Lack of flavor in DIY liquid.

[Plan-B]

Hello all,

First a quick introduction. I've been vaping for just two months now after quitting smoking due to medical reasons. I'm a MTL vaper using Joyetech SS coils at 0.6 or 1.0 ohms in a eVic Vtwo/Cubis and eGo AIO. I've recently decided to try and make some DIY juice to cut my costs down. I found some single flavors I enjoy and have tried to replicate the store bought equivalents. While I made up a few different flavors, so far I've only tried and tested a RY4 Double mix. In my finished results, I found the flavor very lacking, but do find it to be much smoother then the store bought. This is possibly because the store bought is 12mg/ml nicotine while my DIY is 9mg/ml.

The mix I made is 50vg/50pg at 9ml/mg and I used 8% TFA RY4 Double flavoring. I used the calculator at .................... to figure out ratios and measured everything by weight. After mixing was complete, I capped the bottles, vigorously shook for 30 seconds and placed them in a Crock-pot "Little Dipper" at 60C/140F. The bottles stayed there for 2 hours before being shook again, uncapped and left to breath overnight. The next day I pumped the bottles to circulate air in them, recapped, shook and placed them back in the warmer for 6 hours, shaking every hour. Once taken out, there was a noticeable color change in all, more prevalent in some, with the RY4 being the least changed.

I did a taste test on some of the RY4, now 24 hours from being mixed, and there is very little taste to it. I'm wondering if this is due to a lack of steep time and if 2-3 weeks would help. I kind of figured going in that 8 hours of heat steep would expedite the process and I should have better flavor by now. Any thoughts, comments or tips are greatly welcome.

Cheers,
Plan

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

Hello all,

First a quick introduction. I've been vaping for just two months now after quitting smoking due to medical reasons. I'm a MTL vaper using Joyetech SS coils at 0.6 or 1.0 ohms in a eVic Vtwo/Cubis and eGo AIO. I've recently decided to try and make some DIY juice to cut my costs down. I found some single flavors I enjoy and have tried to replicate the store bought equivalents. While I made up a few different flavors, so far I've only tried and tested a RY4 Double mix. In my finished results, I found the flavor very lacking, but do find it to be much smoother then the store bought. This is possibly because the store bought is 12mg/ml nicotine while my DIY is 9mg/ml.

The mix I made is 50vg/50pg at 9ml/mg and I used 8% TFA RY4 Double flavoring. I used the calculator at .................... to figure out ratios and measured everything by weight. After mixing was complete, I capped the bottles, vigorously shook for 30 seconds and placed them in a Crock-pot "Little Dipper" at 60C/140F. The bottles stayed there for 2 hours before being shook again, uncapped and left to breath overnight. The next day I pumped the bottles to circulate air in them, recapped, shook and placed them back in the warmer for 6 hours, shaking every hour. Once taken out, there was a noticeable color change in all, more prevalent in some, with the RY4 being the least changed.

I did a taste test on some of the RY4, now 24 hours from being mixed, and there is very little taste to it. I'm wondering if this is due to a lack of steep time and if 2-3 weeks would help. I kind of figured going in that 8 hours of heat steep would expedite the process and I should have better flavor by now. Any thoughts, comments or tips are greatly welcome.

Cheers,
Plan

Congrats on making your own. With tobacco flavors they need a long steep time. I am not sure if the heat has accelerated the process or not cause I don't use that.
The only thing I am sure of is that darker colored ejuice takes a long time to steep. RY4 also has caramel(which is dark) and vanillas also take a long time to steep. A lot of vanilla flavoring is also dark.

If you have some flavoring that is clear --like a drink or fruit flavor, those require very little steep time and it's always a confidence booster to the mixer to have something to vape within a short period of time.

I would also recommend looking at OneStopDIYShop for their blends. They offer a number of different flavors where they have taken the guess work out and sell the finished flavoring for us to only add our nic, pg/vg.

Hope this helps some.

 

[Plan-B]

Congrats on making your own.

Thanks for the reply SnS, and yes, any and all feedback is appreciated and helps.

As for the color of my mix, I would say it's comparable now to the store bought stuff I've have on hand for the last 3 weeks. I'm sure it's possible that the heat treatment just accelerated the color change and did nothing to bring the flavor out. I'll have to give it some time to test and see.

Unfortunately, all the flavors I created are tobacco prominent. Being an ex-smoker, it's my current thing, but I'm sure that will change with time and as I add to my flavor collection. For flavors, all I initially bought was RY4 Double, Black Honey Tobacco and Bavarian Cream, all from TFA.

