Gribeau's vibration mixer for speedier juice aging

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Gribeau

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For those who are allergic to Giant Walls O' Text I have bolded the most important bits. I reserve the right to tease you mercilessly if you ask a question (or level a criticism) that is addressed in a non-bolded section. You've been warned. :D

Alright, here's the scoop. This started in a discussion about ways to speed up the aging/curing process of TV creations. There's a whole lotta love out there for Geoff's products, but many people feel that they improve their way to amazingness over the course of a week or more. That curing time is a bit of a pill to swallow when you're anxious to try the brand new flavor that was just delivered to your door. Sure, it is pretty good right now, but you just KNOW it'll get better. This leads to angst and stress for my campatriots here, so I joined in the brainstorming for answers.

The only explanation that made sense to me was that the various components needed time to mix together completely. Until the mixture is completely homogeneous you don't have a "final" product. There's no chemical reaction going on, so it's gotta be about waiting for all the molecules to intermingle and get happy together. The obvious answer is to help the mixing process along. The not quite so obvious problem is that you don't want to mess things up by exposing your juice to too much air or heat. I have been assured by people more experienced than myself that those are Bad Things.

I thought of two solutions that should fit the requirements.

The first is used in labs for exactly this purpose, you basically drop a steel bar into a jar and set it on top of a spinning magnet. You can completely seal the container and let it blend merrily away for as long as you want without any extra exposure to the outside world. Sadly, most of us don't have access to something like this.

The second idea was to use a paint mixer like those monsters you'll find at hardware stores to mix up a (sealed) gallon can. Even fewer people have one of those at their disposal but, and this is a big but, what's really at work there is simple vibration.

The lightbulb just lit up.

The idea started from laughing about using one of my partner's personal "toys" to mix up some juice, but the more I thought about it the better it sounded. I couldn't think of any reason why it wouldn't work, assuming that mixing the juice will help at all. I quickly ruled out battery-operated devices, you need something with more oomph than those usually provide and there's no reason to burn through batteries. Besides, lots of people don't have such toys for varying reasons. But what about big, plug it into the wall, actually useful for muscle therapy type massagers? Even if somebody doesn't have one they're easy to find, not embarrassing, and inexpensive.

I had a hypothetical solution. The next step was a matter of figuring out how to test it.

It just so happened that Belletrist, being the astoundingly giving and lovable self that she is, was sending me a bunch of samples of TV juice. I had just placed an order (my first) with TV that included two of the flavors she was sending. This just got convenient. Since I've heard that cinnacide doesn't need much aging I selected Almond Horn for my test.

The package from Belle and TV arrived on the same day, Apr12. Belle reports that her nic-juice is from Apr1 and the doubler is Apr5, no matter how you look at it that's at least a week old. Both of us have 10% VG nic juice and 30% VG doubler. So, I had in my possession some aged AH and some as-fresh-as-it-gets AH. Time to get serious.

I started by loading a brand new carto with the sample Belle sent. I began breaking that in while mixing up a batch of the new juice from TV. I mixed it to the same 12mg strength that Belle sent me. I shook the new mixture for about 10 minutes by hand and then loaded it into another brand new cart.

I only stopped smoking a little over a week ago at this point. My tastebuds are still largely on vacation. I tried, but I just couldn't tell them apart on a "this one is definitely better than the other one" level. I'm positive that I got the second carto broken in as well as the first, but I couldn't discern any major difference. What's a poor Gribeau to do? How can I test this if I can't tell the difference between them even before I try the vibration mixing? Oh. Duh. Call in the non-smoker girlfriend, Elorin.

I hand Elorin the aged carto to try. She takes a few drags, swirls the vapor around, and pronounces it tasty. I swap cartos for her and, with the same battery, she makes faces when sampling the fresh juice. "GOD that's harsh," she complains after hacking a bit, "how did you inhale this?" I dunno, guess it's my smoker lungs being used to the abuse. She glared at me when I asked her to try it again, but she's a trooper and took the bullet for science. Same reaction. She thought it was really lacking. Cool, time to continue with my plan.

