I am fairly new to mixing. I seem to be different than most because I really love a simple mix that just works. I always see people refer to really complex mixes as superior, but those that I keep coming back to are the simple ones with about two to four flavors. Will the complex mixes grow on me, or is this what I like?
At my local vape shop they have a juice they make that flies off the shelves. It has two flavors in it. Strawberry and Watermelon. I must have vaped a couple gallons of it when I started vaping. I still like simple recipes. But I also like complex ones as well. I tend to like juices that taste like something I am familiar with. I have mixed some recipes with 10 flavors that are amazing at achieving the taste of certain pies, candies, etc. Some of these types of flavors it would be hard to recreate without having all of the flavors in the recipe.
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There’s nothing whatsoever wrong with a simple mix[quote=“Oleskool1, post:1, topic:41957”]
Will the complex mixes grow on me
[/quote]They might, as you experiment with other flavors. But it really doesnt matter if they dont.
IMO, some of the best recipes out there have 4 or less flavors …& there are some great examples here… How about a threesome ; ) …& if this is what you like, then cool! - DIY is all about finding what works for YOU.
“Less is more” or “KIS” (Keep it simple) are adages that I’m sure a lot of us, myself included, would do well to remember from time to time 
…not that there’s anything wrong with a complex mix, however, I have found it can be easy to use flavors unnecessarily.
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90% of my creations are 4 flavor blends. I’m a firm believer that 4 total flavors in a blend is just enough to allow creativity yet keeping it simple enough to fine tune your blend without turning it into a chore…
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That three some thread is going to empty my Vape budget on new flavors, and take up my spare time. I am going to mix some more complex recipes, and let them steep too.
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As with @ringling the majority of my recipes have 5 or less flavorings. Recently i have been mixing quite a few 2 or 3 flavoring mixes. One of my favorite new mixes is just Vanilla (MF) and White Peach (MF).
You want complex? Here you go courtesy of @DarthVapor: hehe:
InSaNiTy!!
| Ingredient | % |
|---|---|
| Acai Berry (TPA) | 0.38 |
| Afro Dizziac (T-Juice) | 0.04 |
| Agrumi Mix (FA) | 0.7 |
| American Tobacco (Jungle) | 0.02 |
| Apple (Tart Granny Smith) (TPA) | 0.33 |
| Apple Jacks | 0.01 |
| Apricot (TPA) | 0.22 |
| Bavarian Cream (TPA) | 3 |
| Berry Crunch (TPA) | 0.25 |
| Black Currant (TPA) | 0.45 |
| Blackberry (TPA) | 0.13 |
| Blue Raspberry Cotton Candy (CAP) | 0.02 |
| Blueberry (CAP) | 0.32 |
| Blueberry Candy (TPA) | 0.63 |
| Blueberry Extra (TPA) | 0.01 |
| Blueberry Wild (TPA) | 0.5 |
| Boysenberry (Flavorah) | 0.73 |
| Butterscotch (TPA) | 0.05 |
| Cheesecake (MBV) | 0.21 |
| Cherry Blossom (TPA) | 0.6 |
| Chocolate (TPA) | 0.03 |
| Cinnamon Red Hot Candy (CAP) | 0.09 |
| Coconut Extra (TPA) | 0.5 |
| Cookie (FA) | 0.01 |
| Cotton Candy (TPA) | 0.13 |
| Creme de Menthe (Flavorah) | 0.03 |
| Cucumber (TPA) | 0.07 |
| Cured Tobacco (Flavorah) | 0.23 |
| Double Apple (CAP) | 0.2 |
| Double Chocolate (Clear) (TPA) | 0.05 |
| Dragonfruit (TPA) | 1 |
| Ethyl Maltol (10% PG) Diluted 2% (TPA) | 0.2 |
| Fig Fresh (FA) | 0.21 |
| French Vanilla (CAP) | 0.6 |
| Fuji Apple (FA) | 0.02 |
| Hawaiian Drink (TPA) | 0.03 |
| Honey (FA) | 0.09 |
| Honeydew (TPA) | 0.1 |
| Honeysuckle (TPA) | 0.65 |
| Jackfruit (TPA) | 0.01 |
| Juicy Orange (CAP) | 0.26 |
| Kiwi Double (TPA) | 0.2 |
| Lemon Lime (TPA) | 0.36 |
| Lemon Sicily (FA) | 0.6 |
| Liquid Amber (FA) | 0.24 |
| Lychee (TPA) | 0.03 |
| Maple (TPA) | 0.2 |
| Marshmallow (TPA) | 1 |
| Oba Oba (FA) | 0.03 |
| Orange Cream (TPA) | 0.01 |
| Strawberry (Organic) (TPA) | 0.01 |
| Swedish Fish (FW) | 0.02 |
| Vanilla Bean Gelato (TPA) | 0.02 |
| Vanilla Custard v1 (CAP) | 2 |
| Vanilla Swirl (TPA) | 0.01 |
Flavor total: 17.84%
Remember to rate it at e-liquid-recipes.com!
Mix what you like, that is all that matters.
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I stumbled onto that one the other day. I’m going to make it if I ever get everything just to tell him I did.
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I made it once and let me tell ya, it just ain’t right if ya leave out the 0.01% Cookie (FA)
Just kidding 
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Was thinking I’d come back and actually add something constructive here
K.I.S.S. is a quality motto to follow and I adhere to this philosophy quite often…however…
Lets say I wanna make key lime pie… Simple enough right…? Get myself some lime flavor and mix it with cheesecake. Simple, straight forward…gets the job done. “It’s so easy an ass-eyed-orangutan could do this, what’s all the fuss about…?”
