How to taste/create your own recipe?

[Vulcano]

Hello All...

I have been following DIY recipes for a while now and doing my own ejuice (and saving some bucks!)

But now I´m trying to create my own mixes and I´m wasting a lot, I´m doing 10ml but if I dont llike it (that usually happens) I waste those 10ml.

Is there any recommendation on how to do it and only waste a few drops instead of 10ml ? I have read that some people dilute the flavors at 10% and then mixes the diluted flavors to create the new ones...

Any advice will be appreciated

 

[sketchness]

First off you can cut down to 5ml test batches. I try 1 drop of a new flavor in 1ml of plain PG. Gives me a general Idea of how it will taste. You can also taste non tobacco flavors in whipped cream. It isn't a 1 to 1 correlation with vaping, but it will give you a good idea of what it tastes like and how strong the flavor is. If something is really strong in a tbsp of whipped cream I know to start out at 1% and work my way up. If I can still taste the whipped cream and the flavor I generally stay at around 2% and just kind of know that it will be a flavor to enhance other flavors not a top note flavor.

 

[Boletus]

I sometimes mix single flavor juices I have made into a tank to get an idea how they play together, and which ones come through more than others. However, the problem with this method is that when you combine juices, the flavoring %'s are reduced in the resultant mix from what they were as single flavors. For example, if I combine 1 ml of a juice that has 10% flavor A with 1 ml of one that has 12% flavor B, I have 2 ml of juice that is 5% Flavor A and 6% Flavor B. The math gets messy quickly, but if you keep track of what you are doing, you can use a calculator application to find out what the resulting %'s are in the mix.

You can make the single flavor mixes stronger to compensate, but when you are experimenting like this, you do not know ahead of time how much stronger they should be for each possible combination. But you can find some interesting combinations and get an idea how much of each flavoring to use relative to the others, and then you can the hone in on getting the final %'s with new mixes. And keep notes, however you go about it.

 

[28if]

I have heard of people using water as a base and trying flavors that way. I wish I knew more about that method as I'm in the same boat as you.

 

[Vulcano]

Thank you very much for your help, I will try to do 10ml of single flavors at 10% and start the mixes from there

 

[CampbellMC]

100 drop tests are the most efficient in my mind and seem to be used by many on here. Get a bunch of glass droppers (Need one for each flavor + 2 for bases VG/PG) I don't use nic in my test batches. 1 drop = 1% so for example here is a recipe I did the other day quickly:
50 drops VG
35 drops PG
7 drops Raspberry(Sweet)
6 drops Lemon
2 drops EM

Takes about 2 minutes to do it, drop directly into a 10 ml bottle, or a small glass beaker. Makes roughly 2.5-3ml of juice (enough to fill a regular tank once). I usually make my juices in the evening so quick steep it for the fruity flavors I like (Hot water in a cup, set the bottle in, shake every 10 minutes or so for a half hour, replace water if it cools too much). I vape a bit of it that night, save a ml in the tank for the next day (to see how it adjusts sitting overnight) and then go from there. I don't have a bunch of tanks, or any drippers so I can't instantly adjust and retry, but Bill's Magic Vapor on here says he can basically go from nothing to a solid recipe in about a half an hour.

 

[Visus]

There's literally thousand and thousands of recipe's posted online.

I use those as a guide and many times make a few substitutions because I do not have that flavor or vendors flavor and it sorta becomes my own custom mix off their recipe.

Really cool recipe indexer that you just put in what flavors you have and it spits back out all the recipes created with those flavors from all over the net..

Its sorta like the encyclopedia but with recipe search by vended flavor I cannot find it in my bookmarks..

Here's the encyclopedia:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoqwBuy5Wr89dF9JTTA3VTVGdTR4UkZGTnhiZV9NV3c#gid=0

 

[Visus]

Found it

e-Liquid Calculator

This is not it either it was a google for flavors/recipe really well laid out I am looking thru my bookmarks still..

