The Really Big RY4 Roundup (long)

[billherbst]

Bill, have you done any tweaking of store-bought or DIY RY4 concentrates?

I've added caramel and/or vanilla to many, many juices, sometimes with serendipitous and yummy results. I vape quite a number of Frankenjuices, actually.

RY4s are a different story entirely. I've had absolutely no luck adding any flavoring to RY4s, whether they're retail juices or diy pre-mix flavoring concentrates. I've ruined some, but I haven't improved any. That seems weird to me and strangely counter-intuitive, but there it is.

 

[ToweKnee]

Thanks, ToweKnee.

Since you mentioned DK TAB, I thought I'd ask you a quesion. I liked vaping DK TAB, but the odor was offputting to me. Do you know of something that is very much like DK TAB, but doesn't have the (pea?)nutty odor?

I would say Desert Ship but it still has that nutty note to it but not so much that off taste I get with DK Tab. The thing is with DK is that you instantly recognize it in any mix. I have tried Tobacco Absolute but found that to be a bit too perfumey for me.

Its hard to say because everyone has their own tastes. If you like a little vanilla/pipe tobacco I would say try the Tobacco Express French Pipe. Its easily one of my all day vapes and one of the best out of the Super Concentrate line. Its very robust but also has that pipe tobacco taste to it.

Other than that I wouldn't know what to recommend to you. Im just starting to dive into the tobacco flavorings head first lately. Im finding personally I am enjoying FlavourArt line of tobaccos more than others.

I have been tinkering with Ry4 recipes for months now. The thing is with Ry4 is that you have to have all notes there at certain levels. Its very difficult to mix caramel, vanilla, nut and tobacco without getting all 3 mixed within each other then end up having it taste like peanut butter. You have to try to achieve these at certain levels where you can actually taste each note at different points of the vape. I consider RY4 to mixing like Brisket is to Competition BBQ. It really is the Holy Grail of juice because of its complexity.

 

[sandybeach]

Sandy, have you tried Bill's Want 2 Vape DIY RY4 yet? If you like the DV4, I think you will this one very good as well.

I don't know if that was in the stuff he sent me. I'll check

 

[sandybeach]

1%??? Wow. You must have uber-sensitive taste buds. I've never used any flavoring where a 1% mix could make me happy. Sure, in a complex diy recipe that calls for multiple flavorings, we might use 1% of a certain flavor, or even just a drop or two of something like Tobacco Absolute or Acetyl Pyrazine, but, for a single-flavor juice, I can't imagine liking 1%. Your mileage obviously varies, LOL.

As for your question, what I understand you to be asking is: Which component flavorings from which specific flavoring manufacturers have worked well to produce a great diy RY4 from scratch? Out of the literally hundreds---probably thousands---of available tobacco, caramel, vanilla, and nut flavoring concentrates, who makes the best ingredients to whip up a superlative RY4?

My personal, subjective response is the same as the one I offered to Cool_Breeze three days ago (link: post #2976)---none.

I haven't had any success making RY4s from scratch. And---believe me---I've tried. Lots of different flavorings, both in types and source companies, lots of different recipe mixes. Apparently I'm just lousy at cooking up RY4.

It's a little like pizza (sigh, I can't eat pizza anymore in my old age and state of decrepitude, and boy, do I miss it!). You have choices: You can make pizza from scratch, order it delivered from a pizzeria (chain or custom), buy it frozen in the grocery store, and some pizza places even sell cook-your-own delivery pizza, where they make the pizza fresh when you order, and you cook it in your own oven.

Well, that last option is sort of what the pre-mixed RY4 flavoring concentrates offer. At least the good ones. The RY4 flavoring concentrates that aren't so wonderful are more akin to grocery store frozen pizza. Anyway, for those of us (meaning me) who seem to be terminally impaired at creating RY4s from scratch, the best of the RY4 flavoring concentrates represent a fairly happy compromise.

WHAT? Bill, no pizza? That's a crime. And I was going to take you to Lou Malnati's when you came to Chicago. AND give you the ex-chauffeur's tour of Chicago.

 

[sandybeach]

He lives in Oregon dont think they specialize in pizza out there lol. Bill come out to Chicago and Ill gladly show you the best pizza you will ever have!

Yea most tobacco mixes for me are fine around 1-2% and that is using FA tobaccos and DK Tab. One thing I have found when mixing is sometimes you will miss out on some notes if it is mixed too strong. You get completely different note of flavors from low to high. One thing is sure is that everyone has different tastes.



AP is used to produce a nutty popcorn like flavor to your mix. I have yet to pick up some of this myself. There is a thread dedicated to discussing this certain molecule here:

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/diy-e-liquid/276601-acetyl-pyrazine.html

I been using nut mix by FA and I like it very much. The only thing with the nut mix is if you use too much caramel or EM your mix can pretty much taste like peanut butter.

