If this has already been asked and answered I apologize but I didn’t find it. Ok, ;)!
I don’t understand what a linear flavor is and I saw someone describe a bipolar flavor, lol, the other day. Not sure what the opposite of linear is but I would like to know that too. I’m not sure how to know what the top and bottom notes are and is it because maybe my palette is just not trained enough yet or maybe the equipment I’m using to sft? I can’t distinguish full mouth feel or if a fruit is meaty, fleshy, taste peel or zest but I want too! Is there anything I can do or learn to help me better define what I’m tasting? Even though obviously taste is subjective I feel like I missed something or I should’ve learned something else so I could move this journey along kinda feels like I’m stuck. Thank you all for all the help and God speed…;))
Relate it to cooking. How does a steak feel in your mouth? What does the texture of peas feel like when you chew them? How does the banana taste in the popsicle your eating?
Its just like pairing flavors…it worked for me to get a better feel on flavors. Much luck!
If you have just started mixing you don’t have to worry about stuff like this too much. It’s more of an advanced thing. Since e-juice DIY uses food flavorings it can become like the Culinary Arts. I mean you may like cooking and have some awesome recipes for dinnertime, it doesn’t mean you will starve because you can’t tell a Shiitake mushroom from a Portobello while blindfolded.
Soon enough descriptions like “mouthfeel” will become more important to you as you build experiences while mixing …it will come. Look at items in your Flavor Stash. Click on them and read the “Notes” section. Then look at recipes you can make and read “Comments” and just let it soak in. You don’t really need to understand it immediately.
Apologies if in fact you can determine mushrooms blindfolded …it was just an example 
Being able to put your flavor experience into words carries much weight when trying to make something original or clone a fav commercial juice. It’s how we know what your looking for, so we can help.
After a year, i still cant put into words tastes,textures,aromas, etc. I do know a mixes flavor can change depending on your vape gear. You can try adjusting your wattage a little and find different tastes within the same mix, it can be wonderful
You’ve already seen some great answers, and I’ll attempt to add to them.
Very early in I struggled with correlating some of what I’d read as well. But it grows easier to understand with experience.
Sometimes some of what you may read is hubris. And takes a bit of liberty (if not borderline poetic license) with the “extensiveness” of the description. (read as: some people are talented at, and enjoy telling, a good story!)
Other times (and frequently enough), and especially with certain companies (FA instantly comes to mind), flavors are complex to start with. So you will have “high” and “low” notes.
Let’s take the linear comment first! IMO, and as it might apply to flavors (and hardware), I would take that to mean that the flavor remains the same, across any stretch of wattage, or perhaps is consistent between hardware (such as a tank, vs an RDA, etc). It performs as if it’s on a straight line or linear.
Whereas, Bipolar (meaning two distinctly different aspects) might be used when referring to FA Forest Fruit for instance. It has several different notes to it, which can be experienced simply by changing device type (ie: from rda to tank) or by changing the wattage up and down a few degrees. This is where the high and low notes apply.
Since we don’t fully achieve “texture” with vaping (as compared to the “simple, but complete experience” as we do in the mouth), it’s my opinion that the closest thing that we can use to describe that texture aspect is mouthfeel. So folks try and pick up on, and point out the instances where they observe that type of correlation in a given flavor.
Part of it is a mental exercise, but it’s not nonsense either. As our food addiction is largely tied into the total experience. Where we were dining, the atmosphere, the mood we were in, who we were with, etc etc… They could all be considered “enhancers” which made that simple piece of meat, or dessert, etc so memorable.
Same thing with smells, and flavors! So yeah, sometimes descriptions go a little astray, but usually, and especially once you’ve learned who to follow (that matches your niche in preferences) you’ll be able to understand and translate the intent of what’s being shared, as it applies to “your reality”! 
As Bo said:
But once you are able to have your preferences nailed down (in hardware, and then again with respect to flavor profiles, and further, with brands of flavor) then you’ll start to really appreciate the subtleties. And end up sharing your interpretations here:
Cheers @ImNachogrl! Enjoy the journey! 
I can’t either, there i said it. I’m on a forum about mixing e-liquid and i can’t do it as a matter of fact i don’t even bother to try nor do i want too.
Oke after the little dramatic info. Coming up with an own recipe is not something i’m interested in nor do i think i have the skillz for it. If you do want to learn though you’re probably in the best spot to test, taste, read and discuss, test again and discuss some more that way i think you’ll get there.
I do try to contribute in other ways to the community though. Reviews (recipes and other), put some google skillz to work, point people in the right direction if there is already a good source for info or a similar thread, etc. Guess we all can’t be the next “Top Chef”
Exactly what he said. There are some that use so many words that I don’t or can’t apply to a flavor. I won’t mention any names, but there is one in particular this is very hard to understand. I guess I’m just a simple person. I like to read flavor notes from quite a few people that discuss flavors and tasting simply, without all the extra “professional” wording.
