in the simple recipe..depending on how strong the flavor is..so I would add 1ml and check it out and add another 1ml if it starts to make it palatable
Good you're only playing with 10 ml to experiment with for now..!
But don't give up on this mix at least till you try out menthol with it..

 

[Lucacri]

I don't taste the tabacco at all! I even added a bit of watermelon and mango to a smaller 2ml bottle (so i don't ruin the big batch) but I don't really taste anything (just the residual RY4 smell because this cart was prefilled with it)!
Should i put more tobacco drops in the tobacco diluted?

 

[Misty]

Well, I add diluted tobacco absolute 2 drops/5ml. So in your first 10ml batch I would of doubled yours - so you can try adding some for sure. Tobacco absolute was the only thing I changed from the original qty as I couldn't taste the it either at 1 drop/5ml.

I know Youfillintheblank just puts it straight into the cart if you check out his post and he loved it..
To my tastebuds, ethyl maltol "sweetens" softly , diluted tobacco absolute "harshens" and diluted menthol "freshens" - perfect balance.
I'd forget the 2ml you played with - that must be a little bit of mess as far as distinguishing tastes but you never know..!
Good Luck!!

 

[Lucacri]

I tried to add more tobacco absolute and a bit more ethyl maltol (by also adding some vg and 36mg juice)
Umh i think i'm doing something wrong because at the end this juice is:
- thick
- doesn't smell so much as tobacco
- it's kinda "burning" a bit...

GRRRRRRRRR!!! Could it be that i'm using vodka (absolute vodka, to be precise)?

 

[Misty]

.....because at the end this juice is:
- thick
- doesn't smell so much as tobacco
- it's kinda "burning" a bit...

GRRRRRRRRR!!! Could it be that i'm using vodka (absolute vodka, to be precise)?

Discouraging or fustrating for sure! Is this your first DIY attempt or are you used to already making with Lorann some mixes..?

"Thick" - usually due to VG which is why its often diluted with distilled water or vodka (absolute is fine) 1ml : 6 or 8ml VG .
Also what type of VG do u have out of interest?

(I usually predilute batches of the VG so I don't have to worry about adding water or vodka to any final mix - one less thing to worry about with proportions..! Then when I do 10ml batches of this mix, I just have to worry about mixing wanted proportions of eliquid /diluted VG (or PG) ie. 50%:50%. In this recipe, the rest are just drops of the diluted tob.abs + menthol + ethyl ..)

"Smell" -
Don't expect a smell from the mix - it should be almost clear and no strong smell like you get with Loranns! There is no "smell" of tobacco - rather it's a "taste" an echo of bitterness - very very mild since extremely diluted. The intellicig formula Nuck based the mix on calls for <1% tobacco absolute..which is present in probably all the other tobacco flavors too like Marlboro RY4..

Burning? physically a burning in your throat or do u mean your atomizer is getting that burnt taste (from being too dry)?

 

[Lucacri]

Thank you for the help Misty!
I tried to dilute the juice with some PG (i don't have distilled water, as I said before) and it wicks probably better but I still have a lot of juice in the cart when the top of it is dried... (i have a Janty Stick with the original atomizer and I even modded the cart with the straw)
I can (barely) feel the taste of the tobacco so far, and usually I get really weak throat hit (that's disappointing because I'm really looking for it)
The burning is connected with the drying problem I guess...

Now I try to make another batch of 10mls and I try to follow all the suggestions I got so far!
In the meanwhile, how can we improve the throat hit?

PS: the PG and VG i have are from juicyliquid.com

 

[lordmage]

try a Cayenne pepper or Cinnamon mix not to much thou and you would have to heat it up then filter it. another place i have read suggest lemon juice but that would reduce the ph of the liquid or some chemical reaction. it also was suggested to increase the ph i just dont know how that would be done.

 

[Misty]

From what I understand, voltage plays a big part with "throat hit" as well as a manual switch ecigs/mods. Do you have the auto or manual Janty stick?

I think Janty stick runs with battery 10440 3.6V -a voltage that is great to catch flavor rather than throat hit but many members found that upping the voltage with some great mods improve throat hits albeit at the expense of flavor. The extra voltage/heat burns the liquid faster so you have to always make sure the atomizer is wet.
(I think Nuck runs his 801 atomizers at around 5.0V to get the perfect throat hit..)

Finally I would make sure your atomizer is functionning optimally..are you getting tons of vapor at least ?

 

[Lucacri]

Cayenne peppers?? How the heck I "juice" them?

I have a manual JS and tonight I soaked the atomizer in Rubbing Alcohol just to rule out the possibility that the little junk was messing with the throat hit... I have huge vapor, a little bit of flavor and weak-to-none throat hit...
I tried the juice on the 901 and it looks like somebody is punching my throat at every puff!

 

[Misty]

Hey, that's great - narrowing the problem down to your hardware instead of your mix!

 

[Lucacri]

I preferred if it was a juice problem

 

[lordmage]

Cayenne peppers?? How the heck I "juice" them?

the same way you would extract nic from leaves cut em boil em and evaporate some water. or use a hot water mix of the pepper flakes and strain

 

[grumpster]

I finally got a chance to try this mix out and I have to admit that I'm pleasantly surprised. The flavor is excellent. I was surprised to find a slight carmal taste to a otherwise very earthy flavor. Never thought I'd like a carmal flavor, but somehow, it just works with this recipe. I mixed it just as instructed at first and rather enjoyed the tobacco flavor. Quite a statement for me since I'm a menthol smoker and don't much care for full flavors. Added a little extra menthol and have a nearly perfect menthol vape. good earthy flavor with a menthol overtone as to my liking. Definately NOT a vaporized dinner mint like so many others I've tried.

I do think I might have a bit too much Ethyl Maltol in my mix though. Has any one come up with a good way of measuring very small quanities of Ethyl Maltol? Since it's not liquid, I can't count drops or draw it up in a syrenge like the other ingredients. I was thinking of mixing it with everclear just like the menthol christals, but was afraid I'd end up with a too watery mix that way. Any ideas?

 

[Misty]

Hi Grumpster
Maybe Nuck can come up with dilution mix for the ethyl maltol..but it still works for me as he had suggested : measuring density as if it were ml..
I did notice it does not dissolve very quickly when mixing straight into the mix I did yesterday as Lucacri mentionned but I make sure to shake the mix again before dripping or topping - it kinda balances the blend all out if there is a sediment of ethyl maltol..

PS.. nice instructional fluval video you posted a while back on the main forum! Great details