Random DIY mixing and More

CapeTownCloudChaser

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Feb 10, 2022
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My heart goes out to you, @CapeTownCloudChaser. I've been mixing for around three years now, and I still don't much like anything I come up with, whether I'm following a recipe or creating my own. May your road to contentment be shorter than mine.

That said, you might want to check out PapawBrett's blog | E-Cigarette Forum and Recipes for Dummies for ideas.

P.S. Apologies for being an Eeyore. And I do have a short list of mixes that I like well enough, so it's not all doom and gloom.
@Zazie I appreciate your honesty. I did not expect this to be easy, but it is most certainly more challenging that I had anticipated. I do want to get this right, South Africa has just passed a new tax bill on vape juice, so we are all expecting major price ramps in the near future on both imported and local liquids. So it is in the best interest of myself and my fellow vapers to get a grasp on the DIY side of things!

Thank you for the links I will surely check them out.
Regards,
CTCC
 

CapeTownCloudChaser

Full Member
Feb 10, 2022
27
171
Gr
Don't be discouraged. You end up with a feel for things quite quickly. Just one tip. Use e liquid recipes site to see notes on flavours. Then you can at least start with the right individual flavour %'s.....well usually anyway. Good luck :)
Great Idea, I will use this in my journey!
Thanks a mill!
 

CapeTownCloudChaser

Full Member
Feb 10, 2022
27
171
Not to add to the confusion but my train of thought is that normally a single flavor mix would be higher percentage than what I might use in a mix. I know the meringue is just an example but I consider it a supporting flavor and use it to add mouthfeel to a recipe more than taste it. I would normally stick with meringue at around 1% in a recipe. It depends also what kind of a recipe you are shooting for and what you want the most obvious flavor(s) to be in the mix. Doing the single flavor test will however give you a starting point for that flavor so you first of all know if you even like it and secondly you know that you don't need to go higher than that in a recipe normally. Some of the best advice I can think of is to take notes each time you try a flavor or a recipe. When I started, I made the mistake of not taking notes and suffered because of it. I don't know about you but can only keep so much information in my noggin. I usually can remember if I like a flavor or not but cannot remember all of the percentages in my head.

I am curious as to what kinds of liquids you liked when you were purchasing them?
@hittman Noted! xD
As to the flavours, I basically search for the highest rated recipes that i thought i would like based on my current e juice preferences, then I ordered all those ingredients to suite.

As for liquids, in South Africa we are not as blessed to have all the variety of well known manufacturers from around the globe, hence the need to want to master DIY. Also the price is getting ridiculous and that's not counting the new tax law implementation in South Africa.

I really like the Monster Labs products which is widely available here. To mention a few others, Loaded and Shoppe's would pretty much be it. Paying around USD27 for 100mls of imported liquid is quite steep, i would rather spend time than money when it comes to things that must steep.
 

FranC

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    Gr

    Great Idea, I will use this in my journey!
    Thanks a mill!
    I’ve noticed that you’re mixing all fruit recipes. You might want to consider expanding your choices. There’s many flavors that will give you a base for your fruits. Such as cookies, cakes, cheesecake, yogurt etc.
     

    ceeceeisme

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    Good morning random folks :) Have you any plans today?

    Good morning Fran!! It is snowing like crazy here this morning so I am going to go through some of my old recipes and see what I might like to mix later today. I burned out on a lot of my old recipes but recently started making some of them again and discovered they are like new to my taste buds.
     

    FranC

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    Good morning Fran!! It is snowing like crazy here this morning so I am going to go through some of my old recipes and see what I might like to mix later today. I burned out on a lot of my old recipes but recently started making some of them again and discovered they are like new to my taste buds.
    That’s great ceecee :thumbs: Burn out can last forever. Always nice when it doesn’t.
     

    ShowMeTwice

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    On that note, and i know there is no definitive answer, but do flavour profiles change a lot when paired with other flavours. E.G i have 2 SFTs that I like, let's say Strawberry and Banana, but when paired the sharpness of 1 is changed and the under note of the other is also altered. I am just curious in a general opinion if this changes a lot.
    Do flavor profiles change a lot when paired with other flavors? From my experience the answer is yes, no and it all depends. It all comes back to knowing the flavors you have.

