Also, as I’ve discovered recently, poor wicking can stifle flavors horribly, even if your not getting dry hits. Try manually saturating your coils and give it a crack 
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@O0what0o
While you are ordering Strawberry(s)…
You may wish to try this smooth, tasty vape.
If this recipe also gives you no flavor (as yours before),
order yourself a new set of tastebuds…and a new palate.
I think Amazon still has them-free shipping, eh?
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@ozo that PUR SB is delicious. Once I figure out the magical Stevia Stone, I’d make your BBB in a heartbeat.
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I have a similar problem… I’ve mixed a lot of bottles at this point, and so far no good ones at all. My issue is always lack of flavor.
I’ve tried anywhere from 2%-20% flavoring. I just mixed up several bases from the DIYorDIE YouTube channel and had the same result, no flavor. I don’t use additives except TFA Sweetener, at 1%. I figured I should be able to make a bottle of juice that at least tastes like something before I got into additives. I’ve noticed a couple things by going back and forth from some store bought juice (Magic Vapor’s Mystic Magic) to any of my homemade stuff:
-I first thought it was hardware, as I use a TFV12 instead of a dripper. But I’ve changed coils a million times, all with the same outcome. And further, I’ve gone from my flavorless juice back to the storebought on what i know is a less-than-fresh coil, and I still taste the storebought stuff immediately. First puff, even on dirty coils. Even if i directly drip my juice into my mouthpiece, still nothing.
-I filled my tank almost all the way with my homemade juice, and then topped it off with a very small amount of the storebought juice, and all I taste is the storebought. It would appear that I can dilute that storebought juice by about 80% with my homemade juice and it tastes just like the original storebought stuff.
-Upon tasting a drop of the storebought stuff on my finger vs a drop of the homemade, the storebought flavor sticks in my mouth for some time, where my homemade juice barely has any flavor and the taste is fleeting.
Anyone have any insight into why this is happening…? Could I have crappy VG or PG? I measure by syringe, use CAP/TFA/FA primarily in small percentages, and got my vg/pg from Nicotine Giant. I’m trying to eliminate variables, but at this point I’m really struggling. I would have thought the DIYorDIE mixes would be good, or some of the top rated recipes I mixed up.
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I wouldn’t say they’re really good, those DIYorDIE recipes, but they should have plenty flavor.
If you have a problem like this, it’s always good to post a couple recipes / links of the things you’ve tried so people can see what you’re actually talk about.
If you’ve done everything correct (right flavors, correct measurements, no max VG stuff and steeped your juice), all I can think of is that there’s either something wrong with your flavors or your base liquids… but base liquids really don’t go bad easily. Nicotine may get peppery and taste funny if it goes bad but you should still be able to taste your flavors through it.
Try and see if you get any flavor from the concentrates. Dissolve a drop (or 2) in a spoon of water, coffee or tea (or a drop on your hand) and see if you taste the concentrates. If not, they’re duds.
In the beginning, I once left a concentrate open behind a window with full sun exposure. At the end of the day it had lost all flavor… so it’s good to check your flavors once in a while.
I sometimes flavor my coffee with vanilla, cream or caramel concentrates and 4 to 5 drops in a mug is enough for a strong flavor that doesn’t overpower the coffee.
Also definitely make sure you’re measuring the right amounts when mixing… it may sound stupid but we’re all human and we all make mistakes sometimes.
Steeping is important to get the flavors right, nicely balanced, but you should be able to taste most mixes straight from a shake and vape. You may not enjoy it as much as when it’s steeped, you may not get as much mouthfeel, it may be a bit more “airy” without a steep but you should taste it.
Creams are a bit weird though, sometimes it can take days before the flavor actually comes through.
Sweetener (TFA) is going to make your juice sweeter overall, but it’s not a miracle product. If you really want to boost your juice, try a little (start with 0.25-0.5%) CAP Super Sweet. It contains sucralose but also a few other ingredients and it has more of a boosting effect than a muting effect.
