Well, Here We Go...

[Jab9920]

I find that all the info here is a great starting point! IMO take as you will once your comfortable with the way the single flavors vape then you can start to build on that I've only been diy'ing for almost a month and it takes a little tinkering but what one person loves you may hate so it's kinda subjective to your own taste as far as the process it's very easy just use common sense and you'll get it no worries good luck to you [emoji41]


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[AndriaD]

I was planning on using a coffee warmer to steep. Patience is not my strong suit.

Do you guys use that method? Is it OK? And also, do you put the bottle straight on the warmer, or into a cup of water on the warmer (leaning towards the cup of water, but not sure.)

Check out The Flavor Apprentice thread -- even if you aren't using TFA flavors; lots of good info in there about totally skipping that tedious steeping, by using "high flavor mix" technique -- have your flavorings at about 25%-35% of the total juice; that way, you can taste it right away and it's usually really really good right away, and at most, you might need to let it sit for a few hours, maybe a day, to have really GREAT juice. If I'd been stuck with having to steep everything I mixed, I'd still be buying pre-made, because waiting is something I will never ever endure voluntarily; get plenty of that waiting for vapemail!

Also in the TFA thread is specific info about using creams and vanillas and sweeteners to *accent* whatever the main flavor is -- a lot of flavors are just not that good, stand-alone, but add some creams and vanillas (and sweetener), and you have a jewel.

Andria

 

[BlueCanary]

Thanks, AndriaD, I will check that out! I love the idea of not having to wait to steep, for sure.

FWIW, I got my stuff in the mail today, which was amazing. The FA Tiramisu…was OK. You can definitely taste the coffee and the cocoa…mostly the coffee…and it's not a bad flavor, though it has a little of that popcorn taste that all coffee juices seem to have to me. But it's not tiramisu by itself. I had high hopes, it being an Italian company. I mixed it at 3%, then upped it to 4%. It was vapeable, but for sure I need to pick up some good creams to give it that creamy goodness that it is lacking. I think, with the right balance of creaminess, that it could be really delicious.

I tinkered with the ginger ale vanilla ice cream mix some. Ginger ale is for sure one of those "smells a little like pee" flavors, but it really tastes like ginger ale! I mixed up what I thought would be a decent copy of my Solomon Sibley. So far, it isn't anywhere close to a copy…but it's darn delicious and I could for sure be happy vaping it. I've got a little bit of it steeping, and plan on sampling it again later to see how it blends. I've got PLENTY of stuff to tinker with, and next week I think I will pick up some more flavors, some creams to try the tiramisu again for sure.

 

[AndriaD]

Thanks, AndriaD, I will check that out! I love the idea of not having to wait to steep, for sure.

FWIW, I got my stuff in the mail today, which was amazing. The FA Tiramisu…was OK. You can definitely taste the coffee and the cocoa…mostly the coffee…and it's not a bad flavor, though it has a little of that popcorn taste that all coffee juices seem to have to me. But it's not tiramisu by itself. I had high hopes, it being an Italian company. I mixed it at 3%, then upped it to 4%. It was vapeable, but for sure I need to pick up some good creams to give it that creamy goodness that it is lacking. I think, with the right balance of creaminess, that it could be really delicious.

I tinkered with the ginger ale vanilla ice cream mix some. Ginger ale is for sure one of those "smells a little like pee" flavors, but it really tastes like ginger ale! I mixed up what I thought would be a decent copy of my Solomon Sibley. So far, it isn't anywhere close to a copy…but it's darn delicious and I could for sure be happy vaping it. I've got a little bit of it steeping, and plan on sampling it again later to see how it blends. I've got PLENTY of stuff to tinker with, and next week I think I will pick up some more flavors, some creams to try the tiramisu again for sure.

That thread is just vast, I know... but if you go back, say, 5-10 pages, you can see where some of the ideas about high-flavor-mixing and creams/vanillas come from, where they can get to, and how to roughly balance out the flavors. Lots of terrific help in there!

My current most-favorite flavor is Inawera's Shisha Strawberry; I asked in the Inawera thread if anyone knew what percentage would be good, and I heard things like 4% and 8%, but when I tried that, by itself, all it tasted like was... "thin." I wasn't terribly impressed. and around that time i started reading the TFA thread, and saw all the stuff about creams/vanillas, and thought, hmm, I've always liked strawberries better with cream or whipped cream, so I tried it -- but I used the shisha strawberry at *16%*, with assorted creams and vanillas and sweetener for *another* 16% -- and NOW, it's fandamntastic!

Even though I do use a lot of flavors from other companies, I tend to hang out in the TFA thread because a) the TFA creams and vanillas are great, and they have versions with no diketones for *most* of them -- I still use Capella's Sweet Cream for that reason -- and b) that thread is what taught me to make such a great long-term ADV, so I'm hoping to learn some more! and c) the people in that thread are AMAZINGLY helpful, and fun too!

Andria

 

[Capt.shay]

Thanks, AndriaD, I will check that out! I love the idea of not having to wait to steep, for sure.

FWIW, I got my stuff in the mail today, which was amazing. The FA Tiramisu…was OK. You can definitely taste the coffee and the cocoa…mostly the coffee…and it's not a bad flavor, though it has a little of that popcorn taste that all coffee juices seem to have to me. But it's not tiramisu by itself. I had high hopes, it being an Italian company. I mixed it at 3%, then upped it to 4%. It was vapeable, but for sure I need to pick up some good creams to give it that creamy goodness that it is lacking. I think, with the right balance of creaminess, that it could be really delicious.

