Thirty eight days off smoking and loving this ELR forum. I have gathered all of my new DIY equipment - AWS LB 501, Liquid Barn VG/PG/Nic, 42 flavors and adding daily from various makers. I have started by sorting the recipes on this site by rating and have been using several with great results. I have noticed that 90%+ have very few or zero ratings and I have to believe that there are some great recipes out there hidden in the list.
To help newbies like me, would you be so kind and recommend some known good mixers on this site that we can follow and hopefully learn some new great recipes from?
As @Ggrhauling says, this is a loaded question, and I certainly don’t intend that these are the best mixers here, just the ones i have tried, not any sort of definitive list.
and you could probably quadruple that list ^ and still upset a bunch of people for leaving them out, this forum is a cornucopia of awesome liquid chefs
NotCharlesManson has some really good recipes. Have you checked out the recipe list sorted by rating? You’ll see lots of the mixers listed in this thread plus a bunch more:
One mixer I like a lot who doesn’t get mentioned around here is Returnity.
EDIT: Just noticed you said you have looked at the recipes by rating… so nvm what I said about that. You’d be surprised how many people don’t realize that’s available.
The best advice I can give is to find someone that shares your mixing style and by that you will find some love Fruits , some candy’s , custards , tea’s ,tobacco’s , florals and it goes on and on.
Pick a flavor you love in your stash and then click the recipes that are available for that one flavor and then click on the ratings.Go through the highest until you find something that looks good to you and give it a shot.It doesn’t take long before you realize the ratings are nice but totally unnecessary for determining a good mix.You will simply look at the ingredients and percentages and know what you need to do to make it a great mix for you.Everyone has different likes when it comes to flavor and what percentages work best for them.Once you learn that it is all gravy baby.
There are many many great mixers here but I will say this if I have a question about a flavor or pairing I will look at some of the recipes made by the ones that are active on the forum because if I have a question I know I can get an answer.
I mostly vape the custards and deserts and that is a pretty easy style to find good mixes and you can learn pretty fast.I asked @Ken_O_Where a ton of questions and followed his recipes until I got the courage to leave the nest .I am starting to now get into a few tobaccos so I have been hitting up @Kinnikinnick with a ton of questions lately as well as checking out several of his and @Josephine_van_Rijn recipes.
I have to say though whenever I need advice about any flavor my go to is @Amy2 ,She is the Flavor Queen and just as importantly she loves to help people!
Have you tried hitting the rating button on the homepage and just using the highly rated recipes that rise to the top of the list? I have a closet full of a lot of great liquid just from using recipes with 5 stars and then I get to sample everyone’s recipes.
I personally can’t nominate any one person because I like most of them too much to show more affection for one persons recipes over another.
To be Frank, a lot of the highest rated recipes are very so-so, I think many of them got voted a lot because they were on here early on, when there was a lot less members. I’ve tried some and was less than impressed. I’ll mention one for example, because I have actually said this on Wayne’s FB page too - Rhodonite, I find very bland, and don’t get why so many rate it so highly. I think it’s best to find your own way, look for mixes that sound interesting or appealing to you, ignore the ratings, and concentrate on your own style.
You honor me, but I don’t consider myself a chef at all. If I had to pick just one fellow mixer as a chef it would be…well…a chef. @DarthVapor has probably inspired me more than anyone. That’s because of his extensive knowledge of flavor pairing. It allows for ever-expanding creativity. But even with that, I get inspired by practically everyone. There have been newbies with virtually zero mixing experience who have brought some of the most interesting concepts through the forum. And experienced mixers are always offering tips. Oh someone will mention something in conversation like try Oba Oba with Yogurt or you really should try Medicine Flower’s Watermelon and I will use that info to up my game. So even though I would pick Darth if I had to choose just one, truth is there are so many folks here who generously share their knowledge and experience - and like most things each has something to offer.
Wow I am very flattered thanks guys! BUT just like everyone said, you can’t pick just one person. There are SO many great mixers on here and it isn’t only greatness that makes it, it’s the diversity. Everyone has their own tastes and styles, plus there are people that really excel in various categories. For example, I am not one to choose a tobacco juice as an ADV but that doesn’t discredit @Kinnikinnick as being a fantastic mixer, cause he is. He is one of the most knowledgeable tobacco guys on this forum but just because I personally do not vape tobacco juices doesn’t mean I wouldn’t put him among the “best”
So it really is a loaded question and it comes down to personal preference in juices and finding someone who has similar tastes and styles to match your own.
