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Koman

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every time i vape boba's i get a rich tobacco and a honey graham cracker taste, that i love! My wife (who doesn't vape) hates boba's and says it taste like molding raisins. I have thought long and hard about the ingredients in boba's to attempt to make my own, but i want to be sure on the flavors that i taste in boba's before proceeding. I think my wife might be somewhat correct on the raisin flavor, but definitely not molding raisins. The more comments i read, the more i now question my own taste and or judgment, and that is sad!
I can see how some people might think it's like raisins. It reminds me a bit as well!
 

k_s_

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I can see how some people might think it's like raisins. It reminds me a bit as well!

I've been told from my roommate's girlfriend that it smells like a muscat candy. She brought me over a tube of it which to me tasted more like cherries than raisins, which really makes me want to get the flavors for eitano's recipe.

I have almost filled my DIY organizer with flavoring purchases trying to make something like bobas :p
 

Levitas

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What's wrong with the PG? Are you allergic to it or something?

Nah, if I were allergic, I'd most likely be dead by now :)

It appears I can handle a little bit for a little while. However, when over doing it (for example: >10%), or vaping it consistently causes my throat to become very sore. Also, and I do not know if this is due to the PG, but, I had a run of the worst reflux that I've encountered in years. It came about just around the time I made a blend (borrowed from this thread, actually) with about 14% flavoring (PG). It has since been absent when I went back to vaping Boba's these past couple of weeks. Coincidence? Perhaps. I'm working on figuring out the kinks and what-not. Edit: It could just be a flavoring involved, though, I cannot imagine what it could be, since I've used all of the ingredients in said blend in the past with little issue.

I'm sorry to hear that Levitas. There doesn't seem to be enough VG or alcohol based flavorings yet. I'll be looking for your ad in the classies. This thread alone has given me quite a list.

I compiled a list of PG-Free ingredients, and the vendors who sell them, in a thread somewhere around here. There are more than you might imagine. Plus, there is always alcohol-based flavorings as well. I appreciate your empathy, though.
 

SimboSlice

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Lev, has been revealed whether his liquids have pg or alcohol based flavorings?

Nah, if I were allergic, I'd most likely be dead by now :)

It appears I can handle a little bit for a little while. However, when over doing it (for example: >10%), or vaping it consistently causes my throat to become very sore. Also, and I do not know if this is due to the PG, but, I had a run of the worst reflux that I've encountered in years. It came about just around the time I made a blend (borrowed from this thread, actually) with about 14% flavoring (PG). It has since been absent when I went back to vaping Boba's these past couple of weeks. Coincidence? Perhaps. I'm working on figuring out the kinks and what-not. Edit: It could just be a flavoring involved, though, I cannot imagine what it could be, since I've used all of the ingredients in said blend in the past with little issue.



I compiled a list of PG-Free ingredients, and the vendors who sell them, in a thread somewhere around here. There are more than you might imagine. Plus, there is always alcohol-based flavorings as well. I appreciate your empathy, though.
 

Levitas

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Lev, has been revealed whether his liquids have pg or alcohol based flavorings?

As far as I know, it's always been known to be PG-Free. I believe that Ben made mention one time or another that there was no alcohol in the blend either. That leaves VG and, or, water based flavorings (unless there is something I'm missing). I don't even know if there is such a thing as a water based flavoring, or flavor extract.

What I can say is, that Boba's isn't thick enough to be straight VG. I firmly believe that he, at minimum, adds some distilled water to the blends... but who can say for sure.
 

unloaded

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Has anybody tried any AP in their mix? I don't have any but read its similar to graham cracker.

Also I'm not convinced there is anything raisinlike in it, I've never tasted anything like that with it. It does at times taste like the bran flakes in Raisin Bran cereal and I think that triggers the brain to think raisins.

