Trying to get started...

[Cahdek]

So I decided to try my hand at DIY e-liquid. I ordered a starter kit and got 8 flavors with it. The flavors are:
TFA - Granny Smith Apple
TFA - Cranberry
TFA - Blueberry
TFA - Chocolate
TFA - Cappuccino
TFA - French Vanilla
TFA - Espresso
TFA - Cinnamon


I tried making a cran-apple using 50/50 nic (48mg/mL), 15% cranberry and 5% apple. 6mL @ 12mg/mL. It vapes nice, but doesn't have a ton of flavor and I think it needs to be sweetened.

I feel like I'm missing a few things to make anything decent. Namely, EM or sucralose?

Any suggestions on what to make given these ingredients (or other things I need to get)?

As a secondary question, should I buy EM or sucralose as a sweetener?

 

[BlueMoods]

Yes, you need sweetener, especially for those flavors. You can use EZ Sweet liquid sucralose form Wal Mart or a grocery store, or order some. I'd go with 1 drop sweetener per 10 mils final juice and adjust from there.

Be careful of that cinnamon, it may be a tank cracker.

The Espresso will probably need a hint of vanilla, sweetener and some steeping to be good.

You're doing well, small batches, sample and adjust to find what you like.

 

[Cahdek]

Yes, you need sweetener, especially for those flavors. You can use EZ Sweet liquid sucralose form Wal Mart or a grocery store, or order some. I'd go with 1 drop sweetener per 10 mils final juice and adjust from there.

Be careful of that cinnamon, it may be a tank cracker.

The Espresso will probably need a hint of vanilla, sweetener and some steeping to be good.

You're doing well, small batches, sample and adjust to find what you like.

Thank you for the encouragement! I'm gonna try and find some sucralose locally or else I'll just order some online. I'd like to make a nice coffee liquid tonight if I could.

I'm not worried about the cinnamon tank cracking because I use Pyrex be default and cinnamon juices have been safe in my REO Grand. I bought the cinnamon because I wanted to try and duplicate Tasty Vapor AC. If you like Big Red gum, that's about as close as I can explain it, but it does tend to be a little sweeter than the gum even without sweetener.

I've been looking at my current inventory of flavors and going "Uh... I don't have enough to really make anything"

 

[BlueMoods]

Oh yes you do, Apple, Vanilla, Cinnamon, easy on the vanilla and cinnamon - State Fair type candied apple.

Then you have cappuccino and vanilla - vanilla frappe.
Mocha Frappe too with chocolate.

Cran/apple would be good too.

Of course your big red flavor you want.

Mexican hot chocolate - just a small hint of the cinnamon in the chocolate.

You can do lots of flavors with the ones you have to work with.

 

[Cahdek]

You rock! Don't know why I couldn't look at those and see all the flavors you are seeing. Perhaps with experience. My girlfriend can also make a decent dinner given what I consider to be "no food" in the house

 

[james chapman]

I did the chocolate-cinnamon call it chocolate Sin Soooo good

 

[Cahdek]

I did the chocolate-cinnamon call it chocolate Sin Soooo good

What percentages did you mix them at? I've been looking for a thread that has the recommended percentages listed for TFA flavors but I haven't found it yet.

In regard to that actually, if it say recommended 2.5% for example, is that referring to a single flavor percentage or if say one says 2.5% and the other 6%, when doing a 2 flavor mix does that equate to 8.5% total flavoring or do you have to cut it down from "recommended" since it is a blend. Sorry if that's a stupid question, but the only stupid questions are those not asked right?

 

[DeeDee1234]

What percentages did you mix them at? I've been looking for a thread that has the recommended percentages listed for TFA flavors but I haven't found it yet.

In regard to that actually, if it say recommended 2.5% for example, is that referring to a single flavor percentage or if say one says 2.5% and the other 6%, when doing a 2 flavor mix does that equate to 8.5% total flavoring or do you have to cut it down from "recommended" since it is a blend. Sorry if that's a stupid question, but the only stupid questions are those not asked right?

look for the tfa thread, it has alot of percentages listed. Ill see if i can bump it for you. Blending flavoring is a bit different, sometimes you will need to lower some, if your total is going too high you can go into over flavoring. ALso, it depends on what your trying to do. A hint of this, background of that, mainly x.

 

[james chapman]

The Chocolate I used,is from Capella and the cinnamon from MT Baker,both are very strong. I did a 6ml bottle,using .75ml of chocolate,to.25 of red hots,then I added about 4 drops more of red hots,as the chocolate was too over powering. I mix most of my juices,at 20% ,1ml of flavor,to 5ml of 50/50,but my taste buds are shot after 35 yrs of smoking,so I like it strong on flavor.

 

[jgoss]

Sounds like a fine start. Sucralose is a good sweetener for fruity tastes in my opinion, because it allows the fruit to stay "to the center" of the flavor profile. EM, again in my opinion, makes a better sweetener for bakery and very complex flavors, because it mellows out harsh notes and strong flavors. I you are serious about DIY you should probably grab a bit of both, and thankfully they are both low cost. Something you might want to experiment with is some sour. I use lemon juice (2 or 3 drops per 10ml) in bright brassy fruit flavors, like apples and cranberry. It really makes it "pop". You can also use apple cider vinegar for things like tobaccos (in similar small amounts). I myself am going to start experimenting with rice wine vinegar, it has sort of a sweet and sour flavor that I think would be really good in some things.

You didn't say anything about your DIY equipment, but I have a suggestion for that. A 25 mil, plastic, graduated cylinder is really nice for making your base for 30mil bottles of juice. Mix your flavors in the bottle, then use the cylinder for your VG, PG, and Nic. Much easier than using syringes for thicker stuff.