What am I doing wrong? No flavor

E-liquids Beginners
41

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 :wink:

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 :wink:

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 :wink:

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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42

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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43

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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44

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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45

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 :frowning:

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 :wink: hence I asked if he gets flavor at 8% cap v1 with his tank or if its lacking.

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46

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 :wink:

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47

Very true. I was just relating personal experience

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48

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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49

I figured I should follow up, as I am currently vaping a shake n vape that i made! It actually tastes good to me, and i don’t have to remind myself what the flavor is, which is basically a first for me. However, some of you may get a chuckle (or a choke) out of my mix…

So i tried the 8% CAP vanilla custard, it tasted okay. I could definitely taste custard, but not as strong as i hoped. So after a few incremental increases, I am now at 11% CAP vanilla custard and 15% TFA sweetener, and basically 50/50 vg/pg. It tastes awesome in the TFV12. Not harsh, pretty ‘thick’ feeling vapor, full of flavor in the cloud beast. Quite sweet, but not nearly as sweet as any premium stuff I’ve had in the last year.

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50

Congratulation on your success. Stick with these heavier flavors and use higher ratios as you did, for that setup. As I said, I used to do that too, richer/creamier/darker/bolder flavors were a good alternative.

One thing I want to mention tho, tfa sweetener is a mix of sucralose and ethyl maltol.

Ethyl maltol will mute your juices especially if used too high. If you plan on vaping this mix soonish or within a week or two then that’s fine but after that you won’t taste your custard anymore.

Cap vanilla custard needs a 2 week - 2 month steep actually, so the flavor you tasting right now is going to change and so will the sweetness level. Some people enjoy it right away, others only after steeping.

I’d suggest if you plan on a batch you store/steep long term, try 1-3% sweetener if commercial juice is what you want. Then let it sit a month. Or steep your custard and add sweetener in the last 3 days of steeping. Rather add a additional flavor such as some creams to make it thicker and sweeter. Still have to be careful with that as well tho.

After all I’m happy you finally taste your juice, keep at it and I’m sure you find some other combos that will work for you :wink:

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51

I think that coming from prepared, store-bought ejuice, you probably are used to a higher % flavour. So, I’ say raise those % in recipes.

Try up to double the average preferred single flavour recommendations and see if that helps.

Like I always say about food bought out in any restaurant (including fast food), the seller will do whatever it takes to keep you coming back (fat, sugar, salt) but not to keep you healthy per se.

I imagine ejuice vendor will use higher % flavours because smokers’ taste buds are hella dulled AND ingredients in ejuice are dirt cheap compared to markup prices. Personally, a major part of quitting smoking was its high cost; I won’t now spend it on ejuice bc that eliminates a reason for quitting.

I also believe those been off cigs for years have sensitive pallets that I don’t have yet. So I get more flavour from more flavour .

The only thing to watch is muting above a very high % – like, I couldn’t taste anything when even putting 25% in and I thought I got ripped off. :laughing: I just had burnt taste buds!

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52

I’m having the exact same problem - none of my juice has any flavor. Not sure if it’s my device or recipes because the ejuice I’ve bought premade has no flavor even with 2 flavor shots. I FEEL YOUR PAIN!

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53

I’ve been having vape tongue really bad too. I think I might have to venture into tobacco’s or menthols!

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54

This is a dumb question but have you changed your coils? Flavor loss is caused by old coils or dirty coils. They won’t last forever, depending on the juice it may last 2-7 days depending on how much you vape and if the juice is a coil gunker

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Unfortunately yes i change em more than i need thinking that will do it but it doesnt. I just changed it today and still nothing.

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56

It’s crazy! I’m thinking I shot my tounge out with going for such a high percentage of flavoring but I found some flavors I could taste better then others :no_mouth: with tpa I found vanilla bean ice cream spearmint and watermelon I could taste all of them but strawberry ripe it’s like I can only taste a sweet taste of same with strawberry but nothing like my local shops strawberry and cream or strawberry kiwi .

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57

I am guessing I am in this category as well! Most recipes I have tried have very little flavor! Really sucks! Spent an afternoon at a local shop and tried every sample of Strawberry vapes they had! My hats off to the owner of the shop because he kept feeding me the next one!! I gave up on strawberry and bought a couple bottles of Derailed!!! Love that stuff!! hahaha

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58

Good reminder for me! I zone out for hours mixing and wrapping coils, but its SUCH a PITA installing them – for me. I think I avoid it!

But, yeah, it’s the tongue that’s gunked up. I’m trying some tips I’ve read: switching to fruits and long-steeped JF Mint (will try adding citrus too) in between creamy desserts and tobacco, brush teeth when I notice there’s no flavour, add a drop of pre-mixed menthol (has to be seriously diluted).

All work to some degree, but I’m not rigorous about it… Will have to be!

Baking soda on tongue tastes like :crazy_face: but worked for 2 days. I just changed coil, am gonna gargle with warm vinegar now.

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59

You might have CTS :cry:

I just found out I do too :frowning:

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60

Oh NOOOO!!!:sob:

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