Very first flavor mixed. Meh

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Hoosier

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It's looking more and more to me that folks are seeing steeping and airing-out as requirements or magic bullets... They are "maybes" at best. Maybe it will help. Maybe it will make it worse. Maybe it will do nothing.

I know that if a mix is great when freshly mixed and it goes to "perfumey" or "chemically" after sitting for awhile that the mixer is just slightly over flavoring and the recipe needs just a bit of tweaking to be great from the second it's mixed to great weeks later. When folks steep and/or air-out mixes before any tasting beforehand whatsoever, I really have no clue what they are attempting to accomplish? Finding a recipe that takes the most effort to make?
 

Wingsfan0310

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Hoosier,
It's getting to the point where I expect to see a post where you have to first froth your mix with a 50hp outboard motor at 5249 rpm for 29.4 minutes followed by steeping under a full moon at high tide in water at 149.78 degrees F for 4.23 hours while chanting magic words in order to have a good juice. :lol:

Cheers,
Steve
 

ClaireW

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I'm with Hoosier and wingsfan. No hot baths, crock pot etc for me. Mix , shake, shake some more. Let it hang out for a few days vape.

The two main flavors I personally vape is energy drink and ry4d with a few flavors. I can deal with vaping the energy drink the next day if I have to but the ry4d mix I make is much better a week or so later.

I mainly use TFA. Most of my recipes with multiple flavors can be any where from 9 - 12%. But single flavors -- many are at 8% all at 50/50 pg/VG. I have a couple of NN flavors that are mixed at 3% a few capellas around 8%

A while ago I stood a bottle of premixed juice I bought online in a hot water bath. It turned out to have a sour chemical smell. I'm 99% sure that it was FW flavor. I shook it, set aside for a few weeks and it still smelled like perfume chemical. I dumped it so I can use the bottle.



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we2rcool

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One of the biggest mistakes we made when first starting was adding too much 'heavy cream'. Creams SMOTHER flavor (the heavier the cream, the heavier the 'smother'). Your original recipe was 10% fruit/berry and 8% creams. Now-a-days, if we wanted 'creamy berry/fruit, we'd start with (if using TFAs) 4%-6% fruit/berry and 2.5% - 3% mixed creams.

We use VG (only PG is in the flavors), and that's diluted by 20%.
 

buffaloguy

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I agree with you Hoosier and wingsfan. I bet you are both suprised by that!

I think whats lost on alot of people is that when you are working with a new flavor, or even a complex recipe you need to take some baby steps. You have to know what percentages of a single flavor work for you. That requires testing that one flavor, sometimes repeatedly. When working with new items I always test vape while I mix.

I think people jump ahead to steeping as some cure all, or a necessary part of making good juice. While it certainly can be a huge beneft the CAVEAT is that its for juices that you know are developed. A finished recipe that works. In that case steeping is a matter of simply saving time in a closet. You already know the recipe works. In this case Im definitely a huge advocate for heat steeping juices.

Steeping, imo, is not to be done on test recipes unless you are testing HOW steeping will effect a finished recipe. I only heat steep once I have a recipe dialed in.

And to the OP. At most you need .5% to 1% more flavoring for VG heavy juice vs. a comparable PG heavy recipe. VG does not mute flavors. However if just closet steeping you may need a day or two more waiting time before vaping initially. Also I find it best work with VG as is, and add distilled water while mixing my recipes. Not adding dw to my VG. Reason why is because you may not want 20% distilled water in a finished recipe. What if it only needs 10% dw? Something to keep in mind.
 
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MelvinTheDude

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I couldn't agree more Hoosier. I just posted yesterday I think steeping is overated and that what makes a good juice is quality ingredients and a good recipe. Mine are good to go after mixing, shake and vape!

Cheers,
Steve

I'm very new to DIY and still fairly new to vaping, but I'll dissent. I am probably not alone on this, but figuring out when to breathe or steep comes along pretty easily with some experience. Of course you should taste it first and the worst advice I've almost taken is "buy a bunch of juice in advance and start steeping it." But there's lots of reasons to do it. For chemical or strong alcohol taste, give it a short breathe and steep it. For tobacco that should be dark or mild, steep it, no breathing. For tobacco that should be sharp and dry, don't steep or breathe or you'll lose it (I lost 30ml of Hangsen RY4 believing steeping and breathing it would make it even better. It lost all flavor). I don't steep my candy or clean fruit if it doesn't taste like chemicals.

Two months and a giant box of unused juice later, I also think that if something isn't tasting better by 72 hours, it's not going to taste better.

I've made eight DIY mixes so far and although you *should* taste it after you mix it, it hasn't been my experience so far that tasting it in the first 24 hours really means anything because it really does need that time.

But YMMV.
 

