What am I doing wrong (or right)?

[cstone1991]

First off, I just got into DIY and both my first and third batches came out pretty darn good. On my second batch I added too much water to thin it down and it vaped like crap but that was an easy fix, just mixed up another batch of my base without water and added it to the watery stuff. My best flavor so far is peach black tea, what I'm confused about is that my flavor % seems very low compared to all of the recipes I'm finding using TPA/TFA flavors. I'm not sure what the actual % I'm using for that mix, but it is 4 drops of black tea and 6 drops of peach per 5ml of base. The flavor is very close to an Arizona peach tea, although significantly less sweet. For anyone familiar, that is a pretty bold flavor. My other flavors are using about the same amount of total flavoring with similar flavor intensity. I am not using any sweeteners or any other additives at this time. I've let a couple people try my peach black tea flavor and they all seem to think it is plenty bold enough. Any idea why I seem to not need very much flavoring? Should I try adding more flavor, since I haven't yet? I'm not complaining here, I'm just confused... Lol

 

[dannyv45]

My blogs will give insight into all aspects of DYI, from steeping to what supplies to have on hand to a basic walk through mixing your first E-juice.

E-Cigarette Forum - dannyv45 - Blogs

Then read hoosier's blogs. These blogs concentrate on fine tuning your mix and give insight on additives.

E-Cigarette Forum - Hoosier - Blogs

Then read Boletus's blog's. These blogs concentrate on formulation of nicotine baces regarding proper calculations methods for figuring Nicotine concentration as well as safety.

E-Cigarette Forum - Boletus - Blogs

Then read Ginger's book "E-Cigarettes 102: DIY e-liquid". It is a book which I've contributed to that delivers an in depth easy to follow guide in the art of DYI.

E-Cigarettes 102: DIY E-Liquid

I recommend viewing VPLive Vape Team Episode #82: DIY Safety and bookmark it for future reference. It explains safety in all aspects of DYI.

VPLive Vape Team Episode #82: DIY Safety

then read the stickies at the top of the page.

this will explain a lot of the how's and why's.

 

[Boletus]

If you like what you made and it meets your needs, you are doing it right. But the real question is, are you able to repeat your successes and avoid repeating failures? That is where the learning comes in, and the reading Danny recommended will get you a long way toward hitting the mark when you try something new. And keep really good records of every single mix you make, and write down your impressions right after mixing and a few times during the steeping process.

And regarding flavor percentages, there are huge differences from one person to the next on what is the "right" percentage for any single flavor, and complex recipes compound that. Take recommendations and try them, but do not assume you are doing something wrong if someone else's recommendation does not work for you. Also, there is tremendous variation between flavoring brands and flavors. Some are great at 20%, but some are disgustingly strong at 5%. Again, back to keeping good notes; once you find the sweet spot for you, you do not want to loose that progress and not be able to repeat it.

 

[cstone1991]

So far, so good on taking notes. Aside from the mistake with adding too much water in batch 2, I have been able to replicate what was worth replicating and improve upon what wasn't so good.

 

[Boletus]

...I have been able to replicate what was worth replicating and improve upon what wasn't so good.

There's not much more that one could ask for, IMO.