Question regarding e-juice/nicotine

[Cstew]

We have been going through a local wholesale/vapor shop that makes their own juice since May of this year. His juices had amazing flavor when we first started. Once he started getting more distributers around the country it seems his quality has ... "changed". IE: He's making new flavors, tried his cotton candy, whipped cream and it has a NASTY I can't even describe it kickback to it. Figured ok it was just getting over the hurdles of expanding his juices, with the specialty flavors. We gave him another chance (after trying other vendors online - mtbaker amazing just for the record) I tried his blackberry in the tester he has which is 0 nicotine and it was incredible, so being a blackberry lover I grabbed at a bottle (All made at the same time) and put it in my protank at home after it sat for another day, same thing. NASTY KICKBACK. So asked him about it, what are you doing different etc.. He says nothing, everything is exactly the same, the testers have 0 nicotine, you are probably just tasting the nicotine. I find this very very hard to believe because we have seriously tested every strength of nicotine in just about every variety he has had, never had that problem until 1. he started changing his bottle to some harder bottle that's hard to squeeze and 2. he started blowing through thousands of bottles a week. Oh, and it's only 6mg nicotine strength bottles so I find it hard to believe that it is the issue here. Any explanation of what could be happening here? (Especially being we are pretty sure the nicotine content is being docked down because we feel more of a "buzz" from nicotine from other vendors than we do his, but that's not really a big deal , we enjoy the flavor)

 

[szot]

Your point?...all businesses start out terrific but then some change for various reasons..usually greed and the mighty $$$

 

[jac1766]

It could be that, since he's going through his juice faster, it doesn't have any time to steep. When business was slow, the juice may sit for weeks after mixing and now it's just days.

Steep time is very important!

 

[BlueMoods]

I'd say either lack of steeping time or, he got a bad batch of nic from his supplier - it can happen to the best of us the mix juice.

 

[Rickajho]

If the zero nic is good, but any nic now tastes like poo I think you found your answer. Most likely he changed the source for his nic base, is now buying the cheapest thing he can find gallons and a time, might be completely profit driven now and doesn't really care... and stuff like that.

Are you sure he still actually making this stuff and it's not just rebranded China liquid now? (Bottle changes make me suspicious...)

 

[BigBen2k]

There's an off chance that a flavor is interacting with the plastic of the bottle. These are usually citrus. There's a rare few that do this.

Otherwise, probably steep time; leave the bottle open (remove the dripper tip if there is one) for a day or two.

Maybe ask him to bottle a sample in a glass bottle, for you, and see if that solves it? You seem to have a good rapport, and he sounds cooperative. Glass would eliminate this problem.

 

[Cstew]

Your point?...all businesses start out terrific but then some change for various reasons..usually greed and the mighty $$$

My point? I was asking if it is the nicotine making the bad taste or if it is something else he is doing wrong so we could possibly help him correct it since whenever we ask he is fast to get defensive and brush it off as nicotine when he's never had the problem with his other liquids.

Also jac1766, I've tried keeping the lids off juices for days and left them alone weeks and tried them again and it's still that terrible flavor in there, so I don't think it's the steeping.. the 0 nicotine blends he puts in fresh in testers in store are usually really good, and then when he gives us the ones he has bottled up with nicotine its gross.

 

[Cstew]

If the zero nic is good, but any nic now tastes like poo I think you found your answer. Most likely he changed the source for his nic base, is now buying the cheapest thing he can find gallons and a time, might be completely profit drive now and doesn't really care... and stuff like that.

Are you sure he still actually making this stuff and it's not just rebranded China liquid now? (Bottle changes make me suspicious...)

positive he's making his own..we've seen his receipts for his products and my boyfriend has stepped into his lab for mixing.. he actually uses the same flavor brand as mt baker vapor.. he swapped bottles to try to save money and they are really hard to squeeze, so he is switching back once he runs out.

 

[Rickajho]

positive he's making his own..we've seen his receipts for his products and my boyfriend has stepped into his lab for mixing.. he actually uses the same flavor brand as mt baker vapor.. he swapped bottles to try to save money and they are really hard to squeeze, so he is switching back once he runs out.

I'm betting then he switched his source for the nic base. No matter - it is what it is for now and won't be getting any better unless he acknowledges something is different.

 

[Cstew]

We shall see if he will see the light, I'll see if he has a different bottle to stick it in just out of curiosity to rule it out. But most likely swapped nicotine since he said they were trying to save money. Everyone says nicotine is a pepper flavor, but this flavor is a straight unpleasant bitter nastiness in your mouth that cant be described. Going to try to get him to change his ways before people start returning bottles by the boatload to him. Thanks for the responses, was curious to see if it was any other problem below the surface we were unaware of. We definitely don't want to see them drown from silly mistakes like cutting costs and sacrificing quality. Maybe if I stick it in my protank and show him the true flavor of it as opposed to nasty c4's he throws away as testers he will see what we mean.

 

[Rickajho]

If you are still curious and want to investigate this further, now that you have more than 5 posts you have access to the DIY sub forum. Those people know what "bad" nic base tastes, looks & smells like. I know there are threads there about "off" and/or low quality nicotine.

 

[spotlesseternity]

Evil money