Flavors anyone?

[Robinowitz]

Hi folks,
Am new to this DIY world but am willing to learn. I am interested in hearing which flavor companies have the highest quality of flavors (ie as close to the “real” thing as possible without a bunch of weird additives)? I have visited a couple of sites but haven’t found ingredient listings and perhaps I am just lazy. Haha

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Shadav]

that's a bit difficult, no one brand is going to be the "best" in all flavors
and best is suggestive as each persons tastes are different....
try to read reviews before buying a flavoring, or ask here in the forums...
usually the manufacture sites list the ingredients...but any good site will note if the flavoring has something to be warry about in it
take a look around bullcityflavors a lot of times folks will leave reviews

but as said no one brand is going to be the "best" at everything so you're better off asking about specific flavors...
like pineapple, over in the random diy thread we all pretty much agree that vape train sugarloaf pineapple is the best...or that flavour art tiramisu makes for a decent coffee flavor...or that Lemon Sicilan is a good lemon flavor (though to me it's more like the zest of a lemon but most everyone else says it's a great lemon flavor)

 

[Robinowitz]

that's a bit difficult, no one brand is going to be the "best" in all flavors
and best is suggestive as each persons tastes are different....
try to read reviews before buying a flavoring, or ask here in the forums...
usually the manufacture sites list the ingredients...but any good site will note if the flavoring has something to be warry about in it
take a look around bullcityflavors a lot of times folks will leave reviews

but as said no one brand is going to be the "best" at everything so you're better off asking about specific flavors...
like pineapple, over in the random diy thread we all pretty much agree that vape train sugarloaf pineapple is the best...or that flavour art tiramisu makes for a decent coffee flavor...or that Lemon Sicilan is a good lemon flavor (though to me it's more like the zest of a lemon but most everyone else says it's a great lemon flavor)

Thank you for your reply @Shadav. I don‘t think I did a good job with stating my question clearly. I am mostly interested in the quality of the ingredients that make up the flavors. Are there some flavors that are made with words that are hard to pronounce (chemicals) or derived from the “real thing”? What are the sweeteners made out of (Ie like the difference between high fructose/corn syrup and cane sugar).
Does that help to clarify a bit. And I hear you that all of our pallets are unique.

 

[ppeeble]

What flavouring manufacturers try to achieve is to isolate and then artificially create the particular 'chemical' that replicates what constitutes the 'flavour' of a thing..
Everything is made of 'chemicals'. The reason they do this is because they do not want the rest of the stuff that is found in 'natural' flavourings (i.e. squeezing a blueberry for the juice - you end up with 2% blueberry 'flavour' and a load of stuff that couldn't be identified as blueberry).
Don't be scared of chemicals - the aroma of a strawberry has been identified as methoxyfuraneol... If someone can isolate and re-create the molecules that represent the taste of a thing, it doesn't necessarily equate that it is bad. It's just science.

Apologies if i'm preaching to the converted

 

[YoursTruli]

If I'm understanding your question correctly (?) I think you have to remember you are inhaling vape versus eating food. Water soluble flavors for vaping, inhaling, contain artificial ingredients and certain ingredients some wish to avoid in water soluble flavors are usually noted if included like Diacetyl, Acetoin, Acetyl Propionyl. Natural/Organic flavoring may contain ingredients you would not ever want to inhale.

 

[englishmick]

Some vendors publish the constituent list, some don't. Some you have to ask.

Some flavorings only contain 3 or 4 chemicals. Someone posted the list of ingredients that make up strawberry flavor and it was a couple of pages long. That's just a reflection of how nature produces those flavors in the real world.

A chemist once pointed out here that a grape will contain 100's or 1000's of chemicals. Only a few of them contribute to the taste. What you get with a manufactured flavoring is the same chemicals that create the flavor in the grape without all the other chemicals. Some vendors extract their flavorings from organic pineapples or whatever, but there's no way they could filter out all the non-flavor producing chemicals. They likely contain a large number of ingredients you don't need, and which the vendor can't possibly even identify or list.

It's counterintuitive. Natural extract sounds good but for vaping it's really the other way round. When I first started mixing I used natural extracts, now I stay away from them.

 

[Superuser187]

I can't remember how they are called but there are some flavours in all brands that contain some chemicals that are consider to maybe not be that good to vape....
I don't remember how those chemicals are called but some websites that sell flavours mention the flavours that contain them....and I am sure people here know better and may know sites that point out those chemicals....

