Cosmic Fog The Shocker Lemon Flavoring

E-liquids Flavors
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Well, there’s a couple of things that might affect a retail liquid. One of which you’ve already mentioned (which I’ll go into shortly), and the other you may not be aware of, or thought about (depending on how involved you are/were in vaping during those changes)…

The one you may have missed would be the whole “uproar/outcry/concern” about diacetyl, acetoin, and acetyl propionyl (D/A/AP) . Around the time when that all everyone talked about, it mushroomed into such a big thing, that liquid makers were almost getting burned at the stake. So in order to avoid becoming “the next target”, some of them decided to revise their flavoring choices (think Cap v2 and TFA DX), and as a result, existing profiles changed. In many (most IMO) cases, not for the better. The worst thing to come of the whole thing is Butyric Acid (BA), as I can pick that taste out of any flavor/mix that includes it. Thanks to having done single flavor testing, and then directly comparing several of the original versions side by side with their DX or v2 counterpart. (It stands out like a sore thumb once you know what you’re looking for)

Anyways, manufacturers don’t change established flavor profiles very often (at least IME, which is short compared to the real vets here), but it can and has happened. Though I think what you’ve likely encountered is thanks to the diacetyl scare.

Hard to say definitively when we’re not the creators. At best it’s like cloning. Educated guesses! :wink:

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I have not mixed Shocker recipes, but I do have a bottle and the one thing I will say is that, to me, I get a pretty strong hint of lime. I love the stuff and when I looked up the recipes I was surprised that so many people read lemon flavor, instead of lime. LOL Every palette is different, but I thought it might be something to mull over, even if you decide I am full of beans. Good luck, and if you do hit a good clone, please share. I would love to be able to make my own.

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Welcome and do your enjoy your DIY journey. Your mixes will get better in time. Its all about trial and error here. La Lemonade is fantastic by the way.

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Of all the Cosmic Fog flavors I have tried, this is actually one of their weaker flavors. While still good, it doesn’t stand as strong as something else they produce such as Kryptonite. For such a soft lemon, I would highly suggest using FA Lemon Sicily. It has been a while since I tried it, so I cant remember exactly what else was in it, but as I remember, it was a very soft, sweet lemon. No creams. Probably some sort of sweetener.

Reading now on the profile:
“Sweet Strawberries paired in a perfect medley of tropical fruit draw you in just in time for the shocking burst of citrus lemonade to dance along your taste buds. Whether you are trying to stay cool, or just want to remember those relaxing summer days. “The Shocker” is a must have for vapers worldwide.”"

Honestly, I would not have guessed that there were strawberries in there, just by the taste, so I would probably use one that is on the lighter side, or it will take over the mix.

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Thanks robin, glad to hear about La Lemonade, hopefully it arrives today. At the least I hope to use it on it’s own. My FW Lemonade doesn’t do it for me.

@Pentine. Yes I totally agree with you, it is a very subtle flavour, I think my attempts so far have got too much flavour. Yes the Strawberry element is so so weak it must be a drop or 2 at most. I’ll keep at it!

@Sprkslfly You could well be right - there may well be other flavours that may have been reviewed once the uproar on diacetyl came.

Thanks very much all for your help.

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@rckchik Sorry - missed your reply! There is an extremely tart high note in it isn’t there. This may well be some other as you say like lime. I bought Inawera sweet and sour and this definitely has that tartness however I’m still thinking I’m missing something. Oh well - I’ll keep on trying.

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I’ve been using Lemon Lime Cap lately for a more tart lemon flavour.

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I’ll get that ordered G-Fog, thanks. You’re the second person to recommend looking at Lemon/Lime so maybe I’m missing something.

LA Lemonade just arrived and I just cooked up a brew. I don’t think it is used in The Shocker but it’s pretty nice stuff all the same.

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Hi guys. Does anyone know what colour Flavor Express Lemon is? I’m slowly buying up every lemon flavour I can get my hands on! For me to order FE Lemon in the UK is going to cost me so I figured I’d try some sleuthing on whether it is slightly yellow. I know the colour may not mean anything but it’s worth a shot.

Cheers

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Hello, I’m back again!

I’ve been doing a lot of research on the flavour and here are some of the things I can surmise:

There have been at least 3, but maybe four recipes of Cosmic Fog’s Shocker.