…not so fast there Kemosabe…
I like natural, realistic taste in my mix so I’m gonna need at least 2 maybe 3 different limes to pull off the correct blend. Gonna go with Lime Tahity FA for the “lime pulp/juice” flavor and add Lime INW to brighten it and make it pop. Then I’m gonna add just a touch of Lime - cold pressed FA to give it just a hint of zest/bitter rind…
Now lets take a look at this cheesecake here… Gonna go with NY cheesecake CAP and support it with Cheesecake (Graham Crust) TFA and maybe a hint of Graham cracker FW to make it stand up.
Now for the topping, need to sweeten this up a bit… Lets go with Meringue FA and add a little marshmallow to really bring the flavors together and smooth it out…
Sounds deeeelicious don’t it…?
That’s 8 flavors right there just pulling ideas out of thin air and I could prolly add more depending on what it tasted like after testing. This is what makes DIY so fun! It grows as you do 
If you’re new to DIY, you can find early success with 2-3 flavors. As someone learns more about the complexities of their flavors, they can really dial it in to get the specific taste they want. Fun for everyone!
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Ok man. You gotta go right now and make this into a recipe cause I am gonna make it on the stirrer and tell you how good it is within 4 hours of you posting the recipe. Damn brotha that looks good. Can’t wait to try it.
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This is the true nature of cloning a specific flavor or Ejuice. Those trying to duplicate a flavor or juice tend to use many flavors to do it. Sometimes with good results, sometimes not. True creation on the other hand is more forgiving since you are not trying to duplicate a flavor. Amazing things can be accomplished using true creation without going overboard with flavors. I may be a oddball but I rarely have a specific taste in mind when I create. I think on the lines of pairing this with that and what would it taste like. Will this taste good with that, etc, etc, etc…
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I see where you are coming from. I usually have a dessert or specific food item in mind when creating a recipe. But I also have some flavor paring recipes I have made that just sizzle. My last one was a suggestion by @Mofogger for a recipe using Capella’s Grape with Stevia. It’s my Welch’s Revenge recipe. I made it first with 2 flavors (The Grape and Juicy Lemon), Malic Acid, and Marshmallow for a sweetener. It turned out amazing for such a simple recipe. I then added INW Grape for an extra brightness to the grape flavor in the juice. It is now one of my favorite vapes.
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I haven’t tried it yet… That’s just an idea I’ve had rolling around in my head. I would kill someone over a slice of Edwards Key Lime Pie so I’ve been toying with the idea… If you do give it a go let me know how it turns out 
I’ll get to it one of these days lol
The swedish fish just kills it unfortunately. I should of never added it in the first place, I figured it would be too much and it was. I’m thinking I should leave the swedish fish out on the next go and possibly raise the Oba up .0000023%
I’ll let you guys know!
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I see true creation of juices as the most fun. Cloning in my opinion is work. Some people get into it, I do not though. You’ll start enjoying your blending 10 fold when you know you have created juice flavors that no one else has done and your blend turned out to be the bomb. It’s a good feeling…
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@DarthVapor, You of all people should know you should never mix Swedish Fish with Lychee. As a Chef you should know you always use Gummi Bears…lol
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I couldn’t have said it better. Cloning is a massive PITA, I’m doing it once and then never again. Creating from scratch is much easier and enjoyable but I still find myself having to blend multiple flavors of the same thing to get the flavor I’m after. Strawberry is a perfect example. There must be at least 15 different strawberries on the market but I have never tried one solo and thought that it was exactly what I wanted.
Not that any of them were bad… I just knew I could make it better or closer to what I was after. I’m guilty of over doing it too; usually my first mix is just a guess at best and after testing I sometimes will drop a flavor out of the mix completely cause I can tell it’s hurting the blend or getting washed out and isn’t needed.
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ROFL
Ya got me! Man down! Man down!
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I don’t mind cloning all that much if we are talking about trying to mimic a retail juice. My buddy always comes to me asking to try a new juice he has and asks me to make something like it. I never really aim for the exact flavor. Just the flavor profile. This makes it more like just being creative to me. My Pirate Ship recipe was one of those. I wanted to mimic a rich Pumpkin pie, similar to Charlie Noble’s Mayflower. Hence the Pirate Ship name. I think mine tastes better. But I haven’t messed with it too much since the initial creation. It could still use some tweaking.
Now for desserts and such I just look up a recipe for what I want to make just so I make sure and understand the flavors used. It’s pretty easy for me to come up with a recipe for desserts this way. I don’t try to hit the exact same flavor. Because lets face it, the recipes we make would be similar to taking a banana split and putting it in a blender sometimes. It’s getting the flavors to individualize themselves that makes a recipe great in my opinion. And to me, it is pretty amazing how some of these recipes do just that.
That is where simple recipes to me stand out. You can taste the different flavors more than if you add a bunch of other stuff to it. But the same goes for cooking. The more complex the recipe is sometimes mutes the individual flavors and turns them into something else.
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Will I create a rip in the space-time continuum by quoting myself…? Lets find out…
I felt this needed further examination as I was rereading through…
I think of a flavor as a singular entity in my mix so even though there are 3 lime flavors, this is just 1 flavor entity/profile in the hypothetical mix I mentioned. Most people would refer to this as a “base” I guess.
Viewing it this way; there are only 3 components to this 8 flavor mix…
3 are lime
3 are cheesecake
and
2 are sweetner
This is technically a 3 flavor recipe.
However, someone can clearly see how flavors begin to accumulate when using them as supporting components. In other words, I may not find what I want from CAP, FA or TFA alone but a blend of CAPFATFA is perfect.
Hopefully I’ve made this clear as mud now 
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