So yeah, could you post the link to your flavor stash / recipes you’ve tried? Without much specific information it’s difficult to guess what exactly is going on. Fruit / Bakery / Creams / Tobaccos etc, they’re all quite different juices when it comes to flavor and steeping.
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Flavor Stash:
http://e-liquid-recipes.com/publicstash/160169
Thank you for the reply! So here are the recipes I tried from this thread.
Mustard milk, Strawberry cheesecake, Mike’s melons, Bombies nana cream, Girl with the dragon cheesecake, Strawnana custard, Strawberry fog, Ripe dragon cream, Geography: French quarter clone.
All were mixed at 70/30 vg/pg with 3% nic. In addition to those I tried variants of them with less of flavors that seemed high, like 10% or so. I also tried some other mixes of fruit only, like 3%-8% of CAP sweet strawberry, or TFA strawberry, or TFA ripe strawberry, some with 2%-4% dragonfruit. I tried those 3 strawberries together at 1%-4% each as well. One of DIYorDIE’s base recipes i tried was 4% sweet strawberry and 3% TFA strawberry. I actually had a glimmer of luck with Mike’s Melons, but it lost its flavor quickly and I kinda had to convince myself I could taste it, if that makes sense.
They all smell nice, so I hadn’t considered my flavors aren’t good or potent. I’ll try mixing some drops in some water and see how it goes! I keep them in a cool closet, but I’m definitely mixing everything from the same bottles of flavorings, so all my juice has that in common.
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If you don’t mind let me ask some basic questions as well, before making my attempt of a statement or problem solving 
Have you added (TFA) sweetener to all of these recipes, and if so, all at 1%?
How are you mixing? Example just shake the bottle, use a frother/mixer/breathing/airing juices.
How long you wait till trying these, for the first time?
Have you single flavor tested these flavors and found a percentage you enjoy, or just going by the recipe and if in/decreasing, by how much? Example: in/decrease by a flat number that differs by 2-8 or in increments of 0.2-1%
Are you increasing/decreasing overall/whole recipe or just specific flavor?
You mentioned that you got a tiny bit of flavor from mikes melon, did you get a specific flavor that you could pick up, or was it all 3 flavors that were noticeable to you, even if mild/very mild?
Did you try these mixes in a different VG/pg ratio as well or just 70/30 for everything?
Is your nicotine pg or VG based?
How do you store it or in what condition is it in, when you mixing it? Example its ice cold, room temp, warm, hot, boiling etc. Same with your pg/VG base.
Did you try vaping your mixes with airflow fully open, or did you try different options as well?
How high is your wattage?
It might sound like funny but these criteria do matter to an certain point, and knowing that might help us to help you lol.
You could take (CAP) vanilla custard v1 at 8%, shake it, try it. Don’t add sweetener just your base.
Its way too high but I want to see if you can taste a flavor or anything. Don’t need to do it of course, but its a extremely potent flavor and if you can taste that, we can rule out a lot of things here. Make only a 10ml tho or even 5. No reason to mix more of it.
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First of all, you seem to have normal flavor concentrates, I don’t see any problem with your stash. Thanks for posting the link.
I tried a couple of these and even though they’re all highly rated, I wasn’t too impressed. One thing I do notice is that most of these are strawberry flavors. Maybe that is just not your thing?
Strawberry flavors are notoriously difficult for some and it might be you are just one of those people. There are advanced mixing techniques to boost a strawberry, whether it’s with a certain sweetener, an acid or a totally different flavor to fill in the gaps in the SB flavor spectrum. I wish I was at that level but someone else will have to pitch in to help you here.
I’ve heard people mention dragonfruit is the magic ingredient to boost it, but that’s a subjective thing. For me it helps more to play around with combining other SB flavors (a deeper, darker Shisha SB from INW works wonders for me) and berries like blackcurrant or even a berry crunch… CAP sweet strawberry is as good as a mute to me but those other flavors can bring something special out of it when I need it.
