Sweetness increased drastically by steeping?

[amoret]

The only sweet flavor I like at all is English Toffee, and that seems (or seemed) to be more rich than sweet. I've been using Nature's Flavors and had worked it out to 12% when I started at the beginning of September. After getting that percentage down, I did start experimenting with adding Vanilla, and also a little butter or cream. For those experiments I would just take part of a batch and try adding the additional flavors. This has always had to steep at least a week or so, during which time the color darkened and the flavor smoothed out.

So all has been going well, I liked adding Inawera Vanilla Tahiti at 1.5% better than other vanillas I tried, so I kept that, and since all was going well, I made a larger batch on October 11, and continued to use small amounts from that to continue my butter and/or cream enrichment experiments.

Then last week I had a tankful that was just cloyingly sweet by my tastes. Okay, I figured the latest cream addition was the cause, so I dumped it out and cleaned the tank, put in a new coil and filled it up again with just the toffee/vanilla, and it was still really sweet.

Now I don't think it's vaper's tongue, since my other flavors taste the same as always. So is this just from a couple of weeks more steeping? and if so, is it more likely to be from the toffee or the vanilla? I'm going to try diluting it tomorrow to see if that helps get it back to where I would like. In the meantime, any other ideas on the why of this? If it's just the extra steeping then I'm going to have to go back to smaller batches, and I hate to have to do that just when things seemed to be going so well.

 

[disco180]

Flavors start to combine with time, there are two ways to mix, one way is :

"Shake N vape"

These mixes taste great when you mix them, mix then shake and vape. Usually you make these in small batches that don't last for more then a coupe of days at the most. The flavors are mixed at higher levels so that you can taste them right away, but as they steep these flavor levels will deepen and usually become unvapable.
then there's

"Mixing and Steeping"

These mixes are mixed but have hardly any flavor at first, until they are steeped. The flavor deepens with steeping but it matures into a great mix that will continue to stay that way for the life of the mix. The flavors are mixed at lower percentages to allow the flavors to mature.

My personal way of doing it is to find my mix with the shake and vape method (mix at high percentages) and then I will cut the percentages in half to put into larger bottles and let it steep..

 

[Soignee]

The only sweet flavor I like at all is English Toffee, and that seems (or seemed) to be more rich than sweet. I've been using Nature's Flavors and had worked it out to 12% when I started at the beginning of September. After getting that percentage down, I did start experimenting with adding Vanilla, and also a little butter or cream. For those experiments I would just take part of a batch and try adding the additional flavors. This has always had to steep at least a week or so, during which time the color darkened and the flavor smoothed out.

So all has been going well, I liked adding Inawera Vanilla Tahiti at 1.5% better than other vanillas I tried, so I kept that, and since all was going well, I made a larger batch on October 11, and continued to use small amounts from that to continue my butter and/or cream enrichment experiments.

Then last week I had a tankful that was just cloyingly sweet by my tastes. Okay, I figured the latest cream addition was the cause, so I dumped it out and cleaned the tank, put in a new coil and filled it up again with just the toffee/vanilla, and it was still really sweet.

Now I don't think it's vaper's tongue, since my other flavors taste the same as always. So is this just from a couple of weeks more steeping? and if so, is it more likely to be from the toffee or the vanilla? I'm going to try diluting it tomorrow to see if that helps get it back to where I would like. In the meantime, any other ideas on the why of this? If it's just the extra steeping then I'm going to have to go back to smaller batches, and I hate to have to do that just when things seemed to be going so well.

Are you using the Regular and/or Organic Flavor Concentrates by Nature's Flavors? They all contain Gum Arabic Gum arabic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia which is basically a sugar. If you look at the Physical properties on the Wiki page you'll see that GA reduces surface tension in liquids and it could be that the GA is reducing the surface tension of the PG/VG mix then breaking down in solution and sweetening your juice further.

 

[dannyv45]

So all has been going well, I liked adding Inawera Vanilla Tahiti at 1.5% better than other vanillas I tried, so I kept that, and since all was going well, I made a larger batch on October 11, and continued to use small amounts from that to continue my butter and/or cream enrichment experiments.

Then last week I had a tankful that was just cloyingly sweet by my tastes. Okay, I figured the latest cream addition was the cause, so I dumped it out and cleaned the tank, put in a new coil and filled it up again with just the toffee/vanilla, and it was still really sweet.

I noticed that happening with inawera wild strawberry. I added the wild strawberry to an already fully steeped vanilla custard and it got much sweeter over time after adding it.

 

[amoret]

Thanks for the replies. It is the organic coffee/tea flavoring, and it says that all that's in it is alcohol, vg and organic flavoring. I do have to laugh a little at the company website. They still won't discuss using their flavors vaping, but they do make a point of how well the coffee and tea flavorings mix with pg and vg.I'd been steeping it at least a week, but this is the first time I got far enough ahead to keep it much over two weeks.

Today I did try diluting some of it that only had the vanilla added 30% with unflavored, and while not as cloying it is still way too sweet. I have some I never added Vanilla to that I will try working with tomorrow, since today has been one of those days. So at the moment I'm leaning toward it maybe being the vanilla that gets so sweet with longer steeping, but I'll know more tomorrow.

 

[Soignee]

Thanks for the replies. It is the organic coffee/tea flavoring, and it says that all that's in it is alcohol, vg and organic flavoring. I do have to laugh a little at the company website. They still won't discuss using their flavors vaping, but they do make a point of how well the coffee and tea flavorings mix with pg and vg.I'd been steeping it at least a week, but this is the first time I got far enough ahead to keep it much over two weeks.

Today I did try diluting some of it that only had the vanilla added 30% with unflavored, and while not as cloying it is still way too sweet. I have some I never added Vanilla to that I will try working with tomorrow, since today has been one of those days. So at the moment I'm leaning toward it maybe being the vanilla that gets so sweet with longer steeping, but I'll know more tomorrow.

Well, I guess that about rules out my guess!
I do use INA Wanilla and have not had a similar issue FWIW. My longest steep with it is right at one month now. Good Luck!

 

[Boletus]

In my limited experience with flavorings, vanilla is one that becomes much more pronounced with steeping. When I first put it in a mix, I cannot taste it at all, but after a thorough steep (heat or time), it is there big time. It does not seem like the sweetness, per se, should change that much, but vanilla can make things seem sweeter to the taste buds, IMO. Just a thought, but maybe using different amounts based on how soon the juice will be used is your best solution.

 

[pauly walnuts]

When I started DIY a few months ago, I was working on a complex vanilla custard, but never could seem to get it right. I was mixing at around 20% flavor and it would be fantastic after a week, but after another week to took on the taste and smell of HONEY. Weird. I think it was the cap cake batter , not sure though.