Yes, EM/cotton candy is referred to as a "sweetener" FAR too often. It should be referred to as an "additive", which smooths/softens, adds body/thickness, mutes flavors, and can be a sweetener. But it's only a sweetener if the flavors one is adding it to are less sweet than the EM/cotton candy! EM/cotton candy is not sweet enough to truly sweeten most flavors - but if you add too much of it you'll definitely get a burnt-brown-sugar taste.
Lemon juice and vinegar are often times suggested to enhance flavor....and they do, but temporarily. It's been shown several times that while they do temporarily enhance flavor, after a few days/weeks, the flavor definitely degrades. The same is true of sucralose.
We've been DIYing for almost a year (quite successfully), and we've only added "sweetener" (sucralose) to one juice...and within days, the flavor diminished substantially.
The best advise anyone can offer a newbie is to stay
totally away from any additives until you *know your flavor*. Using additives can easily cause you to have to add 10-50% more 'flavor' - which wastes money, causes you to inhale more chemicals, and is extremely frustrating.
The flavors I used were dk555 at 2%, I used cotton candy as a stand alone at 10%, used ry4- type1@10% with 2%vanilla burbon,and2%caramel(it's really perfumey) I think it's mainly the floral taste of the tobaccos I don't like, I also used mtype tobacco- not sure the percentage it was one of the first I tried to make
The RY41 is known to be flowery/perfumey. The M-type is just plain wicked-intense (some say wicked-wonderful, some say wicked-vile) and should be used for starters, at substantially less than 1%. Better yet, just put 2 drops of M-type in 10ml of VG, mix it thoroughly...then use that at very small percentages.
To us, the DK555 is too weak around 2%...4% is more-better to us. But you'll see people using it at much higher percentages.
Here is a compiled list of suggested flavor percentages for TFA flavors (post #1758)
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/diy-e-liquid/336110-flavor-apprentice-flavoring-thread-44.html Keep in mind, that MANY people poured in the sucralose, EM, additives on their "tests", so the percentages they liked & suggested were crazy high.
The general concensus amongst DIYers? Tobaccos, coffees & chocolates are the hardest mixes to "get right". So don't beat yourself up. Just keep reading, learning, asking and mixing - because the more you read and learn, the faster you'll be a pro!
