steeping--airing out--stinky juices

[OaklandCA]

I've just gotten a liberty flights shipment in and about half these juices have an unpleasant odor and taste. they are all flavors i've gotten from other vendors with usually decent consistency e.g. mint, cappuccino and chocolate. But these have a buttry sugary blech undertaste and overtaste that is decidedly artificial --kind of a fake popcorn butter sweetness. I can see why that might show up in cappuccino (a failed attempt to taste "creamy" but mint? Chocolate? So is this a sweetener i'm tasting will so called "steeping" help minimize this odor. What sorts of taste changes is steeping supposed to produce?

is it really just airing out the juice so the more volatile compounds can evaporate? What is this stepping supposed to be accomplishing?

can this juice be saved?--or is it time to pass it forward. (30 ml bottles d&^%^$%^.)

 

[ukeman]

i would say "no" to your question... not downing LF, but steeping imo is for letting the flavors and substances meld and mature; develop... to their potential.

some juices don't require it, more or less than others, but some, in fact many great juices NEED a bit of steeping to bring them to their glory.

absolutely.

welcome to the realm of "finding the right juice for you".... try small bottles to try before getting large bottles... there are tons and tons of flavors and different vendors...haunt the juice review threads, and remember, what works for some doesn't work for all...you can go on classifieds and swaps for good deals just for "research" purposes.

i believe the bargain basement juices belong in the basement, but even "better" vendors are subject to the varied tastes of vapers... that's why they have a lot to choose from. you just have to find the ones that you like.

 

[Cat_in_the_Playground]

I have never ordered from LF (but not opposed to it), so I cannot speak to their juices in particular. What I can speak to is my experiences with juices. I am an instant gratification person with no patience. So, when I get my juice order, I open it right up and try them all. If I don't care for it, I'll hang onto it and test it in 1 week increments to see if it has improved. It has been my experience that any juice I didn't like when I first get it does not improve over time. The gross taste just gets stronger. If it is a juice I like, then it just seems to get incredibly better with age (FSUSA butterscotch is a fine example).

I have had 2 or 3 juices that I was not sure about when I first tried them. Often it is because the flavor was too weak. Juices that had a weak flavor when I initially tried it, tend to get stronger after steeping. Those that were kinda "meh" when I first tried them, still tend to be a "meh" juice after steeping, but just a stronger "meh" flavor.

If it is a juice that has a little bit of aftertaste, chemical, pepper, or perfume, sometimes these will dissipate after steeping, but the main flavor remains unchanged (if I didn't like the main flavor upon initial try, I still won't like it after steeping. But if I liked the main flavor upon first try, but didn't like the aftertaste, sometimes I will like them after steeping if the aftertaste fades).

But those juices I found gross initially never become vape-able -- even after steeping a month.

I just sold about 20 bottles of juice because those were my first juice orders when I was trying to figure out what kind of juices I liked (I figured out I don't like fruit flavored juices). Stick with small sample size bottles. Velvet Vapors has nice sample packs where you can choose all your flavors, nic and PG/VG for all 5 bottles (3ml, 6ml and 10ml sizes with 5 bottles per pack). I love her Velvet Vanilla. FSUSA also has nice sample sizes. Love their butterscotch (any of their butterscotch flavors, actually - hopscotch, butterscotch almond, and plain old buttersctotch) and RY4. Cream soda is very nice to.

 

[ukeman]

On my first order ever, I ordered from Vapor Bomb... most were good, and VB is still my favorite for some flavors, but the Waffle was so bad, I even wrote them...
well I never dumped it, but a few months later, it was terrific.

Also, VB snickerdoodle, my favorite, taste good at first, but in a week it just gets better and better in time.

 

[beenshot]

i have tried all of LF tobacco flavors and there are only 2 of them that i can vape. USA MIX is the one that i use every day and virginia is ok, but the rest of them are just not for me. but i also have some from backwoods brew that are awesome and some of their's that i just can't stand. and if i didn't like them at first, steeping helped a little but didn't bring them around.

 

[SweetPuff]

Try putting them away in a dark place, and revisit in a month or so. I've had some bombs of juices that I thought would be totally unvapable, I put them in my "no likey" box and revisited them about a month later just to see....and low and behold, they are actually good now.

Try it, the worst that can happen is you pass it on, but you may be surprised.

 

[Justice]

I haven't had any luck steeping out some of the flavors that I didn't like but with two so far I have been able to adjust the juices with either vanilla or blackberry added to them just a little to knock the edge of. At this moment I am vaping a strong tobacco flavor that I like very much that I accidentally put into my almost empty apple flavor bottle and I suspect it too would knock the ugly off of a nasty juice. I am loving this accident

 

[OaklandCA]

thanks for the tips. I thought i was ordering safe flavors (mint menthol chocolate cappuccino) that i have ordered from a few different vendors. The 30 ml price was good ($13. 50 or so) and i had been shelling out almost $1.00 /ml for various samplers and being a bit adventurous and throwing in new flavors (and not liking them)

I think now that there is a sweetener (obviously an artificial one) that just rubs my tastebuds the wrong way. (never have been able to drink any diet soda of any sort for that reason) since so few vendors actually list their ingredients it's hard to figure what it is.

(some well known and poplar vendors Mrs T's, LF, and a good deal of the FSUSA are not to my liking....so i've dcided to delve into DIY. I ordered 500 ml of 48 mg nicotine from box elder (on sale $52. inc shipping) about $.05 a ml diluted to my 24 mg typical vape and a cross section of flavors from eliquidstore (.50 ml but figure 20% or less of mix =.$10 and now i can sample to my harts content for .15 /ml (plus pg) and if i find i like it can just order more flavorants.

well here we go another E-cig PV quest...break even point--2012 (heh)

 

[SweetPuff]

well here we go another E-cig PV quest...break even point--2012 (heh)

...so true oakland! i think my break even point is somewhere around 2020!