The Flavor Apprentice Flavoring Thread
- Thread starter glassmanoak
- Start date
- th_trl_thread_readers 0
- Status
Most of Bill's recipes are excellent and you'll love the Starburst. I just made another 180mls last night.
I've mentioned the problem I have with tasting chocolate or cocoa in a vape -- @Jimi D. recommended Molinberry's Glamour Chocolate, so I just got some of that -- gonna try Bill's Chocolate Covered Cherries, since I discovered how much I like the TFA Cherry Extract. It won't be exact, since I have to use DX Bavarian, and leave the butter flavor out completely, but hopefully I'll finally be able to vape some chocolate yumminess!
Andria
Thanks Robert!!!!!!
I've mentioned the problem I have with tasting chocolate or cocoa in a vape -- @Jimi D. recommended Molinberry's Glamour Chocolate, so I just got some of that -- gonna try Bill's Chocolate Covered Cherries, since I discovered how much I like the TFA Cherry Extract. It won't be exact, since I have to use DX Bavarian, and leave the butter flavor out completely, but hopefully I'll finally be able to vape some chocolate yumminess!
Andria
I'm not a big fan of the Butter flavor. I tried it in the Chocolate Covered Cherries, and I didn't care for the undertone. Might have used too much, IDK. There are a few recipes that call for Butter. I might put in a couple of mere drops (I could dilute if I was so motivated, but I'm not, so I won't
) I'll just play by ear (well, by tastebud) and try to be a little more conscientious as to how it really tastes.BTW, how you feeling?
I'm not a big fan of the Butter flavor. I tried it in the Chocolate Covered Cherries, and I didn't care for the undertone. Might have used too much, IDK. There are a few recipes that call for Butter. I might put in a couple of mere drops (I could dilute if I was so motivated, but I'm not, so I won't
BTW, how you feeling?
Well... I was feeling ok when I got up... but the ol man is home today for some VA medical thing and HE IS DRIVING ME ABSOLUTELY OUT OF MY MIND!!!!!!!!!!!
GO TO WORK OR SOMETHING!!!!!!!!!!
He's got me so upset that now my stomach is feeling weird again and I dunno if I can even eat breakfast.
Andria
Sorry Andria
BTW I just whipped up a great spicy peach Im digging vapeNshake right now.
Note: I used 2% Cinnamon Spicy to start and it was pretty strong - so I grabbed the Koolada and WOW - it really toned down the cinnamon but man! it brought the juice peach to the front! Found a new use for Koolada! Koolada I used 1drop/2ml - or basically eyeballed it.
Recipe for those interested:
Juicy Peach 12%
vanilla bean ice cream 3%
cotton candy 2%
sweet cream 3%
sweetener 3%
cinnamon spice 1%
I adjusted the cinnamon to 1% so be mindful - if you want it stronger then go 2% and drop some Koolada in
BTW I just whipped up a great spicy peach Im digging vapeNshake right now.
Note: I used 2% Cinnamon Spicy to start and it was pretty strong - so I grabbed the Koolada and WOW - it really toned down the cinnamon but man! it brought the juice peach to the front! Found a new use for Koolada! Koolada I used 1drop/2ml - or basically eyeballed it.
Recipe for those interested:
Juicy Peach 12%
vanilla bean ice cream 3%
cotton candy 2%
sweet cream 3%
sweetener 3%
cinnamon spice 1%
I adjusted the cinnamon to 1% so be mindful - if you want it stronger then go 2% and drop some Koolada in
I've thought abought mixing by weight, but to be accurate, I would need to weigh and measure all my individual ingredients in order to be accurate going forward. Besides being ....-retentive, I am horribly lazy, so I do see that happening.
I do have a digital scale like you describe so maybe I will experiment. Thanks for chiming in.
That sounds reasonable. I have a tendency to obsess about trivial things that don't really matter. It helps to have a voice of reason to occasionally tell me to just relax...I completely disregard whatever may or may not be in the needle; even with my tiny (5ml) test batches, it seems a small enough amount to be utterly insignificant. I have enough to worry about, without throwing in MICROliters.
Andria
. Thanks Andria for being my VOR this day. 
Joel
That sounds reasonable. I have a tendency to obsess about trivial things that don't really matter. It helps to have a voice of reason to occasionally tell me to just relax...
Joel
Well.. there actually are some flavors for which that trivial amount might skew the results -- Inawera's Biscuit is one, and Bill says the Lorann Cream Cheese Icing is also VERY strong. So far I haven't been able to find the cream cheese icing in-stock at ECX, so I dunno for sure how to best handle that one; with the INW Biscuit, someone suggested making a 10% pre-mix and using that in recipes, rather than the actual straight flavoring -- it tends to really overtake any other flavor in the mix.
