HHV Juice Steeping Information

[Trick]

A lot of juices aren't at their best when they first show up in your mailbox. Some can have alcohol-based flavorings and, frankly, alcohol tastes pretty bad when you vape it. Some may, like wine, need a little aging time. Juices from Heather's, particularly the NETs (Naturally Extracted Tobacco), often improve greatly with some (or sometimes a lot of) steeping. It allows the flavor infused into the juice to be fully extracted, resulting in a better-tasting vape.

So how do you steep? There are a lot of different opinions on that. Here's what I do, and I'd welcome anyone else to explain what methods they use for steeping (particularly Robin, who rumor has it is an expert on the subject):

The first thing I do when getting vape mail from Heather's (or anyone else, really) is take all the bottles out, twist the caps off, and pull off the dripper spouts (fingernails help with that if you've got 'em). Then I'll give the bottle a vigorous shake with my finger over the top. Yes, this gets some nicotine juice on my finger. No, it hasn't killed me yet. I will then set the bottle aside somewhere out of sunlight and won't touch it for a day or two, except to give them another shake once in a while. For me, that's usually in the morning and again at night.

Well, it's not quite true that all I do is shake them. I'll usually try a little of the juice, usually in a dripping atomizer, especially if it's new to me, so that I have a frame of reference for down the road. I like knowing how a juice tastes when it's fresh, so that when I finally do vape it later I have some idea what changes, if any, happened during the steeping process.

After that day or two, the dripper and cap go back on, and I close it up, assuming I don't smell alcohol. Perfuminess is an obvious sign of alcohol. If I smell that, the cap stays off until I don't any more. Then, once the caps are back in place, the waiting starts.

[Queue Jeopardy theme here.]

How long do you steep for? That's hard to answer, and something you really should find out for yourself. My suggestion would be to give it a few days to a week, and then sample it again. Did it get better? Cool. You are free to vape it. Would you like to see if it can get even better than that? If so, keep steeping.

I'll repeat the sampling routine weekly until the answer to "did it get better?" is no, or I just can't stand the wait anymore.

Different juices are going to take different amounts of steeping. Take one of my current favorites, Heavenly Army. It was pretty good right out of the mail, but just obscenely good at about three-week mark. Can it get even better? I don't know yet; I've still got some steeping away on the shelf.

So, there's what I do. Others will do it differently, and will have varying opinions on how long particular juices might need to steep. Taste being subjective, there's no one answer to the "how long should I let it steep?" question, but hopefully that'll give you some guidelines to work with.

 

[gthompson]

Reprinted with permission from Robino1's blog http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/blogs/robino1/3343-steeping-why-critical-fresh-juices.html

Steeping and why it is critical for fresh juices
by
Robino1


Taste is an elusive and a subjective thing. Think about it. We are getting flavor from wet AIR. We are not chewing something that is filling your mouth with a tangible food that gives your senses the texture, the wetness the flavor as you bite down on something. The flavor in the juices are trying to trick your mind into remembering those feelings of that certain food it is trying to mimic. When the taste buds go wonky, they can no longer make the mind remember what it is supposed to remember about that flavor since the taste buds can no longer send the flavor signal to the brain. It is just WET AIR at that point.

There have been many discussions about what to do when that happens all over this forum. There is NO stock answer that works for everyone. Plenty of suggestions where some worked for some people but not for others. For some it is time that heals. For others it is more water. Yet for others it is lime juice or something that zings the taste buds back into shape. And for some other people it is simply smelling something strong that whips those pesky buds into shape.

Yes changing up different juices throughout the day minimizes the chances of the old taste buds from going south, but it is not 100%.

I don't know if you know about steeping. Steeping is where when you get your fresh juices in the mail you need to get the alcohol that was used in the making out of that juice. It also lets the flavors meld together to create what the vendor is trying to make the juice taste like.

To steep properly:
Take cap and nipple off the bottle
Shake well (till tiny bubbles are noticeable)
Leave caps off for 48 hours shaking repeatedly throught the day. ( this allows all of the alcohol to come to the surface to evaporate out)
. What that does is to concentrate the flavors more because the extra liquid is now leaving.
After the 48 hour cap off, put the nipple and cap back on. Put it away out of direct sunlight. Shake whenever you think about it for 1 - 2 weeks. This gives the juice time to mature into the flavor it is meant to be.

You can try it after a week. If you still get that plasticky, chemical taste. Put it away for another week. Some juices need more time. The more complex the juice, the longer it needs to steep to get all the flavorings to meld. I have found some juices that need three weeks to get to that magical stage. If after at least three weeks steeping and I still don't like it, I'm never going to like it and write it off as a do not reorder juice. BUT, I may keep it because my taste buds may change a few months down the road. Them damn buds again!

I hope this helps a little on the flavor issues you may be having with some of your juices. I hope that I was able to answer some of the "why does" questions you probably going to have.

Good luck.

 

[Bronze]

And another steeping note (especially to our foreign friends). I wanted to get clarification about the affect extracting alcohol has on steeping. I spoke with Heather on this topic so it comes straight from the person who invented the juice. She said alcohol basically slows down the steeping process but it does not prevent steeping. Steeping will occur whether there is alcohol in it or not. As she put it, if you want to accelerate the steeping process, then take the caps off for a day or two to get rid of the alcohol. So for those foreign customers who have to wait 10 days for a shipment, you will be getting at least some steeping while your juice is in transit. How much, no one knows. Figure half is what I would think. Just a SWAG.