I got ahold of a big vibrating massager and taped my bottle of fresh juice to it. This is important, the liquid isn't going to get much action if it's not firmly attached. I set the thing on high, took a few pictures for entertainment value, and then walked away for 45 minutes.
Sadly, my pictures turned out crappy. The tape got hair all over it while I was putting things together and my camera just couldn't capture the hyperactive antics of the juice in motion. So, since I failed at photography this time, you only get one picture to visualize what I did.
I turned off the massager and removed the juice bottle. It was a little warm, the massager heated up some from running for so long, but it wasn't hot by any stretch of the imagination. I didn't have a thermometer handy, but I'll guesstimate that the juice got up around ninety degrees (warmer than room temperature, but nowhere close to the heat of hot water from the tap). It definitely wasn't as hot as it'd get sitting in a Texas mailbox, so I figure that's ok.

I filled up a third brand new carto, broke it in for about ten minutes, and got set up for the decisive round of testing. Elorin came in, sighed at having to taste the harsh one again, and started cycling through the cartos.

She immediately identified the fresh juice. No doubt at all there, it makes her cough every time she takes a drag.

She was able to identify which of the remaining two was from Belle and which one must be the vibrated sample, but there was no coughing or complaining.

Elorin insists that the aged stuff is smoother, but the vibration-mixed juice is significantly improved over the shaken version.


Update from 14Apr2010:
I have one nonsmoking coworker who was willing to sample my nicotine juices (the only other nonsmoker doesn't want to risk getting hooked again). Like Elorin, she was able to differentiate between all three versions of Almond Horn. She identified the older stuff as being the best and the un-vibrated as her last choice. All three of those samples have been sitting in cartos for about 36 hours, but another set of tastebuds has identified them as still being unique.


Take from this what you will. I didn't do a double-blind test. Nobody else has duplicated my results. I simply tried to do a reasonably fair testing of my hypothesis and I'm posting the outcome. I may arrange to do a more scientific test in the future, but for right now I'm fairly content with my procedure and result.

To sum it all up:
Almond Horn aged over a week = really good
Almond Horn on the day it was delivered = rejected by a non-vaper/smoker as being too harsh
Almond Horn on the day it was delivered, vibration mixed for 45 minutes = good, but not as good as the aged sample

Secondary hypothesis: Mixing for 60-90 minutes may bring fresh juice up to the standard of week-old juice.


If you get a massager to try this and don't like the results you've still got a useful device. I'm only going to include a link for the Hitachi Magic Wand because it's (in)famous for high durability. There are plenty of knock-offs that would most likely work fine, but they're not astoundingly cheaper. I make no guarantees about any device you purchase, it's not my fault if they die after running for two hours straight. I haven't had that problem before, but it can probably happen. That's what warranties are for, yes?

It has also occurred to me that a great alternative to the massager would be an electric sander. I'd stick with a simple vibrating model, not a random orbit. You just have to rig a way to hold it in place without restricting its airflow much (you don't want it to overheat) and make sure you attach your bottle of juice very securely. I think this solution will probably be more effective, to be honest, but not as much fun. The comparative non-juice-mixing usefulness between this and a massager will vary by owner.

If you attempt to duplicate my method check on your mixer, whatever kind it is, every ten minutes or so. As I mentioned way up at the top, heat is a bad thing for your juice. Motors get warm, heat travels, you don't want to accidentally cook your juice and ruin it. Save the unattended mixing for when you're sure your device won't put out enough heat to kill your juice.

That's it. Thank the higher power(s) of your choice. I'm finally out of words. :w00t:
 

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Poeia

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I have an old Sharper Image massager that's a lot like this. (Better than anything I've ever tried for those knots between the shoulder blades.) I'm not planning to buy any more liquid for a few weeks, but I may try that.