    I suspect what you are asking has more to do with layering flavors in a mix and how those work in supporting each other.

    When I create a recipe my first decision is always to choose the desired flavor profile. Then I design my recipe around that profile.

    If I was going to do a mix using your flavor examples (strawberry, banana) my first decision would be choosing which one of those I want for the featured flavor.

    Let's say I choose strawberry to be my main flavor note. Next I will decide what percentages to use for each flavor. My recipe might look something like this.

    Basic Strawberry Banana Juice
    FA Strawberry (Red Touch) 3%
    FA Juicy Strawberry 1.5%
    FA Banana 1.75%

    From experience I know those percentages will give me the strawberry out front and a light banana note on the backside. Each flavor will be experienced as intended.

    In my example above note that I used two strawberries in order to create a single strawberry profile. The percentages used determine the type of strawberry I'm going to taste.

    I know from experience FA Strawberry (Red Touch) provides all the aspects of a real berry including the not-quite-ripe part. The green note makes it one of the most authentic strawberry flavors around.

    FA Juicy Strawberry is the authentic flavor of an actual fresh ripe berry. It lacks the green unripe note of Strawberry (Red Touch).

    Using those two together I am able to create a single unified strawberry profile. One that is either more or less ripe. In my example the overall strawberry profile is one that's fresh but not overly ripe (sweet).

    FA Banana at 1.75% will offer a light banana note on the backside. FA's banana is a very realistic natural tasting banana. Like real bananas it's not a bold flavor. It is yellow banana, not green, not brown, and not strongly sweet.

    If I wanted banana to be the featured flavor then the percentages might be something like this.

    FA Banana 4%
    FA Strawberry (Red Touch) 2%
    FA Juicy Strawberry 0.75%

    The banana is now the featured flavor and the strawberries sit nicely in the background. If I wanted to add more of a green note to the banana profile then I would add SSA Ripe Banana. I know from experience SSA banana has that green note.

    Lets say I'm happy with how the flavors are working together in the first recipe but I decide it's a boring mix. I might choose to add a bakery note and a cream. Like so:

    FA Strawberry (Red Touch) 3%
    FA Juicy Strawberry 1.5%
    FA Banana 1.75%
    FW White Cake 2%
    VTA Vanilla Cream 1%

    Now I have what I consider to be a well rounded mix with strawberry being my featured flavor, a light banana note to add some complexity to the overall fruit flavor followed by a creamy cake foundation.

    From experience I know that recipe will have natural sweetness at about the mid point. Mid point being about a 5-6 on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being near zero sweetness and 10 being sickly sweet).

    Hope that helps! :)
     
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    hittman

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    Everyone still napping? Coffee and vape for me. Still enjoying my two new mixes I’ll post a little later. Later today I’ll have a completely empty house and I’m going to fill my empty nic mix bottles.

    I woke at 4:30 but went back to bed.
     

    FranC

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    @Zazie Two new ones for you:) @NolaMel

    The first is just an ice cream mix but it’s very tasty.
    Raspberry Passion Ice Cream
    SSA Natural Raspberry 1%
    Chem. Passion Fruit 3%
    Added to my ice cream base.

    Yes we Raspberry
    INW Biscuit 1%
    OOO Creamy Yogurt Cheesecake 3%
    INW Rhubarb .75%
    PUR Raspberry 3%
    INW Yes we Cheesecake 2%
     

    ShowMeTwice

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    @CapeTownCloudChaser, how old are the 200+ flavors you acquired?

    If they are really old then the potency of each flavor will be less than if they were fresh. Some could be significantly less potent.

    You could try using them in very high percentages but then any notes you take are useless. Why? Simply because you would not be recording accurate notes for a known fresh flavor.

    Also, if those flavors were not stored properly (in a dark cool area) potency will be less than optimal.

    If either case is true you will not experience your flavors as intended. And that could be one reason why you are not having success.
     

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