Minimum Steeping Times For Various Flavorings

[Spectre13]

I'm trying to get a handle on steep times after mixing. I could batch test but I'm sure we all could benefit from those who have experience.
What would be the minimum steep times for flavoring categories after mixing?
This assumes you are mixing only solo flavoring - no combos - no EM, etc.
I read that tobacco flavorings require at least a week, but I've also read where certain lighter & sweeter tobacs could be mixed & sampled the same day?
From what I gather fruit flavorings appear to require no steeping. The warmer flavors (caramel, chocolate, etc) a few days.
Any general guidelines that can be followed based on your experience?
Also - does the addition of menthol add to steep time - if so how many days does it add? For example - adding menthol to a fruit flavoring increases steep time to ? days. Same question could go for additions of EM, Koolada, VW, etc.
Thanks for any input!

 

[Shilo]

The only mix and vape flavorings I have come across are the Chinese super concentrated ones and even those are better the next day. Everything else for me has been 2-30 days. Great question though and I bet you will have some varied answers on this one. I don't vape too many fruits or too many single flavor mixes minus the additives you mentioned. Almost always use additives nowadays. An overall safe bet for first testing is a week IMO.

 

[Levitas]

I generally like to wait 30-120 seconds before enjoying my mixes

 

[Shilo]

I generally like to wait 30-120 seconds before enjoying my mixes

See what I mean Spectre?

 

[chrisromano590]

I'm kinda new to DIY, but I have perfected 4 recipes now. Two fruits with menthol and EM and they are good in 2 days and then get better for another week or so. A Carmel vanilla which I wait a week and its good. I uses all fa flavorings in these, and diluted menthol crystals and EM powder. And I make a lorann creme de menthe which is good right away. My first attempts without EM and single flavors kinda fell flat. I got 2 ml EM powder and diluted with 18ml pg. and I use 1 drop per ml I make. It really makes a difference.

 

[MaDeuce]

I generally like to wait 30-120 seconds before enjoying my mixes

Your level of patience is epic.

 

[gtbb]

Seems like a long time. I don't have your patience.lol

 

[boomerdude]

I wonder if I hold some kind of steeping record. I got my "Blond" from W2V today and I let it steep for 2 hrs. before I broke into it and dripped some. I'm in heaven and there's 9 other tb and cigar flavors with it. I hope this will help me with the steeping of my sampler and 30ml bottle of "Legend" that's due tomorrow from HHV. Any bets I can go 2 hrs. on them?

I don't do vendor e-liquid much but I'm glad I was talked into trying these. Gives me something to strive for in my DIY.

Please don't get on me for not steeping. Let's see you try it. I did get two bottles of Blond and CI. But I'm vaping away on the first bottle of Blond while I'm staring at the Alcazar bottle steeping. Heaven help me when the HHV package arrives tomorrow.

 

[Spectre13]

Weak attempts at comedy. And someone rambling on about steeping (or not steeping ) premade juices? I think I made it pretty obvious I'm talking DIY since this is the forum for it. Reading comprehension - some have it some don't I guess. Looks like other than Chris & Shilo - who I thank - this post is a major fail.
Thank you but I'll go with my original plan - batch testing and lots of notes. With such help I think I'll be better off with trial and error. lol

 

[boomerdude]

Sorry if I offended you with my poor attempt at humor.

As for reading comprehension, if you look at the posts on the first page of the DIY sub-forum you would have seen several threads about steeping, plus a sticky or two. But seeing as your special and need it explained to you in simpler terms without humor, I suggest you simply put me on your ignore list. Okay, so GPSUYA.

 

[Levitas]

OP - I was actually serious in my reply. In that, I don't steep any of my blends, ever. If you want an opinion, here's mine. Steeping is worthless. I think it's hilarious watching people avoid their mixes for days-weeks at a time because of a supposed magical transition that their juices go through. I also think it's terrible that people warn new people to steep before trying their juices, and that steeping is some sort of miracle process that will save a bad recipe.

No offense to any of my brahs that enjoy the process, but I'm sure I've made myself pretty clear on how I feel on the subject. My hope, OP, is that you don't shy from trying your freshly made blends. And if something is downright awful fresh, I wouldn't put too much stake on it turning into an all-day blend... then again, that is just my opinion.

 

[boomerdude]

Oh Levi! How can you say such an heretical thing? I don't think I'm being subjective when I taste the difference between one week old and 5 week old RY4. And seeing how many others experience the same, I have to say there's something to this steeping thing. Granted all these heat baths and ultrasonic shakes are highly suspect but letting tobacco juices sit and age truly improves the taste. IMHO.

 

[Spectre13]

I'm glad you said this. It's what I long suspected but wanted confirmation from someone with more experience. With all the premade juice I've tried - the ones I like were ones I tried right out of the mail - no steeping (tho I realize technically the mailing process was a 3 or more day shake & steep) even tho a longer steep was recommended. And the ones that gagged me - still gagged me after a week, two week steep.
Granted the ones I like may improve in flavor as they sit but I've found no dramatic difference to bother waiting.
I was also puzzled when reading some reviews on tobac concentrates - which are "always" recommended to steep at least week after blending - that some were vaping right after blending and gave glowing reviews. (Granted these are single flavor blends but it did cause me to question lengthy steeping.)
It may also depend on how acute your taste is - obviously each individual varies.
I went through the same thing with pipe tobacco - where some blends are recommended to 'steep' - but I found no difference myself. And pipers can be fanatically adamant about this practice. Pipers can be very elitist and set in their opinions - which repeated over time by 'experts' end up being accepted as 'truths' not to be challenged. I sense that same elitism in the vaping community (unfortunately, but that's the way it is.)
TBH - I read through these stickies and posts and see such contradictions it makes me wary. I think it comes down to personal preference. I wanted a general idea if steeping was a real necessity - as with adding EM or menthol - and those opinions are varied. So what I already decided was to start with no preconceived rules and see what happens.
I think the same can be said about flavor percentages - when I read one insists 10% yet another says no - 30% and yet another says only 5%. I'll use the recommended starting percentage by the company and go from there.

