Flavors - Why are we using so much?

[DrMA]

I've been DIY-ing my ejuice for a few months. I've made good, OK, and also unvapable juices and everything in between. Nothing spectacular, though my latest batch of LorAnn's mango is pretty tasty...

Anyway, I digress. Even though I've been using all these flavors in ejuice for a while, I haven't tried to use them for their original intended purpose until a few days ago. I started experimenting with adding flavors to sparkling water to see what kind of results I can get. Well, the results are spectacular. Most flavors seem to make awesome flavored water at very very low levels, on the order of 1 drop per oz of water. Sweetener (sucralose) is even more potent, making the drink noticeably sweet at 1 drop per 4 oz. The most impressive of all is Ethyl Maltol (aka. cotton candy), which imparts detectable flavor in water at 1 drop per 16 oz.

So my question is - if it takes 1 drop/oz in water, why do we need to use flavors at 5-20% in our vape juice?

 

[cricque]

The VG/PG absorbs the flavors ? I am not a scientist by far, but it must be something like that, or the molecules bind themselves to the VG/PG

I use distilled water to test new flavor, just to get a taste and see what I can expect

 

[Cyrus Vap]

I'm not sure, and that's a good question

But from switching to primarily unflavored vaping I can say that, when I do use flavors it doesn't take much anymore; even TPA flavors at 1-5% will floor me

So you can sort of sensitize your buds a bit by including some 'blank' liquid in your diet

 

[Aurora-Oblivion]

Interesting to know Cyrus, thanks!

I've been reading Thompson's unflavored thread, and planning to try it soon just to check it out, great to know it can have some positive side effects like that too!

 

[Dougiestyle]

I would assume that the neccessity of higher flavor concentrate in e-liquid would be neccessary to acheive similar flavor sensation as the same flavor at a lower concentration in water would be due to the form of carrier of which your taste buds perceive the flavor. In an e-cig, your flavor is is a vapor, whereas, the same flavor in water is able to coat your entire oral cavity. Vapor just makes a passing glance acrss your tongue and nasal passages.

 

[Iffy]

Liquid vs. vapor

 

[MorpheusPA]

It's probably the density of vapor (very low) versus water (high). In a very low density vapor a fair number of the molecules have to be flavor for you to notice it.

I do go through menthol crystals at a phenomenal rate, and I just ordered 8 ounces of them. That should last about a year, and I don't heavily flavor my liquids, either.

 

[DrMA]

The vapor hypothesis is interesting, but I'm not convinced. Because you can open up a bottle of ejuice, take a quick whiff and you get a strong idea of what it smells and tastes like from a lot less vapor compared to a good long hit off an atty.

 

[~Sue~Feb2012]

We aren't putting the eliquids on our tongue or directly in our mouth...we're trying to taste the flavor from a vaporized state...
Our nose has to help us "taste" our vapor. Yeah, I generally have to put about 1 or 2, sometimes even 3 or 4 drops in my 3 ml bottles of eliquid to get the overal feel for the flavor I'm looking for.
Odd isn't it

 

[ninfreak]

also think of how little of an amount an e-cig uses at a time compared to taking a drink. 1 drop compared to an ounce or more is a huge difference. you need to get enough flavor into that one drop to taste it when it expands to enormous proportions in a vapor

 

[Rin13]

On the other hand, this may give some people ideas on what to do w/ flavors that they cannot make work (vape wise). Try adding the flavors to drinks/etc.

 

[john333]

i think the heat of the coil and the flavors ability to withstand has something to do with it.

 

[Orobas]

WAIT.

... so you mean to tell me that I can stop shelling out a billion dollars a month on crystal light?

 

[DrMA]

WAIT.

... so you mean to tell me that I can stop shelling out a billion dollars a month on crystal light?

LOL. Totally. crystal light <- what a ripoff.

Try this:
Perrier Sparkling water
Champaign flavor (TFA) 2 drops/oz
Sweetener (sucralose) 0.25 drops/oz
Awesome flavor, 0 calories

 

[epage]

LOL. Totally. crystal light <- what a ripoff.

Try this:
Perrier Sparkling water
Champaign flavor (TFA) 2 drops/oz
Sweetener (sucralose) 0.25 drops/oz
Awesome flavor, 0 calories

That's something I will *definitely* try!

 

[glasseye]

Capellas website has a bunch of recipes, Medifast, lo-cal, etc., for their flavorings. Some of them sound amazing.
I have no idea about the other. Most of the time I use much less than the recommended percentages.

 

[Orobas]

LOL. Totally. crystal light <- what a ripoff.

Try this:
Perrier Sparkling water
Champaign flavor (TFA) 2 drops/oz
Sweetener (sucralose) 0.25 drops/oz
Awesome flavor, 0 calories

 

[BikerBob]

also think of how little of an amount an e-cig uses at a time compared to taking a drink. 1 drop compared to an ounce or more is a huge difference. you need to get enough flavor into that one drop to taste it when it expands to enormous proportions in a vapor

Assuming 20 drops/ml, 2 to 3 vapes per drop : 5% flavor = 1 drop flavor to give 20 drops (1 ml) of eliquid. 2 to 3 vapes per drop means 40-60 from that 1 drop of flavor. 4x that (20%) would give 10-15 vapes per drop of flavoring.

1 drop flavor in 30ml (1 oz) of water. How many sips do you get from that 1 oz of water? 10? Is the flavor as intense as the vaping?

Using so little 'liquid' per vape means you need to increase the percentage to give the same amount of flavor per vape.

 

[Xylocaine]

I think things come from thinking that more is more! You like chocolaty chocolate milk? Add more syrup! I could make pages out of things that I love to add more to - Cheese and Bacon is another good example. The problem is this doesn't work with flavorings people seem to think 5% is the Minimum! 15-20% is a Good Number! I find this all to be insane! I use 0.25-2.5% (Flavour Art exclusively). I think as you go you will find out the old adage less is more to be truer and truer.

 

[BikerBob]

I think things come from thinking that more is more! You like chocolaty chocolate milk? Add more syrup! I could make pages out of things that I love to add more to - Cheese and Bacon is another good example. The problem is this doesn't work with flavorings people seem to think 5% is the Minimum! 15-20% is a Good Number! I find this all to be insane! I use 0.25-2.5% (Flavour Art exclusively). I think as you go you will find out the old adage less is more to be truer and truer.

You can really complicate this by saying "Taste is subjective". My mix of 5% tastes super potent to me. Let buddy try, and he thought is was quite weak flavored. One lump or two? Some like three or four.