Can you saturate your tastebuds with one particular juice component?

[Giraut]

The other day, I posted this review of 3 VG liquids I had ordered. When I posted the review, I had been vaping pure VG for about a week, and I found the apple-flavored liquid so disgusting that I vowed never to touch it again.

Today, out of curiosity, I tried it again and found that it's actually quite good, with a really noticeable apple flavor. What gives?

Also, the "1975 tabac" liquid that I had reviewed seems to have gone flat: I still like it and vape it regularly, but it tastes somewhat ashy and astringent now. I need to mix a few drops of Cognac in it to wake it up. As for the mint-flavored liquid, it's become even sharper and more minty - much less sweet that before.

I'm wondering if vaping VG all the time slowly make my tastebuds "blind" to its taste, unmasking the flavors that are mixed to it. It would make sense. It's the same effect with real cigarettes: the first ones have a nasty metallic tang that disappears after a while. Similarly, e-liquid flavors seem to get tiring even more quickly than real tobacco.

Also, it would mean that reviewing liquids that have a VG/PG ratio different from what you usually vape makes no sense, unless you give them at least one or two weeks to express themselves correctly, so to speak.

 

[Jenn Perry]

Sometimes juice needs to steep for a bit for the flavor to really mix and come alive. I have juice that is horrible or not very flavorful until a week or so of sitting. There are tons of threads about steeping and how it can enhance the flavors

 

[Intervap]

As Jenn said, some flavors need to steep.
I do notice, however, that already steeped juices that don't taste good sometimes taste better a few months later. For example, I used to hate Johnson's Creek's Espresso flavor so I gave it to a friend in November. Tried it on his set up (same set up I was trying it on before) and it tasted great! It could very well be environmental, meaning what you eat and drink affects your taste. Even your water intake, and maybe even VG!
Anyway, the moral of the story here is to always give your ejuice a second chance. You never know

 

[mobocracy]

It's really amazing how variable vaping flavors are even when using the same basic technologies. I get strong hints of cinnamon from JC Red Oak Tennessee cured off my 808 carto stealth setup but very little from the same juice out of a carto tank. Even varying the voltage by a few tenths of a volt on the same device can result in variations in flavor.

Earlier this week I was taking methocarbamol (a muscle relaxant) for a back injury. While taking it, I noticed all my favorite flavors tasted flat and kind of unpleasant. As soon as I stopped taking it, flavors came back richer and with more subtlety (such as the cinnamon taste above).

I also notice flavors vary a little during the day -- AM vapes tend to be better, afternoon vapes tend to be flatter and it gets better later in the evening.

 

[Virtual Life]

I just switch flavors multiple times a day because any one of them gets bland if I vape it too long. So yeah, I think saturation is exactly what is happening.

 

[Firecrow]

Its funny, I keeping see threads with questions that revolve around sense of taste, but people rarely seem to talk about how our sense of smell is involved in what we taste.

What we perceive as taste is not just from our taste buds. Our sense of smell plays an equal, if not greater role in helping us detect tastes. When we're young, we can detect about 20,000 different odors in about 10 different intensities. However, we can only detect about 5 primary tastes (sectors of the tongue). Odors are detected through the nostrils or through the mouth when smoking/vaping, just like eating. When you can't smell or perceive odors via the retronasal route, your ability to taste diminishes greatly.

Also olfactory adaptation happens when you become desensitized to stimuli to prevent the overloading of the nervous system, thus allowing it to respond to new stimuli that are ‘out of the ordinary’ (an survival adaptation). This applies to your sense of taste and smell. The strategy of switching flavors and mixes throughout the day defeats the adaptation and you therefore experience the taste and odor more vividly than you would if you stayed on the same one all the time.