I will definitely check out the premixes you suggested. I'm in Canada, so if I do go that route, hopefully shipping and customs is not prohibitive.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[Kenna]

Thanks for the reply SnS, and yes, any and all feedback is appreciated and helps.

As for the color of my mix, I would say it's comparable now to the store bought stuff I've have on hand for the last 3 weeks. I'm sure it's possible that the heat treatment just accelerated the color change and did nothing to bring the flavor out. I'll have to give it some time to test and see.

Unfortunately, all the flavors I created are tobacco prominent. Being an ex-smoker, it's my current thing, but I'm sure that will change with time and as I add to my flavor collection. For flavors, all I initially bought was RY4 Double, Black Honey Tobacco and Bavarian Cream, all from TFA.

I will definitely check out the premixes you suggested. I'm in Canada, so if I do go that route, hopefully shipping and customs is not prohibitive.

Thanks again for your help.

I tried tobacco when I first started vaping. I was a menthol smoker for over 44 years. Amazingly, I still have not found a tobacco I can vape much. There is one, a blackberry w/pipe in it that I like for short periods. A plain Peppermint Ice flavor h a plain menthol with no tobacco are what worked for me. Tobaccos just weren't good. Still hoping to find a tobacco I can use. I agree that it needs 2 or 3 weeks if not more to develope.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

I also failed to mention that ecf has a thread dedicated to tobacco only, which I am sure you will find very useful.
Favorite tobacco flavoring discussion - Tobacco flavoring discussion only

It is a really long thread, so you may not want to read the whole thing....but you can ask questions there also. Members are very helpful..
Good luck

 

[ceeceeisme]

I will definitely check out the premixes you suggested. I'm in Canada, so if I do go that route, hopefully shipping and customs is not prohibitive.

Just so you know...

Sometimes, CBSA seizes or rejects flavoring at the border, sometimes not. It's a crap shoot.

I just recently had some rejected and returned to the supplier. I understand that after a seizure or rejection you will get a letter from Health Canada advising you that vaping has not been proven to be safe . I'm still waiting on that.

 

[Fozzy71]

ry4 double needs some time for the flavor to come out. At least a few weeks (I don't use heat). I think I mixed mine as single flavor around 10%. OSDIY's RJ4 is a nice vape as well at 9 or 10%.

 

[DaveP]

Most, if not all of the tobaccos I mix are best after 4 weeks of steeping with a daily shake. I haven't tried the crockpot or ultrasonic cleaner method (although I have an UC).

Time is just necessary for most Tobacco flavors. Mine are best after 3 to 4 weeks.

Lots of fruit and candy flavors are vapable the same day or the next.

 

[dannyv45]

I find that being new to DIY and fresh off cigarettes your taste needs time to recover so your tasting may be off. From what I can see you did a good job on mixing your ejuice. I know that TFA flavorings are difficult for beginners to work with and if your into tobacco flavors you may want to try the Hangsen line of tobacco flavors. I think you will have better luck with those.

Concentrated Flavoring - Brands - Hangsen - Page 1 - Bull City Flavors

Also as mentioned earlier there is a good thread on tobacco vapes.

Favorite tobacco flavoring discussion - Tobacco flavoring discussion only

And for some in depth research material I recommend.

My blogs will give insight into all aspects of DYI, from steeping to what supplies to have on hand to a basic walk through mixing your first E-juice.

E-Cigarette Forum - dannyv45 - Blogs

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

E-Cigarette Forum - Hoosier - Blogs

Then read Boletus's blog's. These blogs concentrate on formulation of nicotine bases regarding proper calculations methods for figuring Nicotine concentration as well as safety.

E-Cigarette Forum - Boletus - Blogs

Then read Ginger's book "E-Cigarettes 102: DIY E-Liquid". It is a book which I've contributed to that delivers an in depth easy to follow guide in the art of DYI.

E-Cigarettes 102: DIY E-Liquid

I recommend viewing VPLive Vape Team Episode #82: DIY Safety and bookmark it for future reference. It explains safety in all aspects of DYI.

VPLive Vape Team Episode #82: DIY Safety

then read the stickies at the top of the page.

this will explain a lot of the how's and why's.

 

[Plan-B]

Wow! What a great community. I really want to thank you all for the comments, suggestions and resources. I'll spend some time reading threw all these links and look into the suggested vendors and flavors. You guys rock.