I tend to talk about back notes and top notes sometimes as well. For me, back notes are the deeper notes that are tasted lightly in the background or sometimes can’t even be tastes until during or after the exhale, like an aftertaste. For me, top notes are the right up front first flavors that stand out in the flavor. Being subjective, I’m not sure how everyone else considers things.
Stick with it, I felt lost for the first year of mixing, then it started to make sense to me. Keep trying, and you will find tasting notes that make sense to you at some point. Be sure and read the notes listed under the notes section of each flavor on the recipe side. Some have simple and easy descriptions.
Well, again, it’s only my interpretation. But that’s how I would intend it if I used the terms!
I’ll add simply that getting several different manufacturers flavors and comparing them, at least for starters, at their “in recipes” percentages (for starters) helps a lot.
Vape each SnV and then as they steep. You’ll notice the different components of each flavor and how they change. Variability across brands can be pretty high. A good starter might be dragonfruit tpa vs. Inw. Inawera has a grassy note to it that I enjoy a lot in certain mixes, not in others. But you can do this comparison with nearly any flavor.
It’s a journey, don’t force it, it will come naturally as you develop more experience.
Glad someone else feels like this. The descriptions some reviewers use…and I’m like “WTF does cloying mean?” Can I read a description without using Google please. LOL
On some of the comments I can kinda see where they’re coming from. On others I just figure they’ve had a few too many dry hits.
I appreciate a good wine, but when I hear some wine connoisseurs talk about it with the woody, chocolate, nutty or berry notes, I think “my god what are these people smoking?”. Never in my life would I even think about those things when it comes to describing the flavor.
Same can be said with e-liquids. But once you get all the experience and tried a gazillion different thing, I suppose those things start to make sense to differentiate between even the smallest changes in a recipe.
I get what people mean with mouth feel and some of the more basic descriptions, but a lot of times the descriptions go way beyond comprehension. So it’s good to check different sources, different notes, different reviews as well. Taste is so subjective that you often find contradicting information as well. If you read enough about a juice or a flavor, you should get the general idea about it though.
Aroma + flavor = taste
http://winesutra.in/aroma-taste-and-flavour/#.WcgkFZ_l7qA
The flavors as we call them here is very common to how the perfumes is made
there are three different notes in perfumes: top, middle and bottom
Base note, middle notes, top notes
Read the the Basics and How to make Perfume
http://www.soulvisiondesigns.nl/design-your-own-perfume.htm#2f
Yes tyvvm! I was really hyped about sft’ing and jumping in w both feet, bells on, the works, haaa! Then the reality of it all hit me that there’s sooo much more I need to learn and wow I’ve learned a lot already but I’m enjoying it so ok I’ll try I say to myself, lol… next thing I know I’ve got almost 400 flavors and I’m just waiting for someone to release THAT recipe or recipes I love and can’t live w/o and it’s not happening. Instead what happens is every other recipe I think might be THE ONE ends up me short that 1-2 flavors and I need to make another order, lol…( I’m sure y’all can relate?). So, I say I just need to sft. Then I say, well I thought I was a pretty good cook and until I started doing this, haaaa! Truth is, I am if I have a recipe. Knowing what my food tastes like before I cook it hasn’t made me a better cook so is all this sft’ing really going to help? Then I say… well, better do something because all those bottles of flavors they’re not going to mix themselves… so here I am hoping to maybe learn more from you w more experience than me and I appreciate you all taking the time to reply and share w me!! God speed…;))
So, while I’m here, new question… I see people hit their atomizers after they put the juice on before they put the mouthpiece, kinda opposite of dry burn when building your coil. So, sometimes I get real harsh hits so I thought maybe I was having hot legs or something so I burned my coils before I put the lid on and it caught on fire, lol, then I put the lid on and sure enough ouch too harsh but I’m not sure why. Is it a bad coil build maybe? Coil too close to other metal parts? It’s not the juice or nic it’s something to do w my build but can’t figure what for sure. I have 4 same derringer clones for testing and I do single builds on them but I’m messing up sometimes and can’t pinpoint where exactly… I hope I’ve given enough info I apologize if I have not and ty soo much for trying to help!
I took linear to mean something like a fruit flavor that is just that “a flavor” straight forward and to the point while some of the combo flavors are widely hypothesized as to what it is exactly. It has for lack of a better term multiple personalities as it is described by different people. I’m probably off my rocker, but I just kind of put all that terminology aside and started mixing to my taste buds expanding and experimenting as my confidence grew. I now have all but three original recipes that we vape and one of those three I designed but it was actually created by a friend before I ever did my first DIY.
The best advice I can give you is to try many use only the ones you really like whether alone or in a mix. The perfect example is that I’d never vape just Grapefruit flavored e liquid but I use it in one mix and it’s amazing.