I personally do have issues with some of these recipes being over flavored. Dragonfruit (TPA) for example is something I pick out of most recipes at very low % and yet there are recipes that use it up to 10%? Many people obviously like that, otherwise it won’t get that rating, but it doesn’t work well for everyone.
That doesn’t explain though why you’re having the same issues with recipes like Geography French Quarter, which is IMO a good recipe. I think it benefits from a good steep however, but you should have plenty flavor from the get go. Strawnana Custard is also something that didn’t work well for me (i.e. the flavor profile) immediately from a shake and vape, but letting it steep for 2 months really pays off well. However, at that age, the SB is very much faded away.
You mentioned keeping your flavors in a “cool place” … if that’s way below room temperature, maybe you just need to let your flavors get up to room temperature before mixing and always properly shake every ingredient in a mix. Some concentrates can start to crystallize in colder temperatures, components can separate. And yeah, check your flavors as well.
Things like sweet cream, cream fresh, whipped cream, vanilla swirl etc are all very nice in mixes but you have to be careful with them. They can easily mute, drown other flavors and dominate your mix. Try using them in low %. The Ripe Dragon Cream recipe for example, is IMO way over flavored. If it smells good to you, I’d probably adjust the overall flavor % and start mixing it half strength or even lower.
You’ll hear this a lot, but taste is really subjective and if you see that the average things that work for others don’t work for you, you have to experiment a bit and try to find out why… SFT (single flavor test) is your way out here. I would just heat up some plain VG or your preferred VG/PG ratio (10ml or so) , add a couple drops of flavor concentrate, really shake it well, drip it and test. Repeat this process, each time adding a few extra drops of flavor until you find the sweet spot for your concentrates. Always keep a notebook handy and record your experiences.
From my experience, there are concentrates that I need more of that other users, and some that are used at completely ridiculous %. TPA VBIC is something you’ll often see used up to 8 or 10% in a mix, but when I use it at 2%, it’ll take over the recipe and ruin it for me. Dragonfruit as well… anything higher than 2% will result in a total screw up (and your ripe dragon cream recipe uses it at 10%).
Once you do your SFT, you should get a better feel for what to expect from a recipe. Also remember that flavors can have a big effect on each other when you combine them. There are flavors that can be very dominant and strong while others are subtle and easily hide. Keep in mind that less is often more, so begin with low %, just hints of a flavor and you may be surprised how much effect that has.
Steeping is important. Right from a shake and vape, a recipe may be airy and not much flavor and a week or 2 later you could have something with intense and dense flavor. If you don’t have the patience and immediately add more flavor, you’re going to end up with over flavoring problems (and often that results in losing overall flavor).
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Do me a favor. Mix up…
Strawberry ripe tpa 4%
Strawberry tpa2%
Dragon fruit tpa 0.75%
Vanilla custard cap 4%
Sweet cream tpa 1%
(Make sure to shake each concentrate prior to dispensing).
Add nic of your choice.
Screw on your cap. Shake as hard as you can (if needed you may warm it with hot tap water just enough to make shaking easier). Then maybe shake it up 3 day later. Still leave on the cap…don’t air it out.
Then steep for 6 days. Then try it. The above should steep for two weeks but six days should be enough.
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I should of updated earlier on this but here’s what I learned so far in the few real noobie weeks I was mixing
After a week or so of steeping I found the strawberry ripe flavor to pop out , same with double kiwi and dragon fruit (all tfa flavors)
- Don’t have impatient noob like me and taste it off the bat expecting a nice e juice you’ll end up vaping something that tastes like pure vg sweet but no prominate flavor , listen to the veterans on the page and let it all mingle for a week then taste test .
