I think the answer lies in whether were are mixing with organic extracts and materials or with artificial flavorings constructed from the molecule up by chemists/flavorists. Its hard when your senses are telling you that you are tasting an apple when no part of it actually came from an apple. It is for me anyway. I have to remind myself that we are dealing with aromas.
I know that the chemicals that comprise the flavor materials get diluted about 80 times usually with PG and often some alcohol and things beyond my knowledge. So I don’t worry about spoilage but can see where potency could be lost over time. While there are triggers that can cause chemical transformations, overall I reject that our concentrates are chemically morphing into different chemicals and back again. Avoid oxidation and other triggers and the “ifs” are not a factor.
Ha, I’m having an old man day . Hard to get started sometimes.
I’m betting that those old bottles were mixed with nic. The clock starts ticking when its added. We’ve all had mixes that turn to brown sludge. I have straight mixes a year old that are essentially the same as the day mixed. But even ones with just 1 mg added start to turn after a couple of months. Heat, UV, and oxygen cause the oxidation.
Thats true. Its really all the nic oxidization that degrades it. I have flavorings and pg and vg from 2010 that look smell perfectly fine except for a couple fw flavors that turned to black motor oil( i believe the ones they use fructose in). I noticed my old bottle of vanillin 10 percent went black too. Thats interesting as a lot of flavors have vanillin in their makeup.
I found 2 different mixes I found sitting on a shelf in my mixing room. They’re 4 years old. One a custard the other a cheesecake. Both brown as all get go. Both about 16 oz of each. Been vaping both for about 6 months now. The cheesecake was well off flavor the custard has oxidized but was fine to vape and still have about 40ml left. The oxidizing actually worked with the recipe. The cheesecake went down the drain.
To each their own and I suspect that a lot of people like or have become accustomed to oxidized nic. Personally I think I’d gag on it. When I first started I found a place called the Vape Mall and ordered flavors and some nice brown truly nasty ass nic. Then I found ELR and tried top rated recipes which had no chance of working with that nic. Combine that with being a pepper taster with TFA concentrates. The first month I vaped unflavored and it’s a wonder I didn’t go back to smoking with that foul garbage. Now I have a freezer full of Carolina extract and Chemnovatic which should last for several years.
I remember vape mall. Mostly FA renamed flavors for cheap. These were recipes I made up and were pushed in back of a cabinet and found while looking for something else. My taste buds are pretty much shot from smoking for 54 years. I started smoking at 13. Quit about 9 years ago. I don’t taste the subtle neuances others describe. I don’t taste pepper but can tell between good and bad nic. I have a gallon of nic short one liter in the freezer downstairs and about 6 60ml bottles in the freezer upstairs about 4 years old. Clear as glass mabe a little pink. It s red by the time I get to the bottom of a working bottle. I’m 71 I doubt I’ll be buying much more nic in my life time. It was funny how each mix oxidized. One got ruined and the other sort of enhanced. After 4 years on the shelf.
Hmm Born 1952 - check. Started smoking at 13 - check. Taste buds probably shot after 50 + years of smoking - check. Have a freezer full of nic - check. So I guess when they try to force us to “eat ze bugs” we’ll still have our nic.
Saw the price increce coming with all the government noise. Paid $64.00 a liter shipped. Now it’s $165.00 a liter? Never could afford to do that today. Figure I have enough to go 10-11years. According to actuarial tables I’m still about 6 years short. I’m going to be one aunry SOB in 11 years if I don’t cut back to 3ml nic mixes.
When it comes to juice getting dark, I just toss it. It can yellow a little but that’s it. It’s pure psychological but I just don’t want anything to do with it. I don’t know what all is involved. I know nic will oxidize but some mixes go dark much faster than others. Not much of a problem for me because nothing sits around more than a week. I make it as I need it.
I’ve been down to a 1 mg mix for about a year so mine last quite awhile providing I either use amber or cobalt glass or keep them out of direct sunlight. I mix mostly 60 mls for myself and my wife (+ couple of friends) about every two weeks or so. Experiments I don’t like get tossed. I keep drippers next to my homgenizers and taste test and tweak before I add nic.
They’re not going to tell us everything they put in these concentrates, and I wouldn’t either, so why some turn faster than others is a mystery to me. There was a new concentrate awhile back that had dark floaters that would stick to the glass. That shit went straight in the trash.
I didn’t have any trouble but I tend to chain vape so I’m getting my “fix” that way. Too much idle time anymore or I’d probably being mixing higher. Plus Carolina Extracts seems to be stronger than most.
I had no idea. Last I heard was some were having trouble getting orders fulfilled. The rest I should leave alone because I’d just go off on a political tirade about how many lives and businesses have been destroyed by totalitarian bullshit.
I shouldn’t jump to conclusions. I assumed FDA wrecked him. I do know that if you wanted to order you had better not mention vaping. Whatever the case, its a damned shame. I have enough for a few years and glad I stocked up.
According to one of the TPA reps I spoke to, flavors either just lose potency or change chemically over time. With that, you either get weak flavor or a strange tasting flavor. I was tempted to ask him which flavors just weakened and which ones got weird but that would be like asking the author of Webster’s which words are nouns and which ones are verbs? I wouldn’t do that to my worst enemy.