How about an electric drill? If you taped a small bottle to a drill bit and whirred it a few seconds, wouldn't that do the same thing in much less time?
 
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Gribeau

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Now, an electric sander I do have... I'm a weird girl, I know. :lol:

You're kinkier than I thought. Knew I liked you for more than obvious reasons.

How about an electric drill? If you taped a small bottle to a drill bit and whirred it a few seconds, wouldn't that do the same thing in much less time?

No, I think not. That should either have no effect at all or an opposite effect. The spinning would be the equivalent of a centrifuge. Those are used to separate liquids, they do not help mix them up.
 

Darrigaaz

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How about an electric drill? If you taped a small bottle to a drill bit and whirred it a few seconds, wouldn't that do the same thing in much less time?

I would have to say this would possibly be counter productive to what you would be trying to do. By using a device that would spin, rather than shake, the juice, you would be separating the juice out by the different weights of the different ingredients.
 

Drozd

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I thought of two solutions that should fit the requirements.

The first is used in labs for exactly this purpose, you basically drop a steel bar into a jar and set it on top of a spinning magnet. You can completely seal the container and let it blend merrily away for as long as you want without any extra exposure to the outside world. Sadly, most of us don't have access to something like this.

I've seen in a few stores now cheap battery versions of these as cheap gimmicy "tornado" drink mixers
 

CritterBuddy

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Toys?? ;)

I usually mix small batches of about 10mls and find 10 seconds in my microwave followed with a few minutes of vigorous shaking afterwards does wonders for the juice. Just be sure to use one of the silicon type bottles not the pure plastic ones or they'll literally melt. Also, microwaves vary so start with about 5 seconds first until you see how warm (not hot) your juice gets first time around.
 

Poeia

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You need to keep the liquid in a dropper bottle (either the big one or one that holds a few milliliters). If you pour it into the mixer's container, you'll run into the same problem as when you use different flavors in the same atomizer -- they all end up tasting like Atomic Cinnacide.

If all the parts that come in contact with the liquid were stainless or glass (and you have a dishwasher) it would probably work, but you'd also waste a lot of liquid that would cling to the sides of the mixer.

Gribeau's "massager" would probably work better for that reason alone.
 

SailCat

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Toys?? ;)

I usually mix small batches of about 10mls and find 10 seconds in my microwave followed with a few minutes of vigorous shaking afterwards does wonders for the juice. Just be sure to use one of the silicon type bottles not the pure plastic ones or they'll literally melt. Also, microwaves vary so start with about 5 seconds first until you see how warm (not hot) your juice gets first time around.

Oh, yeah ... humans don't want to consume liquids/foodstuff microwaved above certain temperatures not only due to the drawback of melting but also the production of carcinogens.

Michael

R
 
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Gribeau

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I love your posts!!! I laughed until I cried!! I will NEVER EVER being able to say "Personal Toy" without laughing! Thank YOU! :thumbs:

Thank you, it's good to hear that I'm not completely tedious. I know that I'm long-winded, but I do try not to be boring about it. :D

Minor update to my experiment:
I have one nonsmoking coworker who was willing to sample my nicotine juices (the only other nonsmoker doesn't want to risk getting hooked again). Like Elorin, she was able to differentiate between all three versions of Almond Horn. She identified the older stuff as being the best and the un-vibrated as her last choice. All three of those samples have been sitting in cartos for about 36 hours, but another set of tastebuds has identified them as still being unique.

I'll edit my first post to include this information, but I wanted to make sure those who have already read it get this update if they're still checking the thread.
 

MacArthurBug

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Gribeau,
Awesome experiment. I'm going to have to give it a try. I've been vaping for about 4 months now, so my taste buds are almost fully back. It certainly seems like the sense of smell has recovered. As the proud owner of a brand spanking new bottle of Almond horn I REALLY want to help it along. It's nice now, but I can TELL it'll age magnificently. A little mixing of a sampler size and I'll have some for now and some to let set.

Thank you So very much for this ingenious advice.
 
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