Aheadatime

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I agree to an extent Hoosier, but in my case, the recipes are designed to taste good a week or so after settling in. Example - I have a recipe called "monkey smear" that has a total of 6 flavors. On the first day, the banana is a tad bit too strong and leaves no room to taste the others. After a week, everything works together perfectly. There are indeed mixes that are good on the first day (like blackberry bubblegum), but they're just as good on the seventh day, hence me steeping all of my mixes a week. And tbh, I have so many samples backed up that I can't even vape them all by the time the next batch has finished it's week steep.
 

junior28186

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do you guys just seriously put flavor, shake and vape?? then adjust?!?!
you do this for tobaccos 2?

so ur method with a new flavor is put,shake then vape, if not enough add and so on till ur close?

damn im putting like 10% wait a week, add 2%, wait 4-5 days and so on i mean if steeping is not that required, i might save a year in time LOLL
 

Hoosier

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so ur method with a new flavor is put,shake then vape, if not enough add and so on till ur close?

Until close, yes, even with tobaccos.

With enough experience you'll be able to taste a new mix and have an idea if steeping will help, but if I'm close and my "gut" is telling me steeping won't help I'll try steeping just to be sure. Getting close is the easy part. It's getting it perfect that consumes the most of my time and small bottles.

Oh, and R Puppy gets credit for the above statement!
 

Sptz

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Hm... very interesting, so me adding more % may actually have killed it? Or the heavy usage of cream? Because it does not taste bad by all means, it's good, it's just like, really faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar away back there if you know what I mean. It's like drinking water with one drop of lemon in there, you barely taste it
 

Sptz

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Just a couple more questions:

When buying Pure VG, is it really necessary to add distilled water? If so, what are the benefits? Is it just to thin it out? That's the only reason?

Do you re-use your syringes? If so, how do you wash them, I washed them in hot water and then US cleaner and it still smelled a bit of the previous flavoring that was in there.

Also, how do you taste your nicotine base without killing yourself? Just mix it to PG or VG to the equivalent of amount of milligrams you're used to and vape it?

And what gauge needle can I use that goes through the dropper that comes on all these flavor bottles? It's annoying having to remove the dropper on all of these bottles and having to insert them again and not mix them up -_-

Thanks
 
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realsis

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I don't add water to mine, but that's just me. As for the syringes I bought a large box of disposable ones but I lable three one for pg, one for nic, and one for vg, I immediately rinse each out with hot water after use. I use these until I can't read the numbers then replace. Each one is dedicated only to the specific thing. As for flavors I use a glass calibrated dropper it's calibrated in ml. Immediately after I use the flavor I rinse it with scolding hot water and it does NOT carry the flavors over. I think because it's glass. IL use one flavor, rinse, then use another, rinse. Ect. But the area where I do my mixes is right next to the sink. This is how I'm able to immediately rinse everything after use. I bought the glass calibrated dropper off amazon for around 8 dollars. It's been really working nicely. I think the plastic even rinsed carries the flavors so I use glass. I do NOT taste my nicotine by itself!! No no no! That's deadly. I either do a non flavor mix with the nicotine by just using pg vg and nic or I smell the nicotine. But to see if it has a flavor make a mix without using flavors. Calculate pg vg and nic and then sample. You would never try nicotine alone. As for your last question I'm sorry I don't understand what your asking. Maybe someone else can help. I don't know what you mean. Hope this helps a bit. Best wishes !
 

Sptz

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I don't add water to mine, but that's just me. As for the syringes I bought a large box of disposable ones but I lable three one for pg, one for nic, and one for vg, I immediately rinse each out with hot water after use. I use these until I can't read the numbers then replace. Each one is dedicated only to the specific thing. As for flavors I use a glass calibrated dropper it's calibrated in ml. Immediately after I use the flavor I rinse it with scolding hot water and it does NOT carry the flavors over. I think because it's glass. IL use one flavor, rinse, then use another, rinse. Ect. But the area where I do my mixes is right next to the sink. This is how I'm able to immediately rinse everything after use. I bought the glass calibrated dropper off amazon for around 8 dollars. It's been really working nicely. I think the plastic even rinsed carries the flavors so I use glass. I do NOT taste my nicotine by itself!! No no no! That's deadly. I either do a non flavor mix with the nicotine by just using pg vg and nic or I smell the nicotine. But to see if it has a flavor make a mix without using flavors. Calculate pg vg and nic and then sample. You would never try nicotine alone. As for your last question I'm sorry I don't understand what your asking. Maybe someone else can help. I don't know what you mean. Hope this helps a bit. Best wishes !

Thank you so much for you thorough response.

I tried a tip that I saw someone post here and just did a 10% TFA Watermelon and just VG just to see how it works out. The main issue here is, I actually bought AG, (VG 80%, DW 20%) and not only is it super liquid almost like PG when inside a tank, it just doesn't taste much at all... I do feel like I'm vaping water pretty much... Could it be the type of AG that I bought that has too much distilled water?
 
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