trying diy recipes in batches

[smurfdude]

When trying out different recipes I can see its best to try different strengths of the flavourings in different samples.
I havent seen anywhere in the stickies or posts I have read about the nicotine.
do you make these new sample recipes up in 5ml testers with the different percentage of flavourings with zero nicotine and then add the nicotine when you have found the flavour you like?

 

[Harlen]

I like to stick to the nicotine I use , yes I know it's cut down the nicotine and that's a bonus to a point but after mixing 10 months I got it down to what I like for TH and flavor but that's just me .
When I mix a new flavor I do it in a ten ml bottle rounds out the numbers better .

 

[smurfdude]

I was just pondering on it last night.
if I made up a batch of 5 recipes and added nicotine to each and only liked one then it would be a waste of the expensive nicotine?

 

[Dogeggs]

If you only make 5ml then you won't waste much nic...you could always add more flavouring or dilute the ones that were too strong/weak to save them.

 

[horton]

I make 10ml test batches with zero nic to start to zero in on a flavor % I like and then make another small batch with nic @ the % I like. This helps cut down on wasting nic. You certainly are not wasting that much nic if you choose to use it in small sample batches though.

 

[wllmc]

I do a little of both. I vape 6 mg and my wife vapes zero nic. she was never a smoker but likes vaping lol.. anyways when I do samples for me I always add my nic. 5ml testers wont waste that much and once you get more confident in what you are doing and finding what you like its never really wasted. if im just really really unsure I wont like it Ill do a zero nic tester. if its good the wifey gets it. if not I stash it, same with the nic added juices. at some point you may decide after steeping it got alot better or if you have 2 that are just so so you might think well that gross one and this gross one might be perfect together. take half of one and half of the other and mix them. or 1/3 and 2/3 etc. might find a gem that way or at least something vapeable just to get it used up . and then there are some that dont have a choice to hit the sink but its got to really be bad and fair chance given

 

[horton]

What do the kids call it when you mix several flavors of pop together??? A suicide or something like that.... it made me think of that when wllmc mentioned mixing the sample batches....lol

 

[bcollier9253]

You can always mix up a non nic batch with the called for amounts of non nic pg/vg and nic base pg/vg (without nic) that way the dilution is the same. If you like it mix up another batch with the nic target twice the amount that you want and add it to the first non nic batch and now your at your target nic strength. Hoosier taught me that.

 

[ENAUD]

I test in a 3ml volume with my target nic base. At that volume I figure 1 drop for 1%. When I like it I let this sit for an hour or two, then vape it up on a dripper. If I am happy then I'll go ahead and shoot a 40ml batch. This gives me enough volume to play with and sample over the steep period. I may need to thin it, or add more flavor, and have even blended two flavors together to see what I come up with. I document everything because if I happen across an ahah! flavor, I want to be able to replicate it.

 

[horton]

Documenting what you do is so important. By keeping track of your tests you can indeed repeat what you want to and also combine to see what may happen. I say this like I do keep track all the time, but to be honest, there are times when I'll just throw something together, like it, and then wonder how the heck I made it....lol. Object lesson here: always have paper and writing instrument near to where you mix and make use of them. lol

 

[Spazmelda]

I make up a 30-60 ml batch of my base with nicotine, but no flavorings. I then put 3 ml of that base in a number of vials. I add the flavor combinations that I want to try to each vial. I use micropipettors, but before I got those I had calibrated some droppers. My big dropper was 36 drops per ml, which translates to 27.7 ul/drop or 0.028 ml/drop. A small dropper (the ones that come with TFA flavors) was 78 drops per ml, or 12.8 ul/drop.

Using that information I can add drops to the 3 ml vials of flavor, keeping a record of what I add to each. I can then test them out and pick the ones that are worth tweaking further or good as is. I can use the record to back calculate the percentages.

For example, if I added 6 big dripper drops of apple and liked that, I can figure I added 6*27.7ul = 166.2ul. That would make mytotal volume 3166.2 ul. 166.2/3166.2 * 100 = 5.2% apple. I can use 5% or 5.2% to scale up.

Of course, I use more than one flavor, but i can do the math for each flavor to come up with my recipe. This allows me to only use 3 ml of base and a minimum of nicotine for each test.

I also sometimes do this with a DIY liquid I already like. For example I had a blueberry flavor that I liked and I wanted to try adding a variety of flavors in different combinations to see what flavors could add some different nuances to it. In the case below, I put 4 ml of the blueberry eliquid into different vials and added different combinations of apple, peach, and tangerine.

 

[horton]

What a good way to go about testing variations in flavors, Spazmelda. I shall give your method a go. I'm always making something new and adding to it. Never did do it in a very organized manner and paid the price so to speak not being able to reproduce the results consistently. Memory at least for me is not so good when trying to keep track of numerous changes.