Can't taste custards!

E-liquids Beginners
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I don’t know if there’s a “fix” for this issue but it’s the darnedest thing.

I’ve been mixing full-force for a few months now, running through trials of edits of found recipes, steeping, keeping great notes, zeroing in on edits of favorites in larger batches. It’s fun and I feel really good about where I’ve gotten with this so far. But I seem to be experiencing a horrible issue. It seems like I can hardly taste custards at all. Custards, creams, cheesecakes. No I haven’t run any single-flavor tests but in so many of my mixes I have notes like “@32 days - same old story - There’s something there but weak as hell.”

I’m in the habit of boosting total flavor to 16% to 20%, normally boosting creams/custards to get to the higher percentage. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got my favorite mixes. As if sometimes creams/custards are working ok as supporting players. But where they need to be the star, I taste almost nothing. For example, I’ve boosted my version of Kreed’s Kustard to 19% and it’s all about cheesecake and Cap Vanilla Custard. Duh. How can you go wrong? And it’s ridiculously bland.

I smoked cigarettes my entire adult life, I quit 3 months ago. I’m mixing everything at 55/45 PG/VG. If your answer is “cheap nicotine,” could an ever-so-slightly impure nic create that much of a problem? I’m at wit’s end, and the only thing I can think of is that my sense of taste is flawed. Any thoughts at all? Thanks much.

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Increasing the flavour percentage won’t necessarily increase the flavour you taste, in fact it can work quite opposite and start to mute the flavour instead. There is sort of a peak % of each flavour where it will taste strongest, and above that it is all downhill.

Another thing is that if you only stopped smoking 3 months ago, then you taste buds will most likely not be fully recovered yet, it might take you another couple of months before you can fully taste all the flavours.

Apart from this, I can’t really help you as I’m not a cream & custard guy myself, and only use them as supporting flavours.

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Thanks Goat. I did a really quick shallow search a while back that suggested your taste comes back quick, like in a week or two. But I don’t know, and they probably don’t know either. I think what you suggest might be completely possible and I’d love to see my sense of taste coming back more in the near future. Encouraging.

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Take one of your recipies and just type it in here. Be honest, own what you have done. We can suggest from there.

Example.
VC cap v1 10%
Ny cheese cake cap v1 10%
Sweet cream tpa 7%

Beyond that we all have different abilities to taste things. Overall, creams and I do not do well. I don’t get the milk or cream flavors. So strawberry and cream comes out muted if I am going for a cream flavors. When I cut down the cream I taste strawberry really well but the cream note isn’t there.

Also, many people love vanilla custard cap. For me I don’t like it at all. I get odd caramel yucky off notes. There is a very very popular recipie posted on another site with like 500 positive comments and from tones of very well respected mixers and the owner of the mix is very well respected but for me it tastes like shit. I had to swap out vc cap for inw.

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It took a couple.of months for my taste buds to come back. Everyone is different though. Eventually you will be able to taste your custards, especially Cap V1. It has that undeniable eggy note.

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Ok.
Kreed’s Kustard is at 16%
I’ve bumped 3 of the 4 ingredients a bit.
My Kreed’s Kustard (19%):
1% Cotton Candy (10% EM/Ethyl Maltol) (TPA)
5% French Vanilla (CAP)
5.5% New York Cheesecake (CAP)
7.5% Vanilla Custard v1 (CAP)

Ella’s “Just Cheesecake” is at an all-time high of 20.5%, with 10% cheesecake and 3% sweet cream. I followed this recipe exactly and I can hardly taste anything at 42 days.

A heavy edit of Ella’s “DaMomma’s PecaNilla” (I don’t have a cupcake flavor. added Yellow Cake and Butter Cream because it makes sense.):
2% Butter Cream (CAP)
6% Butter Pecan (FW)
2% Cake (Yellow) (FW)
3% Cake Batter (CAP)
1% French Vanilla (CAP)
1% Marshmallow (FW)
1% Whipped Cream (FW)

Unless things take 6 weeks+, steeping isn’t the problem.

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And my notes on the Pecanilla:
“@24 days - just a mild sweet creamy vape. Let’s wait & see if more flavor notes come up. @30 days - would be delicious but way too weak.”

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Maybe try a little sweetner. For some people it helps brighten things up. I know it works with fruits, not sure about the above recipes but it might be worth a shot.

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Ok thanks NC. Do you mean MTS, Joy or TPA Marshmallow?

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And right now vaping Pecanilla @37 days. I HAVE found that intensity can change moment to moment for me - clean your palate or whatever - but at this moment this is nearly flavorless.

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No. I was thinking along the lines of maybe Super Sweet at say .5

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lol
You changed my name to ‘Ella’ ? haha

Seriously though… I love custards and creams too, but I can’t vape them all the time or I end up in the same boat as you. I have to vape something entirely different now and then. It’s why I keep two mods with two different juices with me all the time. I HAVE to have flavor!! lol

P.S. I drink a LOT of water throughout the day too.