Here is a link to the AP
http://shop.perfumersapprentice.com/p-6826-acetyl-pyrazine-5-pg.aspx
 
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SimboSlice

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During this bobas drought i've been vaping this in subsitution to get a similiar taste

1. camel snus flavor base 5% (extracted with PG)
2. lorann coconut 1%
3. EM 2%
4. FA Honey 1%
5. FA Graham Cracker 1%
6. VZ Black Cigar 1%

its not bobas but its as close as i can get


Has anybody tried any AP in their mix? I don't have any but read its similar to graham cracker.

Also I'm not convinced there is anything raisinlike in it, I've never tasted anything like that with it. It does at times taste like the bran flakes in Raisin Bran cereal and I think that triggers the brain to think raisins.

Here is a link to the AP
Perfumers Apprentice - Acetyl Pyrazine 5% (PG)
 
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jfango

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LOL, this thread is kinda like the search for the Holy Grail or something. I've been sampling and trying to figure out what's in BB since I first used it about 3 or 4 weeks ago. It's strange, but during the first week after I started using it, I could taste the flavor it had fairly well, or I felt I could. But I'm using it right now, and can't really seem to taste much of anything! That may be because I've used it so much my taste buds have lost their sensitivity to the flavors, or there may be some other strange things going on between my buds and my brain. Who knows? Maybe it's because both my buds and brain are all messed up because I quit smoking and both are trying to rewire themselves. It's so funny to me that everyone seems to have a different idea of what it tastes like, but I do see some common denominators mentioned frequently.

Ok, so here's my two cents worth. During that week that my buds seemed to be working in overtime mode or most likely freaking out because I'd stopped assaulting them with the cigs, I was tasting primarily 5 flavors. Here they are in order of strength. Honey, graham, cinnamon, concord grape and cola. Of course the honey and graham could be lumped together or simply called honey-graham cracker, whatever. The honey graham cracker taste part is a no-brainer to me, and there is no doubt in my mind that I was getting that flavor. The cinnamon was the next most powerful, and in the last few days something happened that actually reinforced my belief it's in there. About a week ago, I got a some new juices to try, and one of them was called "cinnamon roll". I really thought I would like this one, or at least find it bearable. It didn't live up to my expections at all, because to me it was gross. I can't explain it very well, but it was nasty and I didn't vape it a great deal before I tossed it, but I did give it a chance and vaped it a few times over the course of 3 or 4 days. The funny thing is that I like cinnamon quite well, and when I was little a favorite food of mine was cinnamon toast. But the vape tasted like a lot of cinnamon mixed with some gross concoction that was just plain unbearable, and I would liken it to putting a huge spoonful of cinnamon from a can into my mouth and trying to swallow it. I now distinctly notice that very SAME taste whenever I'm toking on the BB, no question in my mind, it's the same thing, and that thing is cinnamon. It's very mild, but it's there. I've seen a lot of mentions of it having a raisin taste, but what I tasted was concord grape. Of course grape, raisin, they are kinda the same thing, they come from the same plant. It was during the latter part of that special week when my taste buds were working overtime that I discerned that taste, and I felt confident it was there. I once had in-laws who had concord grape vinyards, we used to get some and make jelly, so I've eaten lots of it and I know what it tastes like quite well. As for the cola part, the trouble with this one is that the primary flavors of today's cola's are cinnamon and vanilla, and so I really don't know if my tasting the cinnamon is only part of the cola. Whatever is in there, the only thing I'm certain of is that it sure is an awesome good vape!

Does anyone know with any confidence at all about where AVE gets its favorings?
 

glassmanoak

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jfango, the problem with trying to clone BB is that the taste of BB changes so dramatically as it steeps. TO ME, at 4 days old it had an overpowering Honey taste.. Absolutely unvapable!! Over the weeks, it became less honey tasting and more cinnamon-bakery tasting and much smoother. At 5 weeks, it was the best tasting juice I had ever vaped! Rich, thick, complex with cinnamon, raisin, mild tobacco, nut and heaven knows what else.
Experimenting with these flavors has led me to several flavors which, to ME, are far superior to Boba's.
Always remember that taste is EXTREMELY personal and individual.
 

