Flavor Testing. The Lab, The Equipment, The Criteria

[SessionDrummer]

@muth

I stopped being envious about the free flavors a long, long time ago

I know THAT feeling @muth. It’s ALL fun and games the 1st or 2nd time, BUT, after that, hehe, … it isn’t.

@muth

is an opportunity to express my gratitude to all the experienced mixers on ELR that have helped me along the way. Some don’t even know they’ve helped me because we never met, I’ve only read their excellent notes.

Great point(s).

@muth

As you always remind people, taste is subjective so please test for yourself.

Thank you, AND, thank you.

@muth

However, I still know that I can ask, “Hey SD, you know these two flavors, would one be a good sub for the other?” The same goes for many other mixers here with extensive flavor knowledge.

I know for myself (maybe not everyone), the larger my list grows, it CAN be hard(er) to keep ALL of it intact LOL.

@muth

what made you decide to do this in the first place…free flavors?

Hehe, no @muth. The Fame and Money, right ?? It was sooo long ago, I’m never 100% sure, but I’m fairly certain, I was working on a recipe or profile with someone, could have been @Fozzy71, maybe @AZ_Jeep, but Real Flavors had just blown up, and we were all gaga over them, and I shared some of my (very bad) notes, with the (accidental) scoring left intact, and I started getting a lot of feedback. @Walt_RealFlavors was very involved, but I don’t remember any FREE flavors flowing. Maybe a sampe here or there, but it was all self funded. After the great feedback or thanks kept coming, it’s like I knew that people just wanted to see the notes, and I started doing it more.

As far as in house, I think I blame @MysticRose hehe. Her reviews motivated me. I really liked @ConcreteRiver’s reviews, but felt the format was to involved for most mixers, despite them being rock solid, detailed, and all encompassing.

I did look around a bit to see who else was doing it, and there weren’t very many. Some of the reviews I saw were VERY involved, and just paragraphs and paragraphs about ONE flavor, and I think the reviews were posted one at a time, once a week maybe ?? That seemed like WAY too deep, too much information, and too slow, so I started doing them with much LESS info, faster, and running series at a time, and I tried to keep them consistant, and honest.

Then, as they say, it just continued LOL.

It was never about the free anything, and even with equipment reviews, the amount of time, and effort required, literally REMOVED the FREE from the equation. I’m always hopeful that MORE people will start doing them, if even for themselves, share a couple, and might find that other people like their notes too !!!

Thanks a lot @Muth.

[McDuckie]

@Gazza7

I generally use a Wasp Nano

What kind of coils do you use with the Wasp Nano? I’ve never been able to use mine I have the 22mm Nano and it’s really airy even with the airflow almost fully closed it feels like the airflow is completely open. I typically run dual core fused clapton 5 wrap comes out @ .20.

[Lostmarbles]

That’s the general coil I used too. It’s a good coil, but on the Wasp, I just couldn’t like any coil I tried. It’s way too airy for my taste and the heated spitback I’d get on it, was annoying AH. Not to mention the whistling.
I ended up PIFing it away.
Hope you find something that’ll work for you.

[big_vape]

IIRC my coil was similar to yours. 3mm I think, Airflow about half open with a regular 510 drip tip on top. The coil was visible through the air slots filling half the view. No whistle. Super flavorful even though it was only $10. My main gripes were that juice would pool on top of the areas beside the coil, and those screws were so super tiny.

[muth]

Well heck, you even reviewed my post ! I’m happy to share my thoughts on a flavor but my review would be more like…

“I like it, maybe you will too!” Tada! Heehee

[muth]

@Lostmarbles

It’s way too airy for my taste and the heated spitback

I’m glad to hear you and @McDuckie feel the same way. I bought two of them on a sale and was excited until I used it. I mistakenly took the word nano to mean smaller air and chamber. Not to mention you’re stuck with a proprietary drip tip.

[McDuckie]

Ooo yes thank you Big_Vape I tossed in a new coil and added a 510 drip tip closed the airflow to 3/4 and we have flavor. I guess adding a drip tip closed off the airflow enough to make it work.

[Gazza7]

I just use plain old 26g kanthal.
I can certainly obtain restriction with the AFC.

[McDuckie]

That one I used I don’t even know what material it is. Probably nichrome 80 it is an Omi coil that came with my Asmodus C4. I didn’t realize I was out of coils. Looks like I’ll be spinning a few dozen claptons tomorrow night.

[muth]

Thx for the tip on the 510 DT. I dug one out and tried it. Much better

[Lostmarbles]

Damn! I never thought to add a 510 tip. Now I wish I still had it. Oh well, spilled milk and errant thoughts…

[muth]

Yeah, this was an oddity. Everything about it LOOKED good until you tried it. The coil fit snuggled right up to the af holes and the chamber around it was small enough to condense the flavor

[dpaper]

Wow, excellent post! Thanks for your time and dedication for posting it here!

[SessionDrummer]

Thank you very much @dpaper.

[Mikser]

IT didn’t mean that.

[SessionDrummer]

Hehe, I thought the same thing @mikser, BUT, I’ll take the compliment anyway.

[SessionDrummer]

@Iv3shf

You get the good ones but you might get the runty ones, the good ones are easy, you had an idea on percentages, but at the end you have just been lucky and they might be easy to work with, at that point is easy to write a good review.
It’s the runty ones that are the most difficult, are they really runty or did I do something wrong, didn’t push it high enough or does it have be lower, did I wait long enough? Is that banana really runty? Or is it just an offnote? What does it compare it with?
All sorts of questions rise up, at the end you’re writing a review for others for who sent the flavors and for yourself, at the end of the first process you’re exhausted,but it’s just the first round, you have to start over again to see if your impressions are solid and/or some of them have changed in time.
That is without thinking about flavors you might not particularly like (SD is not an aniseed fan if I remember correctly) and it’s not easy task writing a review for something you don’t like.
A week is gone and you start with creams and bakeries (you already tried them to give you an idea) and you write, write, and write again.
Writing?
You have to be good at it, have to be careful on not writing something useless, have to be witty, have a wide knowledge of comparisons, if it’s better or worst then MF/FA/FLV/CAP/VSO/TPA/SSA (most of them reviewers gets lost on that one) and it’s the reasons why our SD takes high on account accuracy, you won’t get lost on the highly subjective comparing nightmare, if sometime he does it, it’s because it’s blatantly close or if it compares to the known top of that flavour range.
SD also defines usability or feasible pairings great job SD!

After that do you still want your “free” flavors?

Just re-reading @Iv3shf’s comments. VERY well written.

[STR8V8PING]

I bought the wasp nano a while back and the flavor was decent but couldnt get around the spitback etc. I just tried it again with a 510 drip tip on it and wow what a difference. Its totally usable now

[muth]

I’ve got two Wasp Nanos and had a hard time finding a 510 for just one of them and even that one is a hard fit. But I appreciate your flavor take on it. I’ll just keep looking for more 510s.

[STR8V8PING]

I used the 510 off my hadely