Please help!

[Submarine123]

So guys, I really need help!

I bought Vanilla Custard, Gingerbread, Whipped Cream, and Super Sweet from Capella.

I've got some empty 60ml bottles and I'm sorta just doing the drop-n-shake route.

Well, though I haven't really "steeped" yet or anything, the Vanilla Custard just doesn't seem to want to taste right at all. I've tried dripping just one drop into the 60ml, and alternatively, I've tried dropping a drop in VG in my Subtank, just to judge wether this flavor needs "more or less", and it's just not coming through. It smells absolutely heavenly, but the scent is just not equating to flavor... what gives?

Now, I've had more luck with the Gingerbread... but it's just so far from Gingerbread that it's hard to enjoy. It has a naturally quite sweet, candy-gingerbread type of flavor (almost like a Gingerbread Whipped Cream) but it's sweet to the point I don't want to add sweetener, but there's just no body there still... no deep gingerbread notes, nothing that one could really vape, and if too much is there, it'll kinda burn.

It just seems like something is "blocking" the flavor from coming to life... it might be the VG level but I've added some PG to thin it out a little. I mean, I'm vaping on Heaven's Lube Vanilla Yogurt (very good juice!) and though this particular juice is quite light, the yogurt note is clearly there, the vanilla fills out the rest. There's a certain body there, rather than a "VG" taste.

What gives? What really makes these flavors "pop" in high VG? I mean, I once played around with VG and mint/menthol flavoring from Walmart, and I really got the same result... it'll taste like the VG is just blocking the flavor. And again, I'm not big at all on sweet vapes, I really want just a lot of body to the flavor without there being so much flavoring that it burns. Any advice at all? I'm a complete novice and I don't have proper measuring tools, so it's really a drop-by-drop process atm! Thank you!

 

[stalkster]

Kinda confusing your using 1drop per 60ml?
Custard takes time to steep and usually has other creams added to it. You should try a small batch ~10ml with 10% custard flavoring, and let it sit 2-3weeks then try it.

 

[Mattymag_vapes]

Well there is much to explain here lol you can't just get a good flavour recipe by doing it drop by drop, it'll take you forever to figure it out. Look up how much percentage of flavour you need to make your certain eJuice, usually its +\-20% flavour - find the recipe you want to make and put make it. You need to know exactly how to make this. If it's 15% vanilla custard and 5% marshmallow, or whatever flavour they call for,blind an e juice calculator and put that information in there and it will tell you how much of PG and PG to add (if you don't know how to do the math) to make the liquid, it takes more than just drop by drop

 

[Mattymag_vapes]

Measure by millimetre (ml)... ei. 20 drops is equal to 1 millilitre

 

[Robert Cromwell]

15 drops of Vanilla custard to 10 ml of PG/VG I do 50/50.
2-5 drops whipped cream
Prolly no sweetener needed but use VERY sparingly if you do.

this is pretty much my ADV right now.

 

[Robert Cromwell]

Measure by millimetre (ml)... ei. 20 drops is equal to 1 millilitre

According to my measurements the 13 ml CAP bottles have 32 drops/ml droppers.

 

[Submarine123]

I just tried a 10 drop of Cap's Vanilla Custard with about 5 drops of Cap's Gingerbread for a high VG 85%-ish mix, 60ml.

I have Super Sweet and Whipped Cream but haven't tried either yet.

I'm hoping this mix will end up tasting good in some type of way. I really spent a decent little penny on trying this experiment out and I'd hate to walk away with nothing...

 

[Whitaker2472]

10 drops is not anywhere near what u would nees to taste the flavor in 60ml

 

[Whitaker2472]

You would need over 300 drops for 10% flavor if was 32 drops per ml

 

[Robert Cromwell]

10 drops is not anywhere near what u would nees to taste the flavor in 60ml

Yep for 60ml you will need around 60-75 drops.

 

[Submarine123]

I couldn't imagine that many drops in my mixes... that's virtually the whole 13ml bottle of flavoring in a 60ml bottle.

I filled my, what, 5ml Subtank up with the VG/PG mix, unflavored, and put one drop of Gingerbread in it. The flavor was strong enough for me, and I enjoyed the flavor strength exactly where it was, just the flavor itself wasn't hitting on much.... was so much candier than I expected and not multi-layered like a real E-Liquid.