I started using tfa vanilla bean and the strength on vaping that was alot more of a taste same with tfa strawberry and tfa water melon so some require more time steeping , but the steep on the vanilla after awhile that flavor toned down as well , I’ve stopped using sweetener as I found few of the first bottles I made after lowering the percents on some and also been using tfa pear candy as sweetener as well just to try it out
- Some flavors like watermelon and strawberry I found you could mix off the bat and get something fairly tasting some will taste horribly powerful , verity is deffinitily a key in experimintation
I’ve been slack with my mixing but I do got a straw kiwi recipe that be my adv and I’ve been fooling around with koolada and fruits now as well get something nice cool for exhale but I’m debating on picking up a a spearmint flavor as well to try with
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This forum is pure gold I tell you! Today I will try those suggested test mixes, thank you. I tried mixing flavors in coffee, and they did seem light. About 10 drops of tfa custard in 6oz coffee and i started to notice it.
So I’ve tried 70/30 and 50/50, i usually do not use the tfa sweetener, just once in a while to see if it does anything to my flavors. To mix I just shake the heck out of my bottles once all ingredients are in, then heat them a bit with warm water and shake again til very bubbly. My steeping is basically just 1-3 weeks of sitting in the dark.
I play with my mod settings a lot, so I’ve tried numerous combos of airflow/wattage. My pg/vg live in the closet with my flavors (dark and probably averages about 68 degrees in there), my nic is 100mg/mL PG and it lives in the freezer.
Mike’s melons i picked up mostly the TFA papaya, but it is tough to say if i detected the other components. I haven’t tried a lot of single flavor mixes except lots of strawberries, and the few custards i have. And CAP sugar cookie.
However, yesterday I mixed up 5% CAP sweet strawberry and tried it this morning. Bland as anything. So I kept adding, mixing, and tasting. At this point, i am at 24% CAP sweet strawberry and I CAN TASTE IT!! Hallelujah. Though that seems hilariously high. Perhaps my flavors are weak?
I avoided going over 10% on any flavor based on some nasty mixes a long time ago, but maybe i just need to try all my flavors alone at higher percentages until I taste them. I may have been overly cautious about over-flavoring!
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Unfortunately, that’s not the way it works!
If I wasn’t able to taste a flavor, adding more of it does not mean I will be able to taste it.
I have been mixing for a few months now. I failed for the first month, but with patience, I have been successful with many recipes.
Here are a few ways that helped me determine what is wrong. I eliminated one possibility at a time.
I had a friend or 2 with me to try whatever it is I’m trying at the time. Usually using their own device. This makes it easier to understand if the claim of “no flavor” is just a personal perspective, problem with taste buds, or is it something 3 different people agreed on.
I mixed with 0 NIC to make sure that it had nothing to do with a bad batch.
I made a few of the slightly newer but high rated recipes on ELR.
For me, it was both a bad batch of NIC + tastebuds were not able to taste any flavor. I solved the latter by following a few rules for 3 days: drinking black coffee, no sugar. Vaped mint. And minty candy.
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Diy has no rights and wrongs, some people taste stuff at low as 0.05% and others might need a higher percentage. Theres nothing to feel bad about, but there is also a threshold.
Anyways just as I assumed yesterday, I’m kinda certain what the issue is here.
First I thought that you are one of the people that can’t taste strawberry what so ever. And while you might have a bit trouble with that, I’m sure its your equipment.
See here’s the issue I’m having, I hate saying that because I don’t want people to go out spending money. But maybe a bit down the road something to consider.
Your tank is a cloud chase setup, its extremely airy with high wattage coils and tons of cotton packed into it.
Its not for flavor and while you can pick up commercial juice while vaping on that, its complete different than our diy.
There’s a lot higher percent of flavors or/and higher concentrates been used, tons of sweetener, additives, pre steeped, some offer aged different ratios and this are just the basics lol.