I tinkered with the ginger ale vanilla ice cream mix some. Ginger ale is for sure one of those "smells a little like pee" flavors, but it really tastes like ginger ale! I mixed up what I thought would be a decent copy of my Solomon Sibley. So far, it isn't anywhere close to a copy…but it's darn delicious and I could for sure be happy vaping it. I've got a little bit of it steeping, and plan on sampling it again later to see how it blends. I've got PLENTY of stuff to tinker with, and next week I think I will pick up some more flavors, some creams to try the tiramisu again for sure.

Let it steep my lady. The flavors will change considerably. Leave it sit in a warm place with the cap off the first twenty four. You can try some the coffee warmer thing or some of the other methods but I still think even with those, the juice still needs a day or two. Playing with things like creaminess, sweetness, etc. are what makes DIY so much fun (and the money savings). I see you are already planning your next purchases Welcome to the addiction!

 

[Train2]

Good luck!
It's fun to experiment, and even more fun to succeed.

I recommend EJuiceMeUp as a calculator - if you use a PC. It's pretty intuitive, has a bunch of built-in recipes, and lets you do a "Save-As" for your own recipes so you can use them over, or recall one and "tweak it" for the next attempt quite easily.

I found even when I used to buy commercial juice that Vanillas (and tobaccos) usually needed steeping more than anything else. Many of them would have, when fresh, a terrible alcohol/chemical/perfume smell/taste to them. Some vanillas took a Loooooooooong time before I liked them, too...

In fact, I don't use much. I do a lot with TFA's "Double RY4" as a starting point, and I do a lot with TFA "Bavarian Cream" to make anything creamy (I have some of their diacetyl-free Bavarian Cream but haven't tried it yet, til the old bottle runs out).

 

[AndriaD]

Good luck!
It's fun to experiment, and even more fun to succeed.

I recommend EJuiceMeUp as a calculator - if you use a PC. It's pretty intuitive, has a bunch of built-in recipes, and lets you do a "Save-As" for your own recipes so you can use them over, or recall one and "tweak it" for the next attempt quite easily.

I found even when I used to buy commercial juice that Vanillas (and tobaccos) usually needed steeping more than anything else. Many of them would have, when fresh, a terrible alcohol/chemical/perfume smell/taste to them. Some vanillas took a Loooooooooong time before I liked them, too...

In fact, I don't use much. I do a lot with TFA's "Double RY4" as a starting point, and I do a lot with TFA "Bavarian Cream" to make anything creamy (I have some of their diacetyl-free Bavarian Cream but haven't tried it yet, til the old bottle runs out).

The DX Bavarian is pretty good. Probably wouldn't be, for a stand-alone, but as one of the background creamy flavors, it's great -- if you mix it with their 'Vanilla Swirl' (which is a diketone-free custard flavor), it tastes like REAL custard, without any of the diketones.

Canary, another calculator which is very flexible is DIY E-Liquid Calculator Ten Flavors With Nic. - PG/VG Adjust -- it allows you to use pre-made ejuice as a "flavor," and will account for that juice's PG/VG and nic levels, to reach whatever you specify -- I loved that at first, because I first started by mixing or modifying premade ejuice; still do that to some extent with that Blueberry Muffin I love, from sweet-vapes. It also helps a lot since I add WTA to my juice; since January I've been dropping one percentage point of WTA per month, and I couldn't measure it that specifically without that great calculator.

Andria

 

[BlueCanary]

Well, I, um, just made another order of flavors.

The Flavor Apprentice Professional Flavors
Brandy, Brown Sugar (Extra), English Toffee, Horchata (Smooth), Horchata Base, Pumpkin *, Sweet Cream *, Tiramisu (couldn't hurt to try another brand)
Vanilla Bean Gelato, Whipped Cream.

Flavor West Flavoring
Toffee Dream Cream, Tres Leches, Yellow Cake.

LorAnn Super Strength
Bavarian Creme, Cinnamon Roll

The tiny bottles were so cheap that I kinda went a little bonkers. All that stuff was less than 25 bucks including shipping. I figure, it'll be fun to play around with a few different recipes, and because I tend to get bored with juices every couple of weeks I will have time to play and steep etc. Because, you know, I needed another hobby.

 

[BlueCanary]

Well, I diluted a little sample of each of my flavors so I could vape them alone to see how they taste. Pretty much any one of them could be good all by itself. There were two failures. The horchata base…tastes like cinnamon red hots, bug spray and despair. It was so terrible even really diluted that even after changing cotton, cleaning off the deck of my tester RDA, dousing the coils with Flavor Eraser AND dry burning…I still ended up having to completely take the whole thing apart and wash it in hot water and rebuild the coils to get the taste out. I believe that TFA created that flavor straight out of squeezins from the Devil's jock strap. Also, the TFA tiramisu…I'm pretty sure it is possible that I had a bad batch or something, because it tasted like garlic. No coffee, no cocoa, no nothing…just garlic.

Otherwise, they are all delicious. So far, I haven't managed to combine any of them into anything that is worth vaping, but I'm having fun. And, 98% sure that TFA Vanilla Bean Gelato is the vanilla ice cream note in the juice I'm trying to replicate. Unfortunately, the ginger ale flavor that I have, while it has a decent flavor, comes off too sweet in the mix so I need to keep tinkering with it some and possibly try straight ginger flavoring in combination with other stuff instead.