I tried putting more drops in to test out the strength theory and the coil became burny. More did not do the trick. So if I do one drop for every 3-5ml, give or take, I'd say that's about 15 drops of whatever altogether in a 60ml mix. I don't think many Cloud Blower E-Liquids are putting more than that in their bottles, I simply think that there must be a secret technique here to get the flavors to really "transcend" the border of the VG and taste "up front" rather than "in the back".

Also, these Capella flavors are a million times sweeter than I imagined and I was really looking for absolutely non-sweet flavors, like a true, bold, deep gingerbread without much of a sugar or icing taste, something that really focused on the nutmeg and deep flavor. Same with this Custard, it smells and seems to (when it at least wants to) taste like instant vanilla pudding, where I wanted rich, eggy, deep notes.

Maybe I am being too light on my mixes. But adding more just seems to make things burny. My focus is to also make juice that keeps these tender Subtank coils clean! Most of all, it sort of seems like Capella's flavors are too sweet for me by a long slide!

Really, I'm trying to clone Charlie's Custard, which was a Custard that had both deeper eggy notes, lighter creamier notes, and this scrumptious layer of a nutmeg pie crust (like the type in a Key Lime Pie, not a Pumpkin Pie), and the juice was an ADV before Charlie started making it so sweet that it tasted awful in the Subtanks. I just have no clue how to replicate it and I wish there was a recipe out there!

I thought that maybe going a gingerbread route for the pie crust would be an interesting twist, but so far, this gingerbread flavoring smells and tastes so candied that it's ridiculous, it seems to be a flavor that's higher on the sweet palette than anything deep on the bold end. Same with Capella's Custard... it's just not coming through for me.

I feel like it's kind of a wasted purchase and I felt like Capella was a little misleading on how sweet their flavors are. You can tell by the nose that these flavors are packed with sugar and yet the label says "Nothing added." Well, yeah, that's fine and dandy unless the gingerbread that you're sourcing the flavor from has more sugar in it than a cane farm.

Ugh. Does anyone know if TFA's flavors are naturally very non-existent in the sugar department? I hate sugar. I want bold, no-sugar, strong flavors. Sugar tastes horrible in E-Liquids, and I like those that do not have it. Charlie's Custard was one of those until it seems they started putting sucralose or ethyl matyl in the mix and it ruined it!

 

[Robert Cromwell]

Mixing your juice in the tank will not work.

I mix about dozen 30 ml gottles of juice from one 13 ml bottle of Vanilla custard.

 

[Mattymag_vapes]

According to my measurements the 13 ml CAP bottles have 32 drops/ml droppers.

The best way to measure is by mls. If you're doing a 10 ml solution, you CAN use the drop method, but if you want to do a batch, use an accurate way to measure. The viscosity of every liquid vary, making drops varying as well. Same thing as "take a tablespoon of 'X' medicine..." They used to say that back in the day, until someone measured a tablespoon of liquid in Millilitres. Okay it's about ~15mls... Measure it again.. oh wait, it's 16.5mls... and again...14.7mls.... 13.8ml... 16.8mls... You know where I'm going?

 

[Mattymag_vapes]

The best way to measure is by mls. If you're doing a 10 ml solution, you CAN use the drop method, but if you want to do a batch, use an accurate way to measure. The viscosity of every liquid vary, making drops varying as well. Same thing as "take a tablespoon of 'X' medicine..." They used to say that back in the day, until someone measured a tablespoon of liquid in Millilitres. Okay it's about ~15mls... Measure it again.. oh wait, it's 16.5mls... and again...14.7mls.... 13.8ml... 16.8mls... You know where I'm going?

It varies every time, even using the same kind of liquid. So, if you want to do something consistent, measure by millilitres and take notes man you don't want to stumble upon a good mix and the be like 'oh no I forgot the recipe' right... Don't want that to happen

 

[Submarine123]

Well, the truth is that I couldn't even begin to explain every complex reason why I'm doing this first batch the way I'm doing - I just have to say that for better or worse, what I could afford to do and what seemed easiest was to get some glass 60ml bottles, use a syringe to measure PG (I'm doing about 7-10ml's of PG and just filling the rest up with VG), and I ordered Vanilla Custard, Super Sweet, Gingerbread, and Whipped Cream from Capella.