But with most flavors... the micro-milliliter in the needle really won't be significant enough to matter.
I resist the whole idea of measuring by weight, because I'm mixing and making ejuice, a liquid -- as someone pointed out not long ago, you don't buy milk by the pound, or bacon by the gallon. Plus I resist buying things I don't need for any other purpose, such as a micro-gram scale. Really accurate scales aren't cheap. Super-accurate syringes probably aren't either, but for the purpose of mixing ejuice, the cheap plastic ones are good enough.
I'm extremely OCD about a few things -- computer keyboards are a good example! -- but for other stuff, I try to just take it easy and not worry too much.
Andria
Hi Dinger, you're not "stepping out of line" at all. In fact I am grateful for all the help and advise I have received from this community. It is from good folks like yourself, that are willing to take of their own time, and share their understanding/experience with the rest of us that improves my own understanding and skill.
The "subjectivity" does seem to be my downfall (my own subjectivity that is). I'll make something once and I like it, make it again and its too strong/too weak, next time its the opposite. I know there are many factors that will influence this: type and freshness of wick, coil gauge/size/and cleanliness, type of atomizer/tank, and of course... my ever-changing tongue
. Good grief! Just writing this down makes me understand why there is substantial group of vapors who choose to vape without flavor! But alas; I can not be one. For I am a flavor junkie. My trying to be as (REASONABLY) accurate as I can is my attempt to minimize one of those variables.
Cheers!
Joel
Hi Dinger, you're not "stepping out of line" at all. In fact I am grateful for all the help and advise I have received from this community. It is from good folks like yourself, that are willing to take of their own time, and share their understanding/experience with the rest of us that improves my own understanding and skill.
The "subjectivity" does seem to be my downfall (my own subjectivity that is). I'll make something once and I like it, make it again and its too strong/too weak, next time its the opposite. I know there are many factors that will influence this: type and freshness of wick, coil gauge/size/and cleanliness, type of atomizer/tank, and of course... my ever-changing tongue
My trying to be as (REASONABLY) accurate as I can is my attempt to minimize one of those variables.
Cheers!
Joel
Absolutely true about changing tastebuds -- I consider it a flat-out miracle that I've had the same ADV since mid-December! I have a couple others that I vape here and there, from time to time, but I keep hanging with my strawberry & cream, thru thick and thin, changing tastebuds, and steadily declining WTA level -- and now declining nic level, since it's not long till cold weather, and I really want to find out if using a lot less nicotine will help my popsicle-paws problem.
Andria
Good grief! Just writing this down makes me understand why there is substantial group of vapors who choose to vape without flavor! But alas; I can not be one. For I am a flavor junkie.
My trying to be as (REASONABLY) accurate as I can is my attempt to minimize one of those variables.
Cheers!
Joel
+1
Trying to hit a "moving target" can be frustrating. I supposed if it was I, I would tend toward smaller batches, so as not to be wasteful if it turns out "less-than-optimal"
Hang in there - you will find your "vape nirvana" (and if you don't, hopefully the chase is fun
)Cheers to you!
Sage advise... and I do. 15 ml. seems to be my goto batch size. I use a tank for the most part and this will give me 3+ tanks to try a flavor fresh, after a day or two, and again a week or more later. If its a recipe I'm really not sure about I have even been known to do a 5 or 6 ml. bottle and just drip it. If its one I have tried and really like it I may make a 30 -60 ml. batch.+1
Trying to hit a "moving target" can be frustrating. I supposed if it was I, I would tend toward smaller batches, so as not to be wasteful if it turns out "less-than-optimal"
Hang in there - you will find your "vape nirvana" (and if you don't, hopefully the chase is fun
Cheers to you!
But I can't seem to leave even the ones I like alone. Like Scutch; it was good w/ toasted almond... lets try pistachio, that was good too... lets try pecan. You get the idea. I guess I can say the chase IS fun! It is just not conducive to encouraging the blending of large batches. "I know there's something better j u s t over the horizon."
back atcha!
Hi Bill,
Your post has reminded me of a question that has been bugging me since I started my own DIY journey; how do you reconcile the fluid/volume difference of any/various needle/tip diameters and lengths? (Especially something as large as the item you cited in the above quote.)
I have read all of your blogs, and as many of your "tutoring" posts as I can find, as your logic and methodology makes sense to me. I like the simplicity of your 100DT method for test batches. But I don't find it practical for my usual 15-30 milliliter "normal" batches.
I'm 53 years old with crappy eyes and found the syringes difficult to read so I looked for an alternative. I settled on using pipettes (the glass ones with a manual pump as opposed to the disposable plastic ones with the squeeze bulb integrated on top). I like having the graduations spread further apart and the greater accuracy they provide for smaller volumes (the 1 ml. pipette gives me 1/100 ml. control).
