Flavor Blending and %s

[tmoore]

I'm wondering about mixing flavors when I get started DIY, and literally kept myself awake the other night pondering whether this bit is very simple or overwhelmingly complex. Let me start with a simple question and see where it leads.
Say you've experimented with flavor A and found it to be a great solo flavor, optimally mixed in at 10%.
And, you've done the same with flavor B; solo it's optimally mixed in at 10%.
Now you want to try an AB blend flavor. To make it really simple (?), the magic vape fairy tells us the optimal ratio of A to B for an AB blend is simply half and half, 1:1.
Where would you start...
10% A + 10% B for a total of 20% flavoring? (sounds like overwhelming flavor)
5% A + 5% B for a total of 10% flavoring? (that's a lot less than the optimal 10% for each we used to use)
7.5% A + 7.5% B for a happy medium?

Again, the answer may not be 'what is correct?', just where would you start when trying an AB blend with the above knowns?

 

[Hoosier]

I have a bottle of 10% A all mixed up. I also have a bottle of 10% B all mixed up.

I try a few different ratios of the premixed single flavors in other bottles and try those. So, for a 50/50 blend, I would have 1ml of A and 1ml of B. If that was close to what I was going for, I reverse out the components. Note that in this example there is 0.1ml of A and 0.1ml of B in 2ml so there is 0.2ml of total flavoring in 2ml which is 10%. Also note that with the exception of alternate versions of DeMulta's Sweet Tart recipe, I have never found 50/50 to actually get the 50/50 taste I was looking for.

If I have a couple of single flavors that I want to blend, I often use the combine-the-premixes-together and then add additional flavoring(s) and create the recipe from the notes after I get to where I was going. (Or if I discover something different than what I wanted that is good.) I also start with a premix'ed single flavor and add additional flavorings and sometimes I start with mixing flavorings and checking smell then adding my PG&VG. There is nearly as many ways to approach blends as there are blends so just go with what feels right in your head at the time.

 

[Cookster]

I had read somewhere (and got flamed for mentioning it), that 50/50 wasn't a good idea for mixing, that they could potentially cancel each other out.. one flavor should be "dominant", so to speak, with background notes.

That being said, I usually do 60/40 or 70/30 mixes with 2 flavors, 60/20/20 or 70/20/10 with 3. Seems to work for me

 

[tmoore]

I guess a simpler way of saying it is, do you combine, split, or average percentages when blending? Remember, the magic vape fairy told us we want a 1:1 blend of A:B. I know real life is much more complicated, or better put, more artistic. Just looking for a rule of thumb if there is one.

 

[Hoosier]

I guess a simpler way of saying it is, do you combine, split, or average percentages when blending? Remember, the magic vape fairy told us we want a 1:1 blend of A:B. I know real life is much more complicated, or better put, more artistic. Just looking for a rule of thumb if there is one.

OK, last try...

If I have a 1ml bottle of solo-flavoring A that is great at 10% and a 1ml bottle of solo-flavoring B that is great at 10% and I put all of each together, I have a 2ml bottle of (0.1ml A + 0.1ml B = 0.2ml total flavoring) 10% total flavoring that is 50% A and 50% B. So it is 5% of each flavoring in the bottle.

So if your magic vape fairy said 1:1 or 50/50 blend, then you average.