Generally speaking, virtually all juices, even drip line juices, have a strong scent of the flavor they are. Now, one, I don't know if there's a trade secret where ingredients are added to give off a strong scent rather than tasting like anything, I don't know, but I do know that virtually all flavors have a strong scent, so I've been trying to generally nose the mixes to see if the amount of drops starts to seem strong.

However, for one bottle I'm mixing, the scent got to a semi-strong point (about 35-40 drops of Custard, 10 of Gingerbread, 1 Supersweet, 1 Whipped Cream), but at this point, the flavor became really shot, and it seemed to truly taste better at about 20 drops of Custard, 5 of Gingerbread only (I think I do like the effect of the Supersweet, though.) However, at that lower percentage, there was just no scent to the bottle. Do Capella flavors simply not have a strong scent? I mean, smelling of the actual Capella bottles has only a tiny bit more strength in scent than normal E-Liquids themselves; their flavors do not smell overpowering at all, so I'm wondering if smell even equates to strength in this brand.

On top of that, I've been trying different levels of this Vanilla Custard, and though the Gingerbread may actually be cancelling it out tremendously (just don't know yet), I simply cannot get one single bit of flavor to come out of this Vanilla Custard, and I've tried ranges from 10-40 drops. Even without steeping, it should taste like something, and yet at most, there might be the tiniest hint of a slightly soured, old Custard taste to it. There's just no flavor whatsoever, and it seems like the Supersweet tastes more like a Cream base than the Custard does. The Gingerbread is just a wonky one too, at first puff it'll never taste like anything, then it seems to gradually build up in strength a tiny bit and then trail off again.

I just don't know what I'm really doing so wrong, and so many people claim that Capella's Vanilla Custard is one of those drop-n-goes. I mean, the first mix bottle above that I'm talking about has such a high drop concentration that the liquid is now very cloudy (still no color, but dirty-cloudy) and comparing a lot of 0 nic drip line juices I have, they just don't have anything near as cloudy of an appearance. So far, nothing I've made has tasted awful in the least... some of the levels have actually been very decent (just extremely light). But it's as though something isn't "setting" right, and I've been shaking my bottles very, very good, with a day or so of steeping for each level I test.

At this point, I think I could live if I found out an exact Vanilla Custard recipe for Drip Line high-VG. Clouds Of Goodness has an extremely high-VG Vanilla Custard that is amazing and strong. Something that's not flat and has a lot of body and depth. Sticking to either Capella or TFA. I just feel like something isn't going right with my current mixes and yet, truly, this shouldn't be that hard. I mean, on the back of these Capella bottles, it says one drop per ounce of liquid... are they actually onto something? Or should I be simply infusing my mixes to the brim? And is Capella even worth anything for high VG mixes? I just don't know.

 

[Dixie1954]

Here's the deal - ready mades are steeped most of the time - so yeah by the time you get it they are usually ready to vape - not always though. Also any Vanilla Custard needs a good long steep all by itself - if adding other flavorings it may need a longer steep. If you want shake -n- vapes go with regular fruits, by that I mean no added creams or custards.

 

[issy]

...why is this an issue?? Use a calculator and measure out percentages in mLs. Measuring in drops, especially at 60 mls, is tedious and frustrating. I use a lot of Capella's, and they DEFINITELY have a strong smell when used in the proper percentages. In fact, I use Vanilla Custard V2 in a lot of my recipes, and it's very strong when mixed correctly. When I measure out the drops, I get 35-40 drops per ml. In 60 mLs, 40 drops is a RIDICULOUSLY low amount. 6% in 60 mL is 3.3 mL of flavoring alone. At 35 drops/mL, thats 116 drops. Perhaps head over to the recipes section and see what experienced DIYers are doing. And use a calculator with correctly calibrated drops/mL.

Also, when the bottles say "one drop per ounce," they are referring to flavoring things like coffee or smoothies. Vaping seems to be different, especially when mixing high-VG. My recipes are all 50:50, if that helps.

 

[Hoosier]

OP, are you a super taster?

Some folks are and it can make giving flavoring advice exceedingly difficult if we don't know you are and which notes are specific to your hypersensitive tastes.