All I know is that usually custard creamy buttery and flavours like those contain those things....yummy tho

If u ask me tho I don't care and I vape whatever flavour I like cause I know if I wasn't vaping I would be smoking for sure and suck all those chemicals and nasty stuff sooooooo.....I can't be picky now with vaping

 

[englishmick]

I can't remember how they are called but there are some flavours in all brands that contain some chemicals that are consider to maybe not be that good to vape....
I don't remember how those chemicals are called but some websites that sell flavours mention the flavours that contain them....and I am sure people here know better and may know sites that point out those chemicals....

All I know is that usually custard creamy buttery and flavours like those contain those things....yummy tho

If u ask me tho I don't care and I vape whatever flavour I like cause I know if I wasn't vaping I would be smoking for sure and suck all those chemicals and nasty stuff sooooooo.....I can't be picky now with vaping

One of those chemicals was acetoin, don't remember the others. The handful of people who got sick from them were factory workers mixing up big vats of the stuff without proper safety procedures. From the reports I read at the time they were thought to be inhaling very large quantities of the stuff, far more than you could get from vaping. It is in cigarettes too. There's no recorded cases of that lung disease in smokers or vapers.

I stayed clear of them for while when the story first broke but I don't worry about it now. The acetoin free alternatives the vendors came up with just weren't as good.

 

[vaper1960]

Your basic question has been answered (unfortunately, most flavor and sweeteners are artificial) You can't vape any "real sugars" (will clog your coil/wick super quick) Other "natural" flavors have oils (not good for inhaling) anyway... about specific flavor/brand choices (I made a thread about this... please read the intro for a long explanation) This got me into much trouble (on this thread) but I still fell it might help newbies:
Well-reviewed Flavor Concentrates

 

[Robinowitz]

Thank you ALL for your time, education and assistance. Have read and re-read each comment and am digesting them. I have mostly spent most of my entire vaping life surrounded by kind and helpful Reonauts. So grateful for this Forum as well!

 

[Spydro]

@Robinowitz, a voice from your past is knocking with some thoughts for you to ponder about DIY. There are eight million stories in the Naked City, and many times that many in the world of vaping. This will be just one of them. But do your own homework to make the right decisions that you can live with.

After three days and nights of researching DIY in early 2013 I ordered my first "mods", and that same day lab equipment. bottles, etc, base ingredients (PG & VG), and 75 flavor concentrates because commercial e-liquids back then all contained at least 6mg/ml nicotine that I did not need or want because I was not addicted to it. But most of the 75 concentrates were a fail because I missed that day in class when it was said not to assume that because you like to eat something does not mean that you will like to vape it. Biggest fail for me was the fruits and any others that were overly sweet. I learned each flavor by itself first, then found what flvor(s) complimented each one. Then eventually up to 3-4 or more that worked well together for me. In the end I made ALL of my own recipes, I didn't copy those of others, and had over 160 of them by the time I stopped vaping... savory plants (not tobacco) and drinks (alcoholic and not) mostly that were perfect for my tastes in the gear i ran them in. You have years of using commercial e-liquids so know what you like to vape (fruits, desserts, bakery, savory, drinks, etc, etc, etc) and that would be a great place to start from.

Lots of the old concentrates I used are no longer available from their manufacturers. I knew they were going to be discontinued so bought a lifetime supply of them. But I have not had any dealing with DIY vendors for going on 2 years, so the good folks here will have more current knowledge about them. I mostly bought from One Shot DIY Shop and Bull City for concentrates as they had many different brands in stock that I used, and I got my PG/VG from Nude Nicotine.

Methods is another story in DIY. In my case from what worked at first (shake and wait and wait, and...) other methods to what worked the best for me the last years. I mixed by weight, used a magnetic stir plate and I made my own One Shots that all cut the time way, way, way down from mixing to ready to vape. Only took a few minutes to make a batch then a short ride on the plate. A bonus was almost no clean up of equipment either.

Good luck and have fun as you find your way thru the DIY jungle Reonaut.

 

[Letitia]

Thank you ALL for your time, education and assistance. Have read and re-read each comment and am digesting them. I have mostly spent most of my entire vaping life surrounded by kind and helpful Reonauts. So grateful for this Forum as well!

If you want to reduce chemicals the easiest way would be to invest in "ultra" concentrates like Medicine Flower, Flavorah, and Nature Flavors; as well as some super concentrates like Wonder Flavors SC line, and Sobucky Super Aromas. The ultras are costly but you only use by the drop so 15-30ml can last you a lifetime; for example I only use MF orange 1-2 drops per 30ml. Most of the SC flavors you will use at 0.3-2%.