Percentage

[relax1972]

I just bought some flavors from tfa, I made one juice, I stuck to my normal percentage that I usually use, but now I have to let it steep, because I can't taste a thing, lots of vapor, but I'm a little under the weather so my tastes buds are more than a bit off. What do you use for percentage of tfa flavors? Or are theirs kind of all over the place, depends on flavor that it is?

 

[Hoosier]

You bought some new flavorings from a different producer and mixed them at your "normal" percentage?

Trust me normal is overrated and soooooo typical...

TFA is pretty typically 0.5% to 20% which is a normal range for TFA. I've got one TFA recipe that is 35% and I wouldn't be surprised that the one listed in this thread http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...entice-flavoring-thread-130.html#post10752016 that has 0.5% would probably be too high for me.

OK, enough of my silliness, you might want to read that thread. It's a pretty cool thread.

 

[Spazmelda]

I've found that TFA flavors can vary widely in intensity.

 

[Hoofhearted62]

Hoosier, as a general rule for you. with a new flavor what is your minimum starting percentage you use before you start tweaking or adding any? or steeping

You bought some new flavorings from a different producer and mixed them at your "normal" percentage?

Trust me normal is overrated and soooooo typical...

TFA is pretty typically 0.5% to 20% which is a normal range for TFA. I've got one TFA recipe that is 35% and I wouldn't be surprised that the one listed in this thread http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...entice-flavoring-thread-130.html#post10752016 that has 0.5% would probably be too high for me.

OK, enough of my silliness, you might want to read that thread. It's a pretty cool thread.

 

[Chas_L]

I use a lot of TFA flavorings

RY4 5%
American Red 3%
Black Honey 10%


Blueberry 30%
Blackberry 30%

some of my multi mixes end up at 40 to50%.

I find it useful to dip the end of a toothpick into a new flavor or new vendors flavoring and place the flavored end of the TP on the tonge to get an idea of the flavros strength. I have read that the owner of TFA mixes a small amount of flavor with Cool Whip to sample them , I have read that some mix a drop or two in 5ml of water and swishes it around in their mouth.

It would be a lot simplier if all flavoring worked at 5 to 10% for everyone but it just ain't gona happen. Some re to strong for some at 0.5% and some are to weak for some at 30%. AS pointed out in Hoosier's Blog freshly mixed is very often not a good test and it seasy to add to much and have the favor seem to fade as the mix steeps when in fact the flaovr)s) are getting stronger but taste (really smell) weaker. The tonge does not taste berry , fruit and such flavors anyway ,the nose does..

Here is a TFA only(?) mix thread which may help.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/e-liquid-recipes/343181-tpa-tfa-recipes-only.html

 

[Hoosier]

Hoosier, as a general rule for you. with a new flavor what is your minimum starting percentage you use before you start tweaking or adding any? or steeping

Great question! I'm afraid I have a crappy answer though...

I don't have a general rule. I smell the flavoring indirectly first and then directly second. Indirectly may be an incorrect term, but it involves holding the open bottle of flavoring about 2 feet from my face and drawing my hand, palm face me, over the top of the bottle and towards my throat. It probably looks like I've come down with the "vapors" or something, but I'm trying to smell the volatile notes and it usually requires a few passes to smell them. Directly smelling is what it sounds like...I stick my nose over the opening and sniff. (This is avoided if doing the indirect smelling gave me a clue that the direct smelling would be a bad idea, but sometimes the indirect smelling does not ALWAYS let me know how bad of an idea direct smelling could be.)

After doing this smelling thing I then have a number pop into my head as my starting percentage. This lightening fast calculation is a result of 15 centuries of mixing experience and the fact that I screw up nearly every single first mix with a new flavor and I don't care. When I do mix a new flavoring right the first time, I often wonder what the heck I did wrong and revise the vast mental formula for calculating the starting percentage so I don't do that thing again. I then start adjusting the percentage up or down depending on what it vapes like and how it smells as a mix.

OK, that first line and last line of the previous paragraph are true and the middle is all incorrect. In all seriousness, I am not too shabby at getting close to a good starting percentage on smell alone, but it took me a long time to get to that point. I got to that point by making mistakes and learning from them. It's not always perfect, even now, but I'm still seldom satisfied with any first attempt. If a first attempt tastes good, I set it aside to steep. If the first attempt tastes terrible, I set it aside to steep.

I'll make anywhere from 5-15 batches with the new flavor at various percentages and deposit them to the end table near my favorite recliner in a little basket my wife has graciously provided for this purpose. While watching TV, or reading a book, or talking with the wife, I will blindly reach into that basket and pull out a bottle and drip some in my atty. Sometimes this results in me making sour faces to my wife, but she still loves me. It's when I jump up and exclaim that the random bottle was great is when I look at my coded shorthand label, grab my computer, and look up what the heck is in it and then start to re-engineer the recipe. (The sour face bottles accumulate in a different basket and I'll pull those out and start comparing them at a later date to determine if I want to continue working on the recipe or if I want to scrap it and start some new experiments.)