I agree with the responders to this thread. You can research recipe ratings, read comments on the recipes, do searches inside/outside this forum for flavor notes and recipe reviews, but when the leather hits the road, it all comes down to your personal taste.
I might absolutely love a certain tobacco at 4% in the mix, tout it as the greatest thing since sliced bread, others rate it with 5 stars… Then you mix it up and it makes you gag. There’s no accounting for taste and taste is subjective.
Personally, I’ve started to lean more towards vaping straight up NET tobaccos. Some of my past synthetic creations, which I considered good at the time, will never be mixed by my hands again; the mix tastes way too synthetic, no matter the steep time.
Personal preference will be the defining factor in the end.
I don’t think I could nominate just one. There’s just no way there’s too many talented ppl here. So much goes into a recipe research mixing steeping testing tweaking it’s a great amount of work and not that it’s really " work" since it’s a passion of ours but it’s strategic at best.
I appreciate the nice comments. I feel try out some recipes that sound like something you’d be interested in. I have changed drastically since starting vaping you’d be surprised stuff you hate IRL you love to vape ! Good luck !.
don’t mean to hijack the thread, so apologies upfront.
is there a way to get to someone’s public recipes from their profile? a members in a thread says “check out my recipe” - is there a way to actually get there?
i tried the recipe search by user name with no luck. here in this thread there’s a pointer to someone’s recipe’s list which works, but only for that person
are the forum and the recipe “directory” 2 separate things completely, or what am i missing.
drives me crazy i’m sure there’s a simple way to do it. so…help?
If you click on the icon on the forum the name underneath the forum name is often (but not always) their ELR user name. Try searching for that one. If they don’t have any public recipes, though it won’t show up with anything. They’re not really linked in any way at this point that I’m aware of.
I second the “loaded question” because it really depends on what good is. I know a lot of chefs who are good at research and taking notes and sharing notes, but other chefs who wont discuss note taking or sharing or want to be part of a group project. Some use really exotic flavors or ONLY exotic flavors, but… the everyday peeps. (some of these recipes could be cycled out, kind of like cut the fat) but eh. adapted recipes should be kept secret from the others. that’s about the only thing is oversaturated-ness but I love this website though, feel free to check out any of my juices.
Lots of great mixers on here, think you have to find others that have similar tastes as yourself. This can be quite difficult when you first start out and you like the look of tons of recipes. I like recipes with flavour notes or a good description to back them up.
Stumbled onto this thread searching for another thread. I wanted to comment so…
Hard to answer this one because I have noticed I tend to look at a lot of mixers’ use of flavors. I have found that if I am building a recipe out of an idea that comes to mind I start off figuring out what the main flavors are. A lot of things are fairly easy to get a rough recipe going. For example - Apple pie… apples, pie crust. Take it a step further… cinnamon, sugar, buttery. Even further - pie crust can be traditional, graham, or even a cookie flavoring of sorts. Apple flavoring should resemble cooked apples. Nutmeg is a flavoring now available from Real Flavors. Etc, etc
From there I pick my flavors and by this time I would probably be confident enough to mix 120ml of a juice using flavors I initially choose. Its at this point when I start evolving the recipe into something I know will be good. I typically have more than a few flavors to choose from. So I pick the ones I think might work and I start searching for recipes with my chosen flavors.
This is my point, (sorry I often feel it is better to explain in detail - hence me explaining my explanation, and another explaining that… err ok).
When I see familiar faces I trust, I browse through any recipes they use that particular flavor in. If I see recipes by people I don’t know I look through their recipes and see what they know. Are they just following and copying? Or are they creative and using flavors well?
This I have found has me drawing inspiration from a number of chefs here. @Pro_Vapes I love seeing what he does with fruits, and delicate desserts. @Alisa is one that is a goto for a wide range of flavors. But if I am making anything with a crunchy or buttery side to it I know she has used it and has the perfect flavor pairings to compliment it. @SthrnMixer - what can i say… this guy is as southern as it gets here. You can tell this very easily looking through his recipes. French chefs ain’t got shit on southern style. And @Ken_O_Where is one i know does the creamy side of things so well. If it can be used in foreplay, he has ya “covered”.
There are many others here that know their flavors that I trust. Over time you will find the people you draw inspiration from.
I love this website though, feel free to check out any of my juices.