How I create Recipes

General The Pub
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I visit recipe websites for cooking and then mix up flavors that seem to fit the part in those recipes. Sometimes it works out great, other times it doesn’t. If I get a recipe that’s almost where I like it, I continue to fiddle around with it until I get it where I want, if it totally sucks, I scrub it and start from scratch. Do I SFT? No, unless I can’t figure out what a certain flavor is bringing into a mix and even then, rarely. I’ve been using the same process since 2015 and it’s worked great for me. Should you single flavor test? If that’s what you want to do, by all means do it, I don’t feel the need.

When mixing becomes a job rather than a pleasure then there’s no point in it for me. So yes, I have mixers I like and who share similar profiles to mine, and if they’ve written up great flavor notes, I will read them try them in a mix if it works, great, if it doesn’t, I can usually tell in a mix what needs to come up or down. I’ve been a fly by the seat of my pants mixer for a long time and I’ve created some great recipes and others that I’ve thrown out. It’s still fun and I’ll keep doing it my way because DIY is about YOU and finding what works. So let’s break down how I come up with how to turn a food recipe into a vaping recipe.

My original strawberry shortcake recipe https://e-liquid-recipes.com/recipe/479588/saved

I knew I wanted a great cake and nonna’s cake had just released in the UK so I ordered up the flavor because I had faith it was going to be an awesome cake, it was and is, and yes it has a lemon flavor in there (I could tell that on a finger test) but it was going to work great with strawberries because of that. Strawberries and lemons work great together.

I have my cake base! The cornish cream tea was another UK new flavor at the time so I ordered it did a quick test on the finger and I knew it had fa strawberry a cream and a cookie in it (I found out later when they posted it on the UK website that’s just what it was) So knowing that strawberry red liked to fade in a mix, I knew it needed another strawberry to back it up and strawberry ripe TFA was good at helping that. Boom there was my strawberry addition.

With Vienna Cream it was a no brainer, that cream was a sub that HIC used as Bavarian cream and paired with the Fresh Cream and it’s simply a delicious combination. For me, most of what I taste on my finger is going to translate into the vape for me. Sometimes that doesn’t happen, but for the majority of flavors it does. However you want to mix, I encourage you to do it. Never let anyone tell you that you cant mix unless you follow their way, because you might just miss out on doing something great in the way you decided to do it. If I’d started with SFT every single flavor I mixed I’d have given up this fun hobby long ago.

Do you, have fun, and never let anyone make you think you’re not mixing right because the bottom line is this is DIY which is Do It Yourself not Do it the way someone else tells you. Love and light and happy mixing.

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Well, surely Have Fun is among the top points of DIY. And surely everyone needs to learn their own style and preference. And surely you don’t have to mix ‘a certain way’ simply because someone tells you to. But really, I (and likely just about everyone here) can’t agree with your dismissal of single flavor testing.

Every flavor, by every vendor, is different and brings different notes to the party. Strawberry is not Strawberry is not Strawberry across the board. Each has nuances and profile strengths that will be better suited to different recipes than each other. Some are sweeter, some more citric, some more candy, some more natural, etc. And we all taste strawberry a bit different from one another. And this goes for not just strawberry but All The Flavors. I personally think it’s vital to SFT. Yes, it is tedious and time consuming, but it’s essential for proper profile building.

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And that’s awesome if you want to that, Phil. I just don’t feel the need to do it so I don’t :slight_smile:

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I dig that and respect it. But I’m going to stick to my thoughts that one should mention that single flavor testing is at least strongly advised, if not technically required.

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All about how you want to