 

[Boletus]

Thank you very much for your help, I will try to do 10ml of single flavors at 10% and start the mixes from there

Try to find recommended percentages for your flavorings. Some are horribly, disgustingly strong at 10%, and some need 15% or more to shine. Check vendor websites for your flavorings for recommendations, and post questions here if you can't find anything. But make sure to list the name and brand of each flavor, since they can vary a lot. There is a thread or list floating around here somewhere that provides recommendations for a lot of them.

 

[MonicaRae]

You don't have to make 10ml's. You can easily put 5ml into an ejuice calculator. You may have to use your head for some of the flavor percentages though - say you put 3% - the calculator will spit out .2ml well in a 10 ml it would be .3ml soooo in a 5ml it would be .15ml. And if you try to put 1% in a 5ml mix it shows as 0.0 well that would be 0.05ml

Ok did this make any sense???

 

[Visus]

You don't have to make 10ml's. You can easily put 5ml into an ejuice calculator. You may have to use your head for some of the flavor percentages though - say you put 3% - the calculator will spit out .2ml well in a 10 ml it would be .3ml soooo in a 5ml it would be .15ml. And if you try to put 1% in a 5ml mix it shows as 0.0 well that would be 0.05ml

Ok did this make any sense???

This one will calculate what u need at any percent

DIY Simple E-Liquid (E-Juice) Recipe Calculator

 

[Vulcano]

You don't have to make 10ml's. You can easily put 5ml into an ejuice calculator. You may have to use your head for some of the flavor percentages though - say you put 3% - the calculator will spit out .2ml well in a 10 ml it would be .3ml soooo in a 5ml it would be .15ml. And if you try to put 1% in a 5ml mix it shows as 0.0 well that would be 0.05ml

Ok did this make any sense???

Yes, you totally did, I will try to do some 5ml samples, I know that it has to be more exact on the measures and less room for error with smaller samples...

One question, the tip of the syringe accounts for the first mark of capacity....

I mean if the first mark is 1ml, the liquid in the tip is part of that ml, or it has to be empty?

 

[Vulcano]

Found it

e-Liquid Calculator

This is not it either it was a google for flavors/recipe really well laid out I am looking thru my bookmarks still..

Thank you!

 

[dannyv45]

Yes, you totally did, I will try to do some 5ml samples, I know that it has to be more exact on the measures and less room for error with smaller samples...

One question, the tip of the syringe accounts for the first mark of capacity....

I mean if the first mark is 1ml, the liquid in the tip is part of that ml, or it has to be empty?

The flavoring in the tip is not part of the measurement. Only what you can plunge out without drawing up air and re plunging.

It seems though that the amount your wasting is not really the issue. It sounds like the issue is understanding flavors and adjusting for flavor intensity, consistancy or selecting complementary flavor profiles are more of an issue for you. So let me recommend you read the following.

hoosier's blogs. These blogs concentrate on fine tuning your mix and give insight on additives and fine tuning.

E-Cigarette Forum - Hoosier - Blogs

My blog on additives and sweeteners will explain what is available and how to use them.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/blogs/dannyv45/5007-sweetening-additives.html

My blog "A walkthrough on mixing your first mix" will give you insight on general mixing, and fine tuning.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...alk-through-mixing-favorate-standard-ry4.html

And my blog on a chocolate mix and why adding different flavors will enhance primary chocolate taste. This blog is not ment so much to teach you to mix a chocolate vape but more on how flavors interact and the theory here can be applied to any mix.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...le-why-other-flavors-enhance-base-flavor.html

And my blog on how preparing a base correctly makes all the difference in the mix. Or as I like to put it, If the taste of the base is off the entire mix will be off no matter what flavor you use or if it's used correctly.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...g-pg-flavoring-how-they-react-each-other.html

Fine tuning a base for harshness.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...base-reduce-peppery-harsh-nicotine-taste.html

 

[Vulcano]

Danny, I have been following several of your posts among them the Prime15 and the Castle Long, and you are correct, my main issue is about understanding the flavors and how to pair and how much to pair of each one.

You just gave me homework for a couple of weeks will do it

Thank you very much for putting this together...