Maybe give a flavor tank/setup a chance, you still can have a your huge clouds and wide open airflow
However you mentioned 10drop of custard in your coffee, that’s roughly around 2.3% . its not your taste buds man lol
But till there’s changes in equipment or not at all you’ll have to accommodate for it, and increasing percent till its high enough for you. But I’ve been there with same setup
So what I did was, I picked only heavier/darker fruits, thicker/darker/richer bakeries, creamiest and most overpowering flavors I could find and nixed these up. In the upper range of the threshold window tho.
I’d add mints or cooling to most of my juices, not the cap custard tho lol, only thing I somewhat could pick up with that setup and so on. So I suggest stick with earthier, bolder, Richer and darker flavors till time being. Not milder or delicate fruits like stoopid strawberry
The moment you change the setup, adjust the percent much lower and try to find your spot you enjoy etc. Hope it helped.
Edit: we could maybe add one more thing, if your flavors are older they might be done. Getting a new bottle somewhere and seeing if its different.
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The only limited input i have is with the strawberry ripe. I enjoy it at 2 to 3 %. I have a hard time with strawberries and havent been able to make this fruit a dominent in a recipe. Also, when i started, my flavor percents were all over the board. I went as high as 18% ( with LB flavors)
It was frustrating, to say the least. But, i always had a note book. It is like my mixing bible.
I also didnt start by single flavor testing, which some of the big dogs on here did. (It actually does help the mixing process!)
Over all, i am confident you can do this! This thread is actually packed with knowledge! No derails so far!
Good luck! Get your groove! Keep mixing!!
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Do you have a TFV12? I’m not so sure about your conclusion…
OK, I can’t talk for the TFV12 but I have a TFV8 and while it’s also a cloud beast, it has some pretty good flavor and I’ve heard great reviews about the TFV12.
I would advise @Vape_n_Brew to get a dripper, even if it’s just for flavor testing while mixing, but you don’t really have to get into RBAs to get good flavor. There are actually tanks with commercial coil heads that offer way better flavor & vapor production as some RBAs. If money is an issue, get something like an oumier wasp nano. You can have an original for $15 and excels in flavor. Good clones are even cheaper on fasttech.com.
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From what I read, those are percentages that they advise to use… they’re just super diluted concentrates compared to some other brands. I don’t think they’re representable for the overall DIY concentrates.
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Yes I do actually and I didn’t recommend a Rba or rta/RDTA or dripper, because I do agree that you don’t need a rebuildable to get good flavor.
However making the switch to a less airy tank, or a tank that is designed a bit shorter/tighter does make a huge difference.
You would be amazed how some commercial juices you might have liked prior and were good strength, now are overly in your face, extremely sweet and notes you didn’t tasted are now there, even at lower watts etc.
If he needs to throw 24-38% of one flavor in a juice, that he could taste the flavor on his hand, coffee etc off at low/mid range then its not his taste buds but rather the setup. I know vaping it is different of course. This can get expensive too 
But that’s only my opinion based on the information provided, if he can fix it with just pushing the flavor extremely high, well then he’s less frustrated and we all can be happy hence I asked if he gets flavor at 8% cap v1 with his tank or if its lacking.
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I even have that in my TFV8 lol. Seriously, that thing has some pretty awesome flavor. I’d still be vaping it if Smok could only produce consistent and much cheaper coils.
It only took a month or 2 to get my taste buds reset. After this short time I couldn’t even understand how my first juices were tasting good enough to keep me off the smokes 
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Very true. I was just relating personal experience
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I’ve thought about getting an rba just for testing, i will have to look more into that! Or a more flavor-friendly tank. I loved my v8, I actually only got the v12 because my v8 threads crossed and it started leaking, and the shop only had v12’s.
Would it be reasonable to deduce that with my more ‘cloud-chasing’ setup, i could just bump up my percentages a bit? Do you think commercial juices just contain a great deal more flavoring? I know they have more sweetener, as some of them are so sweet it’s cloying and gross.
Well it’s about time to bust out the mix kit, I’ll see what i come up with! Thanks for all the help!
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