NamVet68

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LOL, this thread is kinda like the search for the Holy Grail or something. I've been sampling and trying to figure out what's in BB since I first used it about 3 or 4 weeks ago. It's strange, but during the first week after I started using it, I could taste the flavor it had fairly well, or I felt I could. But I'm using it right now, and can't really seem to taste much of anything! That may be because I've used it so much my taste buds have lost their sensitivity to the flavors, or there may be some other strange things going on between my buds and my brain. Who knows? Maybe it's because both my buds and brain are all messed up because I quit smoking and both are trying to rewire themselves. It's so funny to me that everyone seems to have a different idea of what it tastes like, but I do see some common denominators mentioned frequently.

Ok, so here's my two cents worth. During that week that my buds seemed to be working in overtime mode or most likely freaking out because I'd stopped assaulting them with the cigs, I was tasting primarily 5 flavors. Here they are in order of strength. Honey, graham, cinnamon, concord grape and cola. Of course the honey and graham could be lumped together or simply called honey-graham cracker, whatever. The honey graham cracker taste part is a no-brainer to me, and there is no doubt in my mind that I was getting that flavor. The cinnamon was the next most powerful, and in the last few days something happened that actually reinforced my belief it's in there. About a week ago, I got a some new juices to try, and one of them was called "cinnamon roll". I really thought I would like this one, or at least find it bearable. It didn't live up to my expections at all, because to me it was gross. I can't explain it very well, but it was nasty and I didn't vape it a great deal before I tossed it, but I did give it a chance and vaped it a few times over the course of 3 or 4 days. The funny thing is that I like cinnamon quite well, and when I was little a favorite food of mine was cinnamon toast. But the vape tasted like a lot of cinnamon mixed with some gross concoction that was just plain unbearable, and I would liken it to putting a huge spoonful of cinnamon from a can into my mouth and trying to swallow it. I now distinctly notice that very SAME taste whenever I'm toking on the BB, no question in my mind, it's the same thing, and that thing is cinnamon. It's very mild, but it's there. I've seen a lot of mentions of it having a raisin taste, but what I tasted was concord grape. Of course grape, raisin, they are kinda the same thing, they come from the same plant. It was during the latter part of that special week when my taste buds were working overtime that I discerned that taste, and I felt confident it was there. I once had in-laws who had concord grape vinyards, we used to get some and make jelly, so I've eaten lots of it and I know what it tastes like quite well. As for the cola part, the trouble with this one is that the primary flavors of today's cola's are cinnamon and vanilla, and so I really don't know if my tasting the cinnamon is only part of the cola. Whatever is in there, the only thing I'm certain of is that it sure is an awesome good vape!

Does anyone know with any confidence at all about where AVE gets its favorings?

Just a comment and a quick tip: DON'T throw away a new juice for at least a month or so after you buy it... Many juices don't taste that great right out of the mailer. Many are somewhat "perfumy", vile, or even have no flavor at all, but change over time, especially chocolate & tobacco flavors. Its amazing how much some juices change over time.

Some are great out of the box, but even they will get better after a little steeping time.....I did the same thing at first, and threw away a lot of money tossing some juices that have now become favorites.

I now let the juices sit overnight with the tops off, recap them & let them sit for at least a week....makes a huge difference in most. If after a month it still tastes bad, THEN I toss them.....

Good luck.
 
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SloHand

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So I finally received all my flavor orders last week and got busy mixing up six recipes that I had put together based on mostly comments in this thread. I made 10 ml's of each of the six recipes all with the same base, 100% VG at 12mg strength. Each of the recipes is mixed to be a 15% flavor. By the way the seventh batch I have in the mix of clones is the real mccoy (Boba's itself) used as the benchmark for the tasters.

Since Wednesday last I've had several vapers doing the taste tests for me of the seven flavors while I took notes on comments they made for each. I'll have more on this in the week to come but just wanted to add here today that I believe that the comments about a raisin taste is probably the result of the use of a very mild acid in Boba's (vinegar!). In two of my test clones that is using vinegar (instead of vape wizard or some such additive) I have no raisin in them, yet raisin is consistently being described in the taste tests.

