Can DIY match the quality of "pro" juice?

[echofinder]

"pro" juice is such an ambiguous term - of course it means vendor juices, but there is such a variety in quality; many vendors do no more than take one or two of our typical flavorings (TFA, FW...etc) & throw them in a nic base at the recommended percentages. I fully believe that a person with no DIY experience and a short list of directions could easily create juices as good as or better than 50% of vendor juices. Shoot, a non-vaper could do that.

Many of our favorite vendors are those who focus on quality - testing thousands of samples to arrive at a complex & nuanced recipe, often using specialty or proprietary ingredients... those are difficult if not impossible to clone, but we can certainly, with practice, make juices of comparable quality.

As a side note, I started DIY because I like floral flavors, and at the time at least there were hardly any floral flavors being offered through vendors (that I could find)... pro's tend to concentrate on things that will sell; with DIY we do not have to limit ourselves according to that dynamic.

 

[dannyv45]

My daughter is an avid "Halo" vaper and Captain Jack is her ADV. I was suprised she loved my concoction and it is now in her daily rotation with all her other Halo liquids.

Good luck in whatever you decide.

I've tried to duplicate captain jack a few times without success. Would you mind sharing your receipe?

 

[Whiplash]

The chance of duplicating a flavor by mixing several others is very unlikely. The “pros” do not start with flavorings like those from Wizard Labs, LorAnn or FlavourArt. They use a combination of flavor molecules. The common DIY flavorings are also a mixture of flavor molecules.
If you want to take DIY to the next level, check out “TheTobacco Blending kit” at TPA. It has step-by-step instructions for some tasty juice. When you get the basics down, create your masterpiece. It does require time and a lot of reading to understand the basics of flavor creation but it can also be very rewarding.

 

[gtseng]

I am thinking about making "base" liquid with fix PG/VG/Nic for all my flavors and let them steep. Then I can try mixing these base flavors instead of starting from scratch. This way I can take away the steeping time of mixing. I would welcome people's opinion.

 

[Whiplash]

@gtseng
I've mixed a few that way. Cuts the mixing time, but it seems they still need to steep some.

 

[dannyv45]

There is not really any big benifit in steeping your base mix. The perpose of steeping is to allow the flavors to blend and meld within the final mix. Flavors are made from solid materally (Usually crystalized) desolved in a pg/vg base as a concentrate. If it's very fresh they may have not completely desolved or blended together with the other solid materal used to make up the concentrated flavoring mix. This is expecially true for tabacco concentrates. You should steep after you've added your flavors and additives to complete your mix.

 

[Mdemon]

I believe what gtseng is saying is making base mixes of each different flavor, steeping them, then using these steeped mixes to create different blends.
Viable, but you will need to first figure out what % is good for each individual flavor, else you run the risk of some base mixes being stronger or weaker than others.
Even then, like Whiplash mentioned, you may still need some steeping time when you mix 2 or more bases together for the true flavor of the new combination to develop.

My suggestion is to first stick to 1 flavor mixes, find the ideal %'s for your tastes & then try combining after you get a good feel for each flavor on it's own.
When I started DIY'ing that was more or less along the same lines I followed.
Some flavors need steeping, others not so much. But once you're in the world of DIY, steeping is a reality you cannot escape.

 

[gtseng]

I have already figured out the % for those VZ SC tobacco flavors for my 80/20 VG/H2O mix. I am making these in big quantity base so it will make further mixing with other flavors easier. I think mixing pre-mixed flavors together should be easier than start from scratch when making more complex flavor juices. At the same time, I am going to try using the ultrasonic cleaner to speed up the steeping process.

I believe what gtseng is saying is making base mixes of each different flavor, steeping them, then using these steeped mixes to create different blends.
Viable, but you will need to first figure out what % is good for each individual flavor, else you run the risk of some base mixes being stronger or weaker than others.
Even then, like Whiplash mentioned, you may still need some steeping time when you mix 2 or more bases together for the true flavor of the new combination to develop.

My suggestion is to first stick to 1 flavor mixes, find the ideal %'s for your tastes & then try combining after you get a good feel for each flavor on it's own.
When I started DIY'ing that was more or less along the same lines I followed.
Some flavors need steeping, others not so much. But once you're in the world of DIY, steeping is a reality you cannot escape.

 

[zoiDman]

Can DIY match the quality of "pro" juice?

Hmmmm.

That’s kinda like asking if something you cook at Home can match the same thing you get in a Restaurant?

Not sure why it couldn’t. That is, if the person doing the Cooking is a Good Cook.

 

[Pixiehardcore]

I can make some pretty good vapes

 

[subver]

I just started DIY... my first juice I made on my own I think is better than any other juice I've tried (except maybe Boba's Bounty.. but I'm quickly forgetting about that juice anyway! Good riddance!) - I'm not sure if I just got lucky or what.. but YES, absolutely.
P.S. - "Pro juice" is still just some guy like you and me putting flavors together. The only difference is he/she is selling it.

 

[dchest02]

My wife, who is also a vaper, is very finicky when it comes to what she vapes, so I was scared when I started DIY-ing. She only vaped two juices, both from Ms. T's bakery. I found recipes for both the juices she vaped (Thanks goes to Str8V8ping), mixed them up, and my DIY juices are all she vapes now. I only buy one juice from one vendor (in my signature) because it is just too complex for what I know how to do.

Not only is DIYing saving me money, it is making me money because I have people buying juice from me too. I never want to become a vendor or anything, but it is kind of fulfilling to have people ask me to make juice for them. The money I make goes right back in to DIYing, so its win-win for me.

 

[Steven Pye]

Personally I love my DIY juice- not always, I have had some bad turn outs, but that comes with the territory.

I really at this stage don't have any desire for vendor juices, my DIY juices make me happy

Even tobacco- my Hangsen, Flavor Art, and VZ tobaccos fit my bill of a quality juice

 

[jgoss]

You know, there are tons of good juices out there, and every single one of them was created by a normal human being. I think it is just like any other art, you must practice.

 

[catalyst]

Yes, DIY can match the quality of "pro" juice. It can exceed it if you know what you're doing. I recently started DIY and with the help of some close friends (a chemical engineer and a professional flavorist) I've made some killer juices. I'm waiting on our newest batches to steep but we've had some good results so far.

 

[slider]

DIY can exceed the quality of "pro" juice. Is a home made apple pie better than a store bought apple pie?