OP - I was actually serious in my reply. In that, I don't steep any of my blends, ever. If you want an opinion, here's mine. Steeping is worthless. I think it's hilarious watching people avoid their mixes for days-weeks at a time because of a supposed magical transition that their juices go through. I also think it's terrible that people warn new people to steep before trying their juices, and that steeping is some sort of miracle process that will save a bad recipe.

No offense to any of my brahs that enjoy the process, but I'm sure I've made myself pretty clear on how I feel on the subject. My hope, OP, is that you don't shy from trying your freshly made blends. And if something is downright awful fresh, I wouldn't put too much stake on it turning into an all-day blend... then again, that is just my opinion.

 

[Levitas]

I
I think the same can be said about flavor percentages - when I read one insists 10% yet another says no - 30% and yet another says only 5%. I'll use the recommended starting percentage by the company and go from there.

If this is your first time making your own juices, you'll soon find out what range of % you enjoy. It didn't take me long to realize that I don't really like a lot of flavor, and that most of my blends are 5%, and under. Typically, when trying a new flavor, I'll start at 3-5%. You might enjoy 20-30%.

You're wise enough to realize the difference from reality, and the popular notion of what's true. If you find that allowing your mixes to sit for any given time makes you happier, then by all means, go for the gold.

 

[Xylocaine]

I use all glass bottles and just boil up some water, plop em in for a minute. Shake, plop em in again and then vape. I think the only thing I've given more time is Desert Ship after boiling I gave it about three days to mellow out a little but at 1% its just insanely strong my next batch will be at 0.25% or 0.50%. A good rule of thumb is a quick boil is about equivalent to a week of steeping.

I also have to agree and slightly disagree with what Levitas has said. I agree that its kind of terrible all these people think that waiting weeks or months or even days will improve a juice but there is something more than hoodoo behind it. You want your flavoring to blend in and that is what steeping is supposed to do. Heating up your juice and shaking it makes it a more homogeneous mixture which helps bring out the flavor. On that note I purely use FA and I've never gone above 2.5% in some cases I've gone a lot lower. More liquid flavoring does not mean more flavor in all cases, a lot of the time it can just mute the flavor.

 

[Spectre13]

I like this idea! - I use glass test tubes with screw on caps for my sample size - that can be used as a quick before & after test.

I use all glass bottles and just boil up some water, plop em in for a minute. Shake, plop em in again and then vape. I think the only thing I've given more time is Desert Ship after boiling I gave it about three days to mellow out a little but at 1% its just insanely strong my next batch will be at 0.25% or 0.50%. A good rule of thumb is a quick boil is about equivalent to a week of steeping.

 

[Aurora-Oblivion]

Do you that boil, let the juice come to a boil in the glass as well, or just get it really hot right before boil? And can a couple of boils over a few days, one a day, add up to a few weeks of steep too, or is it just that one boil best and all you should try?

 

[Xylocaine]

Do you that boil, let the juice come to a boil in the glass as well, or just get it really hot right before boil? And can a couple of boils over a few days, one a day, add up to a few weeks of steep too, or is it just that one boil best and all you should try?

I have actually microwaved a bottle (and on a stupid mistake let water touch it and it did break in one of the cleanest and coolest ways I have ever seen) to the point the juice in the bottle boiled and my microwave was vaping. I do not suggest that at all, I just let the bottle get nice and hot. I generally vape 50/50/6 or 20/80/4.5 (PG/VG/Nic) and I heat it up in the boiling water to the point that the combination inside is water like. It doesn't have to be boiling just nice and hot.

I have actually experimented a little bit with repeated boilings but this is where the whole 'its nonsense to let it sit for a month' comes in. I actually experienced little to no difference from second, third or fourth boilings. Once its mixed its mixed, any other alterations via time would most likely be related to decaying nicotine.

 

[patkin]

I have purchased juices that have steeped 6 months and they taste just a bad as they did out of the mail. Personally, whether its DIY or bought, if it doesn't taste good pretty much right away and that means in two-to-three days which is the time it used to take in transit from a vendor, I don't buy it again or mix it. The way I came to that decision was by dripping flavors right on my cartomizer.... light bulb went on... or I drip into water and tongue test... no miracle is going to happen steeping. Flavoring vendors don't tell you to let your glass of lemonade steep and most come already in a pg or vg base. Bad/good taste, to me, starts with the flavoring and no amount of steeping is going to change that. All strawberries/watermelons, etc, flavors are not made equal. That's why I have throw away juices... its the flavors used by the vendor. Also, in DIY, an analogy is: tomato juice in whiskey will probably be barf city but it sure is good in vodka... and that's what dripping flavors right on my cartomizer has taught me. I suspect that those folks saying this or that tastes good after 6 months have a bottle where the whiskey died off leaving only tomato juice taste... so the whiskey never should have been in there to start with.

 

[Spectre13]

Patkin - is that water test the one where you add a drop of flavoring to 5 ml of water then taste with your tongue?