I’m just wondering what to do about flavour loss during steeping.
I usually drip a sample in my RDA shortly after mixing and see where the flavours are. Then depending on the recipe I steep to maturity and quite often find that flavours have become muted.
I tested with a variety of recipes and flavour percentages, different days and rbas.
All I can think is that I like 70-30 VG heavy. I know VG is not a great flavour carrier. Could this be the problem?
Any insight by more experienced mixers would be greatly appreciated
VG won’t help for sure @Canjam, but it’s not necessarily the culprit. Higher levels of EM can mute, overflavoring can mute, and some flavors, especially lemons can fall off while steeping.
I may be over flavouring. I read the notes on each flavour I get and try to stick in the medians for mix or sf. But sometimes I up the % little on a second batch. Could be it.
Absolutely @Canjam I won’t even show you MY early recipes. Dump Trucks of flavor. I thought MORE was MORE hehe.
What you can do on the ELR calculator, and very quickly is reduce the overall flavoring by clicking the blue wrench, then “Adjust Total Flavor %”, and cut in half or whatever you want, for a quick easy, compare/contrast with the other full flavored recipe.
He he. Ah ok @SessionDrummer . I saw that feature on the drop down from the blue wrench. I haven’t played with it yet. Now I definitely will thanks to your tip.
As a bonus the flavourings will go farther I guess too.
Depending on the recipe and flavirs this may be normal. Duriing the steeping process flavor will calm down a bit and they also become 1 with the carrier .
Vg isnt a Bad Carrier . Its just more viscous than PG . 70/30 should not be presenting any problems.
You main note is goinf to be more dominate off the shake . Not always , but often enough
How long are you steepimg ? Can you link a coupke rescipes. Seeing the recipes will make this easier
This confirms a couple of things. Steeping time depends on the flavours. Fruits not long at all. Creams maybe a week. But I find after 4-5 days even those flavours starting to drop off on a taste test.
I think it’s like you said the carrier flavour becoming dominant.
Again it’sy lack of experience. With multiple flavours trying to get certain nuisances to come through just right ain’t easy, lol.
Plus I’ve learned I’m over flavouring so back to the drawing board. But at least everything is vapable now, just need tweaking.
I’ve read a ton of other people’s recipes to see what percentage they used of each so that is narrowing things down a bit. I read the notes on each new flavour I buy. I make a 10ml sf at the recommended avg. Getting to know them and imagine how they may work together is helping a lot. I’ve got some flavour combos I like now at least. Feel free to check out my recipes.
Researching the flavors and studying what percentages other people have used is all well and good. But you should also make time and do SFT for the flavors you own. Read up on that. Take notes as you’re testing. Flavor percentages can vary wildly so SFT gives you an intimate understanding of what is too much or not enough, what works with what, and what doesn’t.
Hey @TorturedZen you’re right. Ive been making 10ml sf of each new flavour I buy. I does help a great deal. Then you know the flavour enough to mix it, right.
@St3v0 you’re right. Apparently capellas strawberries and cream is one of those. And I find malted milk a little weird.
It would be good to have a list of flavours like that. Ones that make off tastes or ones that cancel out other flavours.
… Some flavors are weird & don’t get along tht great with other flavors!