Anyone having an issue with their Strawberry (Ripe)? I mixed it in a few recipes and it seems to be putting a flowery soap kind of taste to all my recipes. Some started out normally, but when steeped longer than 3 weeks, that flowery taste comes back. I used it in a “Mothers Milk” type adaptation @ 10%, then used it in a strawberry shortcake at a much lesser percentile and still got the same thing! Did I get a bad batch from a supplier, or am I mixing it wrong?
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Floral/soapy tends to come with too much flavour. Try diluting by half and see how it goes after a good shake and a couple days rest.
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I see some recipes having as much as 10% and rave reviews. I have one that only uses 6%. Do you suggest lower percentages? I tried this and barely tasted any strawberry. Should I use a mix of this with another strawberry out there?
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I am not a big fan of ripe anyway.
I use it a bit for supporting shisha straw inw as it gives it a bit more realism.
I use 3% shisha, 4% ripe in my favourite strawberry recipe. I tend to be on the low side of dosage, and often just divide recipes on the site by 2. Specially when I see flavours which I know work better for me at half the percentage.
( Reading this I am now wondering whether I could use less )
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It seems as though everyone loves Shisha Strawberry. I think I will get it. Do you suggest any other good strawberry flavours? I really love the store bought juices that have strawberry in them but would prefer to make my own.
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If soap smells good but tastes bad, how do we know that poop doesn’t taste like candy?
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I’ve tasted poop before. Long story. Trust me…no candy taste there
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I will be experimenting with the fa strawberries next. Much better strawberry experts than me around. I am sure someone will up MF soon enough.
Contrary to, it seems, 90% of diyers, I am not seeking the perfect strawberry and cream 
Strawberry and mint is pretty good though
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I don’t use it at all anymore, due to the extreme amount of EM and to me it doesn’t taste like a strawberry of any kind at all, on top it just mutes and muddled juices, in my experience. Other people might see that differently.
But as I used it, I would just use it to boost any other strawberry or give other fruits a “body” when it was lacking. To that time, I would use it between 0.75% - 3% and that’s it. And even at 3% I could clearly taste the muting and muddling to the entire juice, which in some cases you might want, but not always.
After around 2 years, I finally found my SB combo and that’s from FA and VT. But everybody has different taste and might enjoy different combinations, at least I never got soap from Strawberry Ripe, it might have been more enjoyable if I had tastes soap.
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@Sepper I have to agree with @SuperFrog on this one. I, like many others, use S.Ripe all the time, and sometimes higher in the % range. I’ve not personally had any soapy or flowery-ness to it, but I could be immune. I am however afflicted with the anti Cap VC bug, so everyone has their off putting notes or flavors. Try reducing and see what you have like SuperFrog suggested. You could go one further, and mix up a simple single flavor test with S. Ripe at like 5%, let it steep for 2 weeks, and see if that’s the issue or not.
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I thought I was the only one… Good to hear.
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LOL, Ohhh Nooo @SuperFrog That has been the BANE of my existence ever since I started DIY’ing. Love love love VC, but there’s something in the CAP VC and a few of their other’s with Vanilla’s that I just get this “I think I’m going to kill myself” note, that I can’t explain. Tried every variation, every temper, every pairing, and I just can’t make it work. I can however, vape pure TPA VC with no issues, and I never get pepper from it, so chalk me up, and put me on the short bus I guess.
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I think it might be possibly under-steeping. I mix 10% SWSB with 5% SB and 1% SRB all TPA, I call it Super Strasberry, it tastes weird until 6 weeks. Then the juice goes from clear to golden and tastes flavorful with a long shelf life. My wife vapes it as her ADV at 6MG.
I know right? fruit takes a long steep? YES especially when mixed at high %.
There is a chance your taste buds work better than ours, but I’d wait 6 weeks before diluting it.
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Different people, different strokes… and not only that, people use different equipment as well. What may taste vile on your setup could be divine on another. Older equipment, MTL and pod systems usually require higher % of flavor.
If you find that a flavor tastes funny, floral, soapy, burned, like rubber, … it’s usually an indication of overuse. Do a single flavor test in several strengths, follow it up during the steeping process and take notes and you’ll find out what works for you.
Then if you see a recipe where flavors are used in higher strengths, adapt the recipe to suit your taste and equipment. You can easily dial down (or up) a recipe by lowering or increasing the total flavor %.
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Chit taste like rotten garbage, or something like the smell of cabbage cooking. I always thought I had a bad bottle ( bought a 4 Oz cuz everything had it in it lol) but I get it from some other flavors also.
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I did in my first DIY Flavor order from a now defunct Vendor. SB Ripe has a green note that I taste as celery. In my bad bottle it was like the Seller didn’t mix the bulk container of SB Ripe before they poured it off into 10mls. I got all the celery. It almost ended my interest in DIY, but the next order (from elsewhere) was radically different …and enjoyable.
I try to buy from the top volume Sellers just to get properly made product that hasn’t set on a shelf for two years before coming my way. Of course this was more of a problem back in 2015 with all the folks jumping on the bandwagon and all those anecdotal stories of “Labs” in Dude’s basements etc.
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Hey, which VT are you using, Glazed or Shisha? I got the glazed last week, mixed up a sample but haven’t gotten around to it yet (lazy bastard that I am).
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Shisha, I haven’t tried their other ones.
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Sb ripe TFA 3-4% paired with sb shisha INW 1-2% works well for me. Have been playing with red touch FA and sweet sb Cap. Cap is way too sweet and red touch is nice but needs help. Going to play with them all for a stone at some point.
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I’ll do another shameless plug of my recipe as it is not far off your recommendations
I suspect I could get the strawberry down as I feel they are starting to mute. Next version will attempt just this ( and a try of Juicy Strawberry FA)
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