Of course, they are not without their own possibility of error, there is always some(?) amount left clinging to the walls of the pipette (the greater the viscosity <i.e. VG> the more residual clinging).
I usually mix in batches of 15 to 30 ml. and have never mixed more than 60 ml.. I am looking for the easiest, most repeatable (accurate) method, to make my recipes. I would appreciate any thoughts, experience, observations you might have.
Thank you for all your controbutions you have made here on ECF, and more personally, to my own DIY journey!
After figuring out that I was going to stick with diy, I decided on getting a pipette pump, some polypropylene pipette and some pyrex pipette (for those tank crackers). works great!
Thanks I have every thing in that except the fruit circles, I tried somthing similar with 8% Berry crunch and Vaniila bean ice cream were the Fresh Cream is and it came out nice but was missing the lemon taste that I think the circles would give. I knew I should have got it on that last order. I always seem to forget one or two flavors I keep meening to pick up.
I haven't had much to contribute to this thread in awhile but I still lurk. =)
I've recently tried mixing up a batch of flavor using the TFA DX line and I have to say that I'm not especially happy with the outcome. One of my best recipes calls for Sweet Cream at 5% of a total 22% flavoring mix. While I'm sure others have their own opinions my final product lost some "heaviness" and mouth feel while at the same time having a strange, but very slight, flavor that I can only describe as "putrid" or "pukey".
I've heard people complaining about the same thing with butyric acid flavors 5% or more. However, I also use Vanilla Bean Gelato (which I love) at 5% in this recipe which means my percentage of flavoring w butyric has now been upped to 10% of the total mix.
Unfortunately I got the DX versions of Bavarian Cream (should be okay because it has a strong flavor that may offset the pukey) and Vanilla Cupcake at the same time. I'm glad I only got the 4oz versions to try because I like making Bill's twinkie recipe that also potentially contains a fair amount of DX flavors.
I now have a cart on TFA with the non-DX versions in 16oz to get my stock up ready to order!
Just thought I'd share and hope it helps someone.
I've recently tried mixing up a batch of flavor using the TFA DX line and I have to say that I'm not especially happy with the outcome. One of my best recipes calls for Sweet Cream at 5% of a total 22% flavoring mix. While I'm sure others have their own opinions my final product lost some "heaviness" and mouth feel while at the same time having a strange, but very slight, flavor that I can only describe as "putrid" or "pukey".
I've heard people complaining about the same thing with butyric acid flavors 5% or more. However, I also use Vanilla Bean Gelato (which I love) at 5% in this recipe which means my percentage of flavoring w butyric has now been upped to 10% of the total mix.
Unfortunately I got the DX versions of Bavarian Cream (should be okay because it has a strong flavor that may offset the pukey) and Vanilla Cupcake at the same time. I'm glad I only got the 4oz versions to try because I like making Bill's twinkie recipe that also potentially contains a fair amount of DX flavors.
I now have a cart on TFA with the non-DX versions in 16oz to get my stock up ready to order!
Just thought I'd share and hope it helps someone.
I was on the fence about the DX flavors myself. I just know that what I like in the regular ones, I don't use that high of a percentage on most of vanillas and creams, mostly to round out recipes. I know everybody says "oh that stuff is loaded with bad stuff" but they are at very Minimal %, to each there own though. I am sure I have done much more harm to my body than a small amount of flavoring will do. I don't think that Double Bacon cheesburger I had for lunch was much better.
The Dx Bavarian is pretty good, but I wouldn't use it "stand-alone" -- actually it seems to work best when combined with the Vanilla Swirl.
For Sweet Cream, only Capella's will do. AFAIK, it's diketone-free, but it tastes absolutely authentic -- I even use it in food, since we use only 2% milk to lower our fat content -- adding a few drops of the CAP sweet cream makes a big diff in eggs or mashed potatoes or even just supplementing the 2% milk in coffee.
Andria
For Sweet Cream, only Capella's will do. AFAIK, it's diketone-free, but it tastes absolutely authentic -- I even use it in food, since we use only 2% milk to lower our fat content -- adding a few drops of the CAP sweet cream makes a big diff in eggs or mashed potatoes or even just supplementing the 2% milk in coffee.
Andria
Glad I got into DIY after the DX versions. Never used the orginal ones so I don't miss what I never had, I guess.
Same here, but I have to say, I'm not terribly impressed with the cinnamon danish DX -- it's got a lot of acetyl pyrazine in it, which kinda overpowers any other flavor. I did get some Cinnamon Spice to try to improve it, but haven't tried that yet. The hazelnut DX may be just slightly better than Capella's hazelnut v2, a bit more subtle taste.
Andria
- Status
Similar threads