Hey, you live here too? Okay, what's your favorite thin and what's your favorite pan and where's the best hot dog in your humble opinion?

 

[ToweKnee]

Hey, you live here too? Okay, what's your favorite thin and what's your favorite pan and where's the best hot dog in your humble opinion?

Favorite pizza has to be Berts Place (Deep Dish), Q's & Penquod's for thin crust. Best Hot dog is Gene & Judes without a doubt! Best hamburger is Kumas Korner !

 

[sandybeach]

?????????? Uhhhh you don't live in the city??????????? Sounds like the burbs

 

[ToweKnee]

?????????? Uhhhh you don't live in the city??????????? Sounds like the burbs

I work in the city all week lol. 2 of the 5 places I mentioned are in the city. Just because its not in Chicago doesnt mean its no good. I love Lou M but I think i'm so burnt out on it. I think the places I listed are better pizzerias for sure. I still think Gene and Judes has the best hot dog but if you prefer to go to Wiener Circle get abusive talking to and over pay for hot dogs thats up to you lol. Anywas dont want to derail this thread with chicago food talk too much lol.

 

[scarf-ace]

No, keep arguing about discussing food. This could get entertaining.

 

[billherbst]

specs: The 5ml bottle of VapeKing VK5 that was sent to me from Australia by our esteemed Australian ambassador scarf-ace (thanks, scarfy---for the umpteenth time) contains a very pale tan-gold transparent liquid at 18mg nic strength in an 80/20 PG/VG base blend. Testing was done using a 2.7 ohm Ultimate CE2 clearomizer powered by a Kicked Bolt set to 10 watts. You'll have to figure out the voltage for yourself via Ohm's Law, since the power-regulated Kick module remains silent about such details.

VapeKing VK5 is the sibling of Vapeking VK4, which is the equivalent of other vendors who offer an RY5 in addition to an RY4. As little as we know with certainty about what ingredients "correctly" make up an RY4, we know even less about RY5s, which are always custom (since no such animal as a “classic RY5” even exists). My sole source of expectation for what VK5 might taste like was my previous (and wonderful) experience with VK4, for which my infatuated passion has cooled ever so slightly over the past two weeks, but which I still love and have been very happily vaping right down to the last drop of the 5ml bottle scarfy sent me. When the now-final refill of my VK4 clearo is empty in the next day or two, I’ll be done vaping VK4 until next year, when scarfy will re-supply some of us with more of this Australian delicacy, assuming that the good lord’s willin’ and the crik don’t rise). From that point, I'll have a couple weeks of VK5 to go through before it, too, will be used up and gone with the wind.

And yes, VK5 is definitely related to VK4, although---as it turns out---not as a twin nor even a brother really, more like a kissin’ cousin, to use a not-unpleasant Ozarkian hillbilly cliché. VK5 offers a much stronger tobacco presence than VK4 and is both less sweet and less buttery, though both share a similar nuttiness. The flavor profile stretches the envelope for a custom RY4, but that’s what custom RY4s do (stretch the flavor profile). The very best custom RY4s do this in a way that expands the overall taste impact, occasionally in unexpected directions, while still retaining enough of the aura of the basic RY4 ingredients (tobacco, caramel, vanilla, and sometimes nuts) to retain membership on The Big List.

I can’t quite make up my mind as to whether VK5 does that successfully or not. The part of me that says no holds that VK5 is really just a straight tobacco blend, essentially a complex tobacco with a hint of caramel-vanilla-like creamy sweetness. The part of me that says yes agrees with that assessment, but contends that even a hint of caramel-vanilla (with nuttiness) is enough to keep VK5 in the club.

I think that’s what I’ll go with on this one: close enough for horseshoes. I choose to include VK5 on The Big List partially because I love VK4 so much, but also because VK5 is a darn tasty juice on its own, and another selection that will please the hardcore tobacco lovers. It’s got both strong tobacco presene, grebite and slightly sweetened creaminess, and that’s a very tasty combination. I may not be quite so enamored with VK5 as I am with VK4, but that hardly matters: VapeKing is now two-for-two in my book. Both juices are big winners.

VapeKing VK5 grade: B+

vendor link: VapeKing VK5 (Australia)

 

[Vappa]

I been using nut mix by FA and I like it very much. The only thing with the nut mix is if you use too much caramel or EM your mix can pretty much taste like peanut butter.

A little off topic, but at what percentage do you use the nut mix? It's in my next order of Flavour Art, since i want to add some nutty flavor to some of the tobaccos i'm using.

