I’m SkinnyboyDre, based in Johannesburg South Africa and have recently given up smoking after 30 years and took up vaping. I did a ton of research on DIY mixing as an alternative to buying juices because I got tired of wasting money on e-liquids that taste bad, are too icy or harsh.
I got my hands on a few recipes and purchased the ingredients exactly as required by the recipe, plus a few to start tinkering with.
My problem is, everything I mix (including the recipes I follow) taste bland. It’s like all the flavours just seem to muddle together into an unrecognizable, indistinguishable mess. I can taste the sweet and here and there a slight hint of whatever ingredient I put in, but not much more.
Can someone please point me in a direction to try remedy this issue. I DON’T want to take up smoking again.
EXTRA info :
I use well known / established brands of flavourings .
Usually mix at a 70/30 ratio unless called for otherwise by the recipe.
I don’t put any nicotine in my testers and make 10ml at a time.
I’ve been testing after mixing, 4 days and 2 week intervals.
I rewick once a week and clean coils properly after each rewicking and replace when needed.
Welcome to the forums and congratulations on having one of my favourite mods.
When you first quit, you will find many flavours muted at first. Personally, I would focus on getting the nicotine hit above all as you settle into not relying on fags.
If you can show us the recipes you’ve made, that’ll really help all of us help you. Also, any kinds of flavours you find comforting.
Now onto the problem/solution: I still have some commercial e-liquids that I vape in a Nord4 when I feel the need for a nicotine hit (6mg freebase). But as I mentioned, they’re not exactly great.
What you said about the diminished taste makes sense - and to be honest - it didn’t occur to me that the flavours would be muted to such a high degree.
Where can I share these recipes so you can advice or help me troubleshoot?
I love peach (Candy King peach rings being one of my absolute favourite juices - However nobody seems to stock it here).
I also love banana (in a milkshake or cream form, cookie or custard even).
I’d love a decent tasting cherry (which is why I purchased a cherry fizz lollipop recipe), but it tastes very medicinal. I understand that is the case with majority of the cherry only recipes and cherry in general?
I tend to lean more towards fruit flavoured e-liquids because they tend to be a cooler vape than desserts.But anything overly icy irritates my throat.
All the reasons above is why I opted for DIY so I can customize my e-liquids to suit my needs and tastes.
For most of us when switching to diy juices we found that we did need to bump the sweetener for a few weeks/months until our taste buds adjusted. Commercial juices usually has more additives than the typical mixer uses.
To share a recipe, you only need to copy the URL into a reply.
Sadly you haven’t made your stash public, so we cannot see which flavours you have to hand. E.g. If I knew that you didn’t have Peach Gummy (FLV), I could recommend it as a good a base flavour for you.
Cherry and Banana are two of the most challenging flavours and you really need to have a strong impression of what you want before you design recipes around them.
2% is insanely high for Super Sweet (Cap) and will mute the flavours even more.
My apologies, the reply to @Letitia was a typo. I haven’t gone above 1%.
I have also made Folkart’s Mayan milk as well as Camp Tigerclaw (can’t remember his name). I even made a recipe by the name of Space jam and it’s fruity and sweet, but I cannot pinpoint any one flavour in the recipe.
The only thing I’d note is that many of the older recipes where designed for older generations of kit. As such, you need to drop the percentages when 0.1ohms or lower is the current standard.
I look forward to seeing what we can do with your stash.
Correct, those are the ones I specifically purchased ingredients for.
I think all I’d like to achieve is for my mixes to actually taste like what I put in there. If I do for instance and mango and orange, I’d like to taste both of those flavours. I just want something with prominent flavours, not too complicated or intricate but rather just a tasty vape to enjoy and have people be able to pinpoint the flavours in there.
I see so many people comment on recipes and juices by “wow, I can taste the green apple with the watermelon at the back” or “this tastes exactly the way it smells”.
Welcome @SkinnyboyDre.
Keep plugging away and with the help you’ll receive on here I’m sure it’ll click for you. DIY is definitely a learning curve.
I don’t want to derail your thread and hinder your progress but can I just ask how vaping is accepted and governed in South Africa? Any restrictions or banned products?
@SkinnyboyDre Welcome to the community. As you can already see, there are some fine folks here with lots of experience who are willing to share. You’ve already gotten some good advice, so enjoy your mixing journey. Remember, every mis-step is as valuable as every success. Learning what doesn’t work is just as important as learning what does work.
I would suggest trying a couple of one shots while you perfect your recipes. DIY juices don’t use nearly as much sweetener as commercial juices. You may find that increasing the super sweet or whatever sweetener you’re using may help.
BLCK flavour and Flavour world have an awesome selection of flavours.
There is also a DIY WhatsApp group for SA vapers. Let me know if you’d like to join.