No Nicotine - No Flavor ?

[White Rabbit]

Could not find an answer anywhere doing a search so any information would be appreciated:

I have lowered my nicotine levels from 18 Mg/Ml to 6 Mg/Ml using an e-liquid calculator and DIY slowly over a year period. I wanted to reduce my nicotine level to zero, but when I mix with just PG and VG using no nicotine, my standard juice tastes FLAT. I am using my juice calculator, just eliminating the nicotine base and substituting VG and PG ratios. Same amount of flavorings, same PG/VG ratios, just no nicotine base. I have been using Wizard Labs Nicotine Base in Pure PG, which I do not think has any particular flavor to it. So why would my e-juice recipe flavors change by eliminating such a small amount of nicotine?

The Wabbit

 

[Dave_in_OK]

It could be that the Nic base from Wizard labs VG is a little different from the VG your using thus the drop in flavor I would try adding just a little sweetener to the mix and see if the flavor comes back.

 

[we2rcool]

Nicotine typically has a very slight, peppery taste (and sensation). In fact, nictotine is an irritant (which is why nicotine causes "throat hit"). So without it, it's possible that it seems flat...but not having nic in your mixes shouldn't reduce the level of flavor.

Also, if you've recently changed brands of VG/PG, that could definitely be the culprit (we just ditched over 3000mls of juice due to a switch in a brands of VG. It deadened all the flavors/sweetness).

I suggest mixing up small batches of your typical VG/PG and nic (without any flavoring) at various levels and 'test vaping them' so you can gauge the difference accurately.

If it is the 'less nic' that's causing it, you can return some of the zing to your juices by adding a bit of .9% sterile saline solution to your mixes (we use 9-10% saline in our base). This is the kind we use: Medline Sterile Saline Solution (Size: 9%,500 ML, Bottle, 1 Each)

We have also used this to add zing and throat hit:"Capsicum Heat" by Flavor West (from ECX)...but it IS volatile! We dilute 5 drops into 10mls of VG, and use that (for starters) at around 2%.

Of the two above, the saline is more likely to help your flavors 'come back to life'.

 

[DetraMental]

WoW, We2Rcool thanks for the info! I didn't know that adding saline solution could bring back the zing to flavors!!

 

[we2rcool]

There are quite a few random posts about it throughout the forum (I didn't ever bookmark any of them...grrrrr). But there was one thread on additives somewhere with quite a few posts on using it. So we got some to check it out. waWaWOWZAH - we couldn't buhLEEV the positive difference it made!!!

So now our "base" is 80% VG; 9% distilled water; 9% sterile saline and 2% pure grain alcohol. I think today we're going to increase the water to 14% and see how that works. That'd be an overall dilution of 25%...and I've read that MBV dilutes all of their VG liquids by 30%. Less VG; less cost, and should burn/vape even better (our farmhouse is COLD in the winter and the juices are already starting to need 'warmed up' a few hits before they vape smoothly).

'Give it a try and see how it works for ya!

 

[White Rabbit]

Sorry Dave and we2rcool, I originally posted that my nicotine base was in VG and meant PG. I have not changed my vendors for PG nic base or VG in the past year either. What I did was to mix a non nicotine version of my Double RY4 which also has French Vanilla, Caramel, and just a touch of peach and orange. I was vaping the same mixture in a carto @ 6 mg/ml nicotine. All I did was to start dripping the non nicotine juice and continued vaping. As the old juice was replaced with the new, the flavor fell off dramatically. I continued to drip and vape the non nicotine for about an hour. After that, I went back to my regular mix with nicotine, dripping it into the same carto and back came the flavor after about 10 minutes. Neither mix was steeped for any length of time, so I don't think that had anything to do with it. This puzzles me because as I said before, I thought the nicotine had little or nothing to do with flavor. Obviously I was wrong and will for the time being just stick with 6 mg/ml nicotine base which is not much at all.

The Wabbit

 

[cookiebun]

Nice Avatar.

I've been vaping 0 nic for about 2 years. I didn't really notice much difference in taste when I went to 0 nic but I don't vape tobacco flavors at all.