  1. The first one I ever tried was in a clear bottle with the old style branding in a 50/50 blend. It was available in 3/6/12 and 18mg. This was around until late 2015, early 2016. This one was very tart/acidic in nature and was predominantly lemon in flavour. There was a small amount of strawberry discernable and sometimes a tiny amount of mango or apple (this is going off memory), The amount may have been more but may interact with the lemon. As a flavour profile though it was lemon through and through. Some reviews stated it had little to no discernible flavour. Lemon though can be a real ball ache with vaper’s tongue.

  2. The second arrived early 2016 going off memory and was in a black bottle (15/30ml), available in 70/30 in 0/3/6 and 12mg. This was my favourite. It was more citrusy than before with a sour lemon bite that I have not experienced since. There appeared to be notes of mango and strawberry and tropical but it was all held together with this wonderful citrus high note. This one was awesome, and my ADV.

  3. The third appeared mid 2016 and looked identical to the above. This was where to me the flavour profile was lost. Gone was the high citrus/sour note, replaced by a jumbled up fruit concoction. The previous side notes of Strawberry appeared to be boosted up to be stronger. To me it was more of a ripe fruit salad as opposed to a “Shocking” taste bud explosion.

  4. Early 2017 saw the TPD over in Europe so 10ml is now standard issue. With it I believe CF again tweaked their recipe. This one, similar to the third is very fruit salad, but appeared slightly more balanced with an attempt at getting the citrus back in the mix. However it doesn’t compare to the second or first in citrus tartiness.

My goal is to get something near to the second or first one. At the moment I’m pretty exhausted from trying. I contacted Cosmic Fog and they confirmed the recipe has been changed in preparation for submission to the FDA PMTA. This gave me a few clues. There was something in the formulation which would probably be flagged. This gave me the idea of looking at FlavorWest stuff as I know they’re known to have not disclosed ingredients. I’ve gone through almost the whole lot… Hawaiian Limeade, Lemonade, Strawberry Lemonade, Citrus soda, Fuzzy Naval, etc etc, literally all of their soda type flavourings. One or two appear reminiscent and others like Natural Mango is used in other juices like Cali Collada and Passion Punch from Liquid State, but none seem to be in the ballpark for the Shocker. Since then I’ve been buying up almost every citrus lemon/lime type flavour I can get my hands on. I know it’s not going to be “one flavour” but I’m kind of feeling that if this elusive ingredient suddenly touched my tongue, I’d be able to tell it straight away. I’ve got all the usual TFA, CAP, FA, FW, Flavorah, Inawera and Flavour Express Lemons/Grapefruits/Limes etc to no avail…

Another angle I’ve looked at is getting hold of pre TPD stock to help with cloning. It’s hard enough with a fresh bottle in front but without it’s needle in haystack territory. I managed to get hold of a bottle of the first Shocker which dates back to 2015!! The shop should not have sold it to me as it’s technically illegal now in the UK as it’s over the 10ml threshold, however I did learn some other things from vaping it. First is that the citrus element had all but faded away. No surprise there as it’s well past it’s sell by date. What this did reveal however was the Eliquid base. I detected a marshmallow undertone, along an absinthe anise taste. It even reminded me of Milk and Honey, also by Cosmic Fog. The amount however is so so low, it would probably never be detectable, had the citrus been fresh. I’m pretty sure of this being a combination of a marshmallow to sweeten, and then absinthe anise to work in conjunction with either/or manic/citric acid to sour it up. I’ve worked on trying to create a base flavour for use with it and the VG imparts a sweet taste that I’ve struggled to mask. I’m thinking of using some bitter wizard/magic mask to try and neutralise this. I’ve also read up about ascorbic acid (vitamin c) which has apparently been used to lower PH, but apparently this doesn’t impart a citrus taste per-se.

I guess I’m at a roadblock here. I really really underestimated how complex cloning a juice really is, even something that appeared on the surface to be straightforward. As it is now I’m running out of avenues in flavouring to explore (or at least I think I am). I’ve got an order coming today with some Solub Arome flavours, there’s also Jungle Juice Lemon I need to try but then what? Give up!!!

If anyone here has any advice at all (apart from the obvious one :wink: I’d be really grateful for your time. Maybe someone knows of some random, oddball or rare lemon citrus flavour that I’ve missed. I’m specifically thinking it may be a US brand. I’ve toyed with getting hold of Lorann’s Lemon oil (not Lemonade) but it’s on the list of “dangerous to vape” so I’m really wary of that one. It is apparently an essential oil rather than in an oil base but all the same. The citrus I’m after really is a zinger. I read a review once describing it as getting a lemon, inserting electrodes and vaping the fumes!! That is so true. I know that far more sensible people than me would have moved on long ago, but my flavour profile is so so narrow. It’s either citrus based or tobacco and that’s pretty much it. Thank you for reading my rant this far, and any pointers, however insignificant really would be appreciated.