Almost unanimously, I have one of my clones that has been identified as Boba's. Sounds promising but I'm anxious to see what happens in my round two tests after a period of additional steeping with the same testers one week later.
 

Levitas

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So I finally received all my flavor orders last week and got busy mixing up six recipes that I had put together based on mostly comments in this thread. I made 10 ml's of each of the six recipes all with the same base, 100% VG at 12mg strength. Each of the recipes is mixed to be a 15% flavor. By the way the seventh batch I have in the mix of clones is the real mccoy (Boba's itself) used as the benchmark for the tasters.

What flavorings are you using? Rather, where are you getting them?
 

Levitas

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If I had to guess, I'd say they might get some of their flavorings from DIY Flavorshack. Ben had made mention of them way back when, around when he was getting started. If I'm not mistaken, he got advice from the proprietor there, thus was the reason he went into business (started DIYing).

Plus, take a look at my compiled list of PG-Free ingredients: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...pg-free-flavorings-vendors-who-sell-them.html

DIY Flavorshack is on the list, and there are flavors on Alien Vision's site that could have come from there.

Though, for the 10% PG line, I firmly believe that there is TFA Blueberry Extra in the Blueberry Crumble. Might be more to it, but I believe it's in there.
 

taofishdude

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It becomes harder to contribute opinion of many recipes here because everyone tastes differently. However, I haven't tried one recipe in this thread that came close, not even my own. Some good recipes here though.

I get zero Old Captain out of Boba's, personally.

I'm still waiting on tao's results with his snus extraction. From this point on, I'm sticking with VG, or alcohol based flavorings (or going to try to). PG has been singled out as the culprit to my vaping malady, which is a shame, because I have many great pg-based flavorings.

I'll be having a sale in the classifieds in the near future.

so to update, i steeped 5 packets of snus mellow in about 30 mL of VG for 2 weeks. i filtered it through a coffee filter twice, yielding about 20 mL of a rich golden brown net. so, i did a stupid thing.... i dripped about 5 drops of the pure extract and vaped it. Like my other NETs it just tasted like burnt hair and grass. The smell of the snus NET is not that strong. i will sit down and mix a batch at something reasonable like 5 or 10% tomorrow.

Recently, after cleaning my dripping atty, bobas has tasted like the snus to me in the morning with fresh 'buds. So much so that the other day at work i was like "that is it!". But after vaping the NET straight, i'm not so sure :)
 

unloaded

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Hmmm, I started steeping 10 packs of the Mellow Snus in 15ml of PG last night. I've had good results doing this with cigars so decided to try the Snus. These aren't for attempts at Boba's though. I'm surprised 5 packs in 30ml is strong enough to do anything with. I wonder how strong my batch will be. I've also got some pipe tobacco steeping in PG, my first attempt with it was in VG. It tasted fine but could only filter it with coffee filters, couldn't pull it through a syringe filter. As a result its an atty killer, too many solids. Boba's seems to be full of solids too, judging by how often I have to dry burn my coils. You might be onto something.
 

SimboSlice

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yes!! , im so glad that you guys are testing this; bobas is the only flavor i vape so when I first extracted this; I almost fell over my chair. Tao, I made the same mistake of vaping it at a high percentage - it tastes like #@%!

unloaded, i drew the same conclusions about it being an atty killer, i just chalked it up to my n00bness in extraction. Maybe a distiller would work better?
 

Norman Clature

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My friend and I have gotten good feedback on some of the recipes from this thread, but a few people have stated that they like the smell of us vaping it more than the actual taste when they vape it.

What does this mean and should we care?

We intend to keep on making our 2 favorite versions anyway, but I have read somewhere (perhaps it was in one of "Hoosier's" blogs) that if a recipe "smells" better than it tastes it means you have used too much flavoring percentage; which makes perfect sense, but this is not our friends smelling the juice and then trying it and not liking it; it's they think it smells better when it's being vaped by us than it does when they vape it, so it's sort of a different thing (or is it?)

Thanks,

Norman
 
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