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Alisa I’m starstruck! She’s HERE!
I get confused. “Ella’s Shortbread Biscuit” is my ADV. LOL. But Alisa you’ve helped me enormously with your awesome recipes. Thanks.

I should just say: My issue isn’t my device either. I’m running a couple quality tanks for flavor. Ammit 25, Asmodus Zesthia, and the Zeus single coil top airflow.

And yes, I read you. If I hit a fruit flavor and come back to bakery/cream/custard I can sometimes taste it better. Thanks!

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Alright dammit (haha) I’ll get that. Thx much!

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Some would argue it takes nearly that long for a good custard to steep… I think you’re just too impatient. It can take a while … definitely don’t over-flavor your juices, that’s a rookie mistake.

Initially when I quit smoking, I didn’t really taste much of custard either. I just picked up the vanilla notes and that was about it. A little over half a year later I tried another bottle of the juice that made me quit smoking and it tasted completely different to me, this time with the custard (and it wasn’t a nice one :slight_smile:)

Maybe try some other style flavors first and when you notice your taste comes back, give it another go. You can have some steep in the meantime, once that’s ready, you should be good to go.
I’d say start with a highly rated custard recipe (without any other additions), and see where that takes you in a month or two.

Everybody’s taste buds are different and yes, there are people that don’t pick up on certain flavors. You can get a bit of a feel for this when you browse the flavor pages and see the comments from different people. Some give a flavor 5 stars while others would give a 0 if that was an option.
Sometimes people don’t pick up on certain flavors and sometimes people don’t like vaping flavors that they do like to consume… Sometimes that’s just the way things are and sometimes you could find one of those flavors to work from a different brand.

Also, initially when you haven’t quit smoking all that long, it might help to use some sweeteners in your juices. Personally I’d stay away from sweeteners containing maltol or ethyl maltol because they can mute your recipes even more. Sucralose, stevia, etc can highly flavors and make them pop. You could look at sweeteners a bit like the salt and pepper in regular cooking. Use them sparingly and remember it’s easier to add a little than to take some out.

Hope you get your taste back soon and good luck with your DIY adventure. Besides custards, there are lots of other good flavors to play with :wink:

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Everybody mentioned already what I was going to say. So I’m taking your recipe above and give some advise.

1% cotton candy
Ethyl maltol is not only the worst sweetener you could pick right out the shelf, it kills your coils and wicking super fast but besides that, it mutes flavors. :tada:

I understand there’s this unwritten rule somewhere that says if you just stopped smoking, or started mixing and/or want to clone a commercial juice, throw a ton of sweetener in it. If you heard that before, throw that theory out the door.

If you want to use it try 1 drop per 15 or 20 ml, you can always increase it but 1% is too much.

(Cap) new York cheesecake is the middle part of a cheese cake, without the crust. If that’s what you mean by not being able to taste it, I could understand, made the mistake before too lol

In your case the “cheesecake” will just give the custard more depth and thickness/creaminess. Try adding a crust of any kind if that’s what you were missing.

Cap vanilla custard is a potent MF and because of that not everything can be layered with it.

I don’t have cap French vanilla but if its like TPA French vanilla, then your numbers are too high.

So I am assuming you’re looking for a “thick” custard, and not actual cheesecake sticking with your ingredients, I would say raise the custard, lower the NYC, fv and get rid of that em. Try sweetener if you have it, if not try a drop per 10-15ml.

Let stand 7 days and try. It won’t be done tho, but you can see if that’s a better noticeable thickness and overall profile.

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All humans taste buds are flawed. You will need about 6 completely different flavors and change flavors each time you stop tasting your vape. I rotate in completely opposite flavors as often as after a couple hours vaping.

My fruit vapes take 6 weeks + to steep, creams are OK after 6 weeks but heavenly after 9 months

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Wow. Well the sample batches that seem pretty weak are just sitting on the shelf for a while. And all those posters commenting “Tastes great as a shake & vape!” are starting to make me sour. :roll_eyes:

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Well … there are that do. A lot of recipes that you see are great as a SNV and they either mute or get bad after a few weeks of steeping.
It is all about what the recipe is designed for. Especially beginning mixers (but also some experienced ones) have no steeping patience. They create recipes that taste good right from a shake and vape and probably vape everything before the first week passes.

Once you get a little experience with mixing, you’ll start to see which recipes are meant for steeping and which are not.
If you’re new to DIY and you’re looking at over 100,000 recipes, it’s a bit like being thrown in the deep end… it takes a bit of time and in the meantime, until you get the hang of it, we’re here for help :wink:

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I have a similar issue with VC1 Zander, im in the process of testing with VC2 at the moment just to check if i have an issue with DAP… but in saying that there are other concentrates that i use, with plenty of DAP and i taste those just fine…go figure, lots of trial and error mate and yu will crack the code. Stick with it mate keep reaching out…

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