This is a long process. I don't commit to recipes quickly or easily. It results in small glass bottles, lots of small glass bottles, baskets of small glass bottles, and long period of cleaning small glass bottles when I decide to dump the current experiments. (Also one of the reasons I'm so willing to trade my DIY juice for glass bottles with drippers at meets and such, because I can never have enough small glass bottles, or medium or even large glass bottles.) This also results in things like me saying, "This is nearly good.", and the wife saying, "What is it?", and me putting on my cheaters and squinting at the label while saying something like, "I think it's Bacon Ice Cream.", to which she usually replies, "You are the craziest man I know."

And that is my process and I don't recommend my process to anyone.

 

[Hoofhearted62]

Excellent, reply thanks. I know that it is an art to do this and there will be 10-100 or more failures before you have that "eureka" mixture. but bacon ice cream sounds nice.... lol I love bacon

 

[relax1972]

Hoosier, as a general rule for you. with a new flavor what is your minimum starting percentage you use before you start tweaking or adding any? or steeping

Great question! I'm afraid I have a crappy answer though...

I don't have a general rule. I smell the flavoring indirectly first and then directly second. Indirectly may be an incorrect term, but it involves holding the open bottle of flavoring about 2 feet from my face and drawing my hand, palm face me, over the top of the bottle and towards my throat. It probably looks like I've come down with the "vapors" or something, but I'm trying to smell the volatile notes and it usually requires a few passes to smell them. Directly smelling is what it sounds like...I stick my nose over the opening and sniff. (This is avoided if doing the indirect smelling gave me a clue that the direct smelling would be a bad idea, but sometimes the indirect smelling does not ALWAYS let me know how bad of an idea direct smelling could be.)

After doing this smelling thing I then have a number pop into my head as my starting percentage. This lightening fast calculation is a result of 15 centuries of mixing experience and the fact that I screw up nearly every single first mix with a new flavor and I don't care. When I do mix a new flavoring right the first time, I often wonder what the heck I did wrong and revise the vast mental formula for calculating the starting percentage so I don't do that thing again. I then start adjusting the percentage up or down depending on what it vapes like and how it smells as a mix.

OK, that first line and last line of the previous paragraph are true and the middle is all incorrect. In all seriousness, I am not too shabby at getting close to a good starting percentage on smell alone, but it took me a long time to get to that point. I got to that point by making mistakes and learning from them. It's not always perfect, even now, but I'm still seldom satisfied with any first attempt. If a first attempt tastes good, I set it aside to steep. If the first attempt tastes terrible, I set it aside to steep.

I'll make anywhere from 5-15 batches with the new flavor at various percentages and deposit them to the end table near my favorite recliner in a little basket my wife has graciously provided for this purpose. While watching TV, or reading a book, or talking with the wife, I will blindly reach into that basket and pull out a bottle and drip some in my atty. Sometimes this results in me making sour faces to my wife, but she still loves me. It's when I jump up and exclaim that the random bottle was great is when I look at my coded shorthand label, grab my computer, and look up what the heck is in it and then start to re-engineer the recipe. (The sour face bottles accumulate in a different basket and I'll pull those out and start comparing them at a later date to determine if I want to continue working on the recipe or if I want to scrap it and start some new experiments.)

This is a long process. I don't commit to recipes quickly or easily. It results in small glass bottles, lots of small glass bottles, baskets of small glass bottles, and long period of cleaning small glass bottles when I decide to dump the current experiments. (Also one of the reasons I'm so willing to trade my DIY juice for glass bottles with drippers at meets and such, because I can never have enough small glass bottles, or medium or even large glass bottles.) This also results in things like me saying, "This is nearly good.", and the wife saying, "What is it?", and me putting on my cheaters and squinting at the label while saying something like, "I think it's Bacon Ice Cream.", to which she usually replies, "You are the craziest man I know."

And that is my process and I don't recommend my process to anyone.

well I do appreciate all the help, I really do go on smell, if it smells really strong generally I put less of a percentage in it. But I'm still a newbie at all of this, I've made like 2 flavors that are worth vapeing, but nothing as of yet that really reaches out and grabs hold of me. I think if I'm patient with this I think my results will be worth it in the the long run.

 

[Visus]

Excellent, reply thanks. I know that it is an art to do this and there will be 10-100 or more failures before you have that "eureka" mixture. but bacon ice cream sounds nice.... lol I love bacon

Could ya stop buying all the bacon its always out of stock where I shop, it must be great... They have two different varieties, deli style sounds good..

I use the nose knows to figure my virgin percentages. Scared to taste tobacco mixes.

Pralines and cream I make syrup with, it is so good it should be on the market for buttered pancakes and cornbread.. Lemon syrup for pancakes put me on the moon and lets not talk about crepes flavored with creams and variety of berries syrup, I think I am fatter just thinking about it...