 

[Vappa]

specs: I ordered a 10ml bottle of FlavourArt’s RY4 flavoring concentrate from Liberty-Flights. I mixed a 15ml bottle of DIY juice using 5% concentrate at 24mg nic strength in a 70/30 pg/vg base blend. The juice is almost colorless and transparent, with only the slightest tint of amber, so little that it’s visible only when held up to the light. I sampled it fresh after mixing, but the flavors tasted raw and unblended, so I steeped it open-bottle for a week.

/// [SHORTED]

Maybe it’s my fault. (My intuition tells me that this could be true.) Perhaps the juice hasn’t steeped long enough, or I inadvertently killed it by using too much flavoring (5%). Either mistake is possible as user-error. As it stands now, however, I’m unimpressed. I will steep the juice longer (which means simply that I’ll put it away in my juice stash for a couple weeks) and then try it again. If it’s better, I’ll happily apologize, append this review, and raise the grade. For now, though, this horse seems to me less a thoroughbred than a nag.

FlavourArt RY4 flavoring concentrate grade: C-

link to purchase: FlavourArt RY4 concentrate from Liberty Flights

Bill, thanks for that review on Flavour Art's RY4.
I tried it a 5% and it didn't work for me. I'm using it right now at 8% and for me only now the flavor comes out. I can taste the caramel and vanilla. What i like about it is the smoke-like flavor when exhaling. Really reminds me of the smoke exhale of analogs.
I think all in all it's not bad. But i don't have any reference to other RY4's since this is the first one i tried.
Next batches i will try this at 10%, 12.5% and 15%. On the Internet i found people talking about using it at even 20 and 30%. That might be a little over the top, but i can imagine at 10 or 12.5 it might taste a little stronger, more pronounced.

 

[ToweKnee]

A little off topic, but at what percentage do you use the nut mix? It's in my next order of Flavour Art, since i want to add some nutty flavor to some of the tobaccos i'm using.

I used 2% and was perfect but it def needs to sit a couple of days or all you will taste is peanut if you vape it right away.

 

[Vappa]

I used 2% and was perfect but it def needs to sit a couple of days or all you will taste is peanut if you vape it right away.

Aah, thanks for the tip.
Did you by any chance also used Walnut? If so, at what percentage? I tried it starting from 3% increasing in 1% increments up to 17%, but without hardly any taste.

 

[ToweKnee]

Aah, thanks for the tip.
Did you by any chance also used Walnut? If so, at what percentage? I tried it starting from 3% increasing in 1% increments up to 17%, but without hardly any taste.

No havent tried Walnut yet but I would start around the same as the nut mix. I think FA Ry4 is one of the best single flavoring out there in the Ry4 family. If you really like it pick up some 7 leaves and mix it up with it. It will give it more of an analog taste as well as that smokey intensity.

 

[Vappa]

Ha, just saw that was my 100th post. Yet another milestone passed

 

[passerbyeus]

Dear Raf-A-Licious
Since you been gone vaping has not been the same. Even though Bill did not have you as his #1 you will always be my #1 and I know I may never get to taste your sweet vegetable glycerin luscious clouds of vapor again but if you do ever return I will be here for you no matter what RY4 romance I am in.

 

[billherbst]

Dear Raf-A-Licious
Since you been gone vaping has not been the same. Even though Bill did not have you as his #1 you will always be my #1 and I know I may never get to taste your sweet vegetable glycerin luscious clouds of vapor again but if you do ever return I will be here for you no matter what RY4 romance I am in.

Oh my, the world's oldest sad tale: Boy meets Girl. Boy falls for Girl. Boy Loses Girl. Seduction, Betrayal, and Abandonment. Of course, the fact that passer's beloved died rather than merely throwing him over for another or just leaving him in the lurch doesn't make the bittersweet loss any less painful.

RIP Raf-a.

 

[scarf-ace]

I've never tried Raf-a-licious but I feel the same way about a long-discontinued perfume: Molto Missoni. It was bloody amazing. Smoky patchouli and spices. Lasted forever. Came in the most beautiful opaque ombre glass bottle. Back in the day when driving men wild was the stated objective of any fragrance, it had a perfect track record. I have a bottle that I paid a mint for on Ebay and I dole it out in infinitesimally tiny sprays. I think I'll go put some on now.

 

[Cool_Breeze]

I've never tried Raf-a-licious but I feel the same way about a long-discontinued perfume: Molto Missoni. It was bloody amazing. Smoky patchouli and spices. Lasted forever. Came in the most beautiful opaque ombre glass bottle. Back in the day when driving men wild was the stated objective of any fragrance, it had a perfect track record. I have a bottle that I paid a mint for on Ebay and I dole it out in infinitesimally tiny sprays. I think I'll go put some on now.

Ah, patchouli... I think FA CamTel(?) tastes like patchouli smells.

Do you know of a similar, patchouli-based fragrance for men?