Thanks for sharing the wisdom, will save me a lot of experimenting, and wasted
juice, much appreciated.
Glad to try and help. That is what ECF is all about!
It has been other kind folks here, that have helped me along my own DIY journey, and I try to show my respect and appreciation for their efforts by passing it along.
I understand not wanting to waste ingredients; it costs money, and just about the time you get a recipe figured out... you run out of material. This is why I mix
small test batches until I get a recipe close. Then, when it is in the ballpark and just needing some fine tuning, I will start increasing batch size.
As for experimenting; it does consume time, but in my mind, it is still the
best way to understand how you can best use a given ingredient. Yes; single flavor testing often is not very exciting (compared to multi-flavored mixes, but you can learn so much... that is, if you want to learn.
Successful experimenting, for
me, is 80% wanting to understand what a particular ingredient is going to add to a recipe, and 20% doing the actual mixing and test
vaping (tasting). If I am in a hurry, i resent the need to do it, I rush halfass my way through the process, and I learn almost nothing. And; that only frustrates me further!
But, when my calendar is clear, and I allow myself to go through the process,
without expectations (i.e. "this better be vapeable; dang it!");
then I can learn a great deal. What percentages i like it best at; what the main flavor, and maybe accent notes it has within it; and what power/temperature and airflow settings it works best at (
NOTES are really great for remembering all this by the way
). That way, when I use it in a multi-ingredient recipe, I am not saying "where did that nutmeg taste come from?". I
know it came from my FW-Vanilla Custard.
Another important reason for personal experimenting: the equipment you are vaping
that e-liquid on has a
lot of influence on the resulting taste. Power/temperature has influence. airflow has influence (both by diluting the vapor; as well as cooling the coil). Even size and shape of the atomizer dome/cap has influence. And that doesn't even touch on all the influence coil material and construction can impart.
So, I can say I like recipe xyz, and you mix it up, and think it is the most revolting thing you ever came across. What i didn't tell you is I am using it in a 8 year-old clearomizer, with a 1.8 ohm coil, and vaping it at 5 watts. You just tried to vape it on you 1 week-old, state-of-the-art, ultra-uber-quad-parallel-twisted-stapled&fused 317L stainless steel coils @0.012 ohms, dripper, vaping at 160 watts.
Of course it is going to taste different; I am tasting with a 1976 VW Beattle, and you are tasting with a 2019 Rolls Royce. The only way you are going to
know how any given concentrate is going to taste to
you; is by tasting it... in the hardware you expect to be vaping it in. (this is also a good reason for not using a bunch of different hardware setups when experimenting. Use something tried and true.
)
Ive changed the main fruits to my two favorites, here is the simplified recipe based on suggestions.
70vg/30pg 10mg nic
(nude nicotine 48mg 70vg/30pg base)
Raspberry natural (Flavor West) 6%
Pineapple natural (Flavor West) 3%
Vanilla Custard (Flavor West) 3.5%
Sweet Cream (Flavor West) 2%
Sweetener (Flavor West) 1.5%
Looks better. Still looks over-flavored
to me, but I do not use any of those specific flavor/mfg. concentrate (I'm not a big FW fan... but that is just me), and it
does "look" more reasonable to me.
Now you have 9% fruit, 5.5% custard/cream, with 1.5% sweetener. As is, and with no personal experience with these specific concentrates...; I would
guess that you would end up with a fairly dominant custard, that has strong raspberry in the background. The pineapple may or may not get overwhelmed. Sweetener may be reasonable depending on how sweet you like your vapes (@ 1.5% this would be pretty sweet for my palate).
Now, saying all that, this does
not mean this recipe
can't work for
you. Some people like, even need, strong flavors. If you have just recently quit smoking (or still smoke on occasion); if you consume lots of strong foods and beverages... then your taste buds may be rather dulled, and stronger flavors could be just the ticket. Again... this is where testing concentrates individually can help a lot.
(Question about maturing, are speed steeped creams and custards using high heat and electronic mixers a lot different to steeping over time just sitting?)
I have not had any positive results trying to hurry the process; so I am not a good candidate for this question. I have done some short-lived experiments with heat (various methods), and an ultrasonic cleaner, and did not find them helpful.
Various mixing methods (hand shaking, power shaking, power stirring) are all just that; a means to combine ingredients. I have tried a bunch of variations of all of these and found none had an advantage over the others. Pick the one that is most convenient for
you.
Time is still my only friend (for aging/maturing a mix)... except for Lemon... time hates my lemon mixes (but that is a different story).