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It’s interesting you bring this up…
If it’s been confirmed the original recipe was reformulated due to the D/A/AP hysteria, could the original have also contained this particular concentrate? Maybe when they were reformulating a “safe” version they learned essential oils are a no no. I don’t mean to sound like a conspiracy theorist but it seems semi possible. Alternatively I’m an idiot with nothing real to help you on your quest :smile:

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I like you. Great persistence. I have been doing the same thing with Element Pink Lemonade since I started DIY and it is a pain in the ass. They way they captured such a lively citrus… Idk how they do it. I too have pretty much every lemon, lime, and grapefruit flavor. Sounds like we are on a similar track.

Please PM me if you have questions about any lemon before buying it as I have exhausted just about every one out there.

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I assume you tried boosting the lemon with citric and or malic (sour) acids?

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Hi guys, thanks for your replies. Yes I totally believe that the original recipe had something that’s off limits or questionable now. It certainly packed a throat hit back in the day. However we make our choices and I still think I’m better off the smokes even with some of these ingredients. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to be stupid about it. If it’s bad then I would have to really think long and hard about it. From what I understand, pretty much all citrus flavourings get their aromas from essential oils in one way or another, maybe there’s some that are worse than others though.

Thanks for the offer @Pentine - will do! Yep I’m persistent alright! Not doing me any good. My wife thinks I’ve gone crazy with the amount of flavours I’ve accumulated in such a short while. I did think of Inawera lemon being a candidate as I heard that at some point they had to reformulate their flavour due to TPD ingredient disclosure, I don’t know if this is true though…

Element Pink Lemonade is another of my old favourites. It was the second or third juice I tried. I went off it a little mainly because it destroyed my wicks so quickly and I found it too sweet sometimes. Saying that I love the stuff and after the Shocker it would be in my top 5 liquids. In fact I posted a comment on Micah’s recipe last night about FlavorWest Star burst/candy. I was testing it and It reminded me somewhat of the Element base profile. It’s a bit chemical in taste but maybe lower down in the mix it might be that missing something.

@woftam - Yes I’m all soured up here with malic and citric acid. I’ve sometimes wondered if I should try adding citric acid in a higher percentage to see what happens, but I think it’s got to be pretty low down to work.

Today I’ve ordered Lorann Lemon Oil so I can do a paper test - to see if it is actually oil based or water soluble, going to have to be careful with that one. I’ll certainly keep updating back if I get any joy.

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I dont think lemon was reformulated.

Citric acid will mute flavours if you go too high.

Good luck

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Looks like you know more than me! Thanks for the info, that’s useful.

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@Totty may be confusing posts (or could have read it elsewhere for that matter) but I know VapeyMama and I were discussing whether or not Ina lemon had been “messed with” due to a perceived substantial change in potency. Hers is able to be used at the normal “Inawera low percentages” whereas the one I received from VapersTek needed to be used at 5% or higher as a single flavor. It was then later brought to light via a shared link to a Reddit post (over a year earlier at the time we were discussing it) that potency had in fact changed.

No mention of a change in the profile throughout the conversation though. It’s definitely an old-fashioned hard lemon candy. Hope that helps in your decision as to whether or not you still feel like trying it!

Also, if you haven’t tried MF/Lotus lemon, that’s definitely worth trying IMO!

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We were talking about their lime… At least I hope we were because I’ve never tried their lemon!

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:thinking: Well crap. OK. Appreciate your input/reminder.

Same story, different flavor. It applies to both though, because I got both at the same time from the same place. And they were both weak AF (by normal Ina standards).

Thank you for helping keep the record straight! (And me!) :hugs:

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Yes, I have tried citric, malic, ascorbic, and tartaric acid to no avail. I tried each at 0.25% all the way through 5%, incrementally. I thought by the finger test, citric acid was the key, but it just doesn’t translate to vaping it. Going to try again after a while to make sure that I wasn’t wrong and perhaps this time, use a sweetener as a carrier for the acids as sweet is the only thing we truly taste in a vape, while the rest is mostly smell. I’m obsessed with lemon and Citric flavors…

Malic was perhaps the closest to actually providing taste, but it still wasn’t like the premium. I swear, they know a few things that we have yet to discover.

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