Hey shinies, happy Saturday! It's been a whileHope everyone is safe and well. I stocked up on a load of mechanicals over the years and as a result, haven't had the need to buy any new shiny in ages. No new gear means no fire under my (censored?
) to take pics to spam on the forum. Oh well.
Lately, I've been eyeing up the bottles of VG, PG and nic that have been collecting dust in the back of my vape cupboard from when I overreacted to the impending "juice-pocalypse" a while back. I should really do something with them but as some of you may remember, I'm a complete DIY n00b/procrastinator. I'm going to start simple and what I really need is some flavor advice. Can any of you veteran DIY shinies recommend a fresh style strawberry, a natural vanilla and/or a cream style flavor? What are your go-tos? Any help would be much appreciated.
Like Hitt said there are a ton of strawberry flavors. IMHO there are only a handful that I'd call fresh and real tasting.
Ange gave you two of those... FA Strawberry (Red Touch) and FA Juicy Strawberry. Each on their own will not make a complete strawberry profile. The magic happens when you combine the two in a mix. I use each between 1-3% in mixes.
Example: FA Strawberry 2.5%, FA Juicy Strawberry 1.5% will give you all the aspects of a real ripe tasting strawberry. Flipping the percentages will give you a totally different tasting strawberry.
IMHO the absolute Queen of Strawberries is MF (Medicine Flower) Strawberry. It's a very authentic fresh tasting ripe strawberry. MF flavors cost more however they are ultra concentrated flavors. Their strawberry is not as highly concentrated as most of their other flavors. I've used it between 1% - 1.8% in mixes. MF flavors require a 4 week steep (minimum). 6 weeks steep time is better.
VSO Flavors Strawberries are also very highly rated for their accuracy and realism.
Vanillas. I have just about every DIY vanilla flavor as I'm a total vanillaholic.
DIY vanillas on their own are kind of "blah and meh". My preference is to combine two vanillas with a couple creams. At any given time I have a minimum of 6 very different tasting vanilla mixes ready to vape.In DIY there are bright and dark tasting vanilla flavors. Here is one of my brighter tasting vanilla recipes. The creams add mouthfeel and, ummm yeah, creaminess. LOL.
Bright Creamy Vanilla
INW Shisha Vanilla 1.75% (a bright vanilla - ignore the shisha bit, it has 0 tobacco)
FA Madagascar (Vanilla Classic) 1.75% (less than bright, adds more complex notes)
WF Vanilla Cream Extra 1.25% (adds a bright vanilla note + a wonderful cream)
SSA Clotted Cream 0.75% (an all-around excellent cream)
Suggested steep time = 4 weeks. It gets better, and fuller, the longer you allow it to steep. At 2 months it will taste different than at 4 weeks. The longer you allow mixes with creams to steep the more miscible and better tasting they become.
That vanilla mix is good on its own. It also serves as a good base for other flavors. Like adding strawberry, a cookie flavor (think Oreo's), a cake flavor (think Twinkies). Any fruit, or fruit combos, will work with it. If you like milkshakes then add 2.5% CAP Milkshake + 1.5% MB Milkshake. The list goes on!!!
If you have any questions just ask. Also consider visiting @FranC's Random DIY Mixing thread. There are a good number of DIY'ers on ECF. @Letitia is also a super knowledgeable resource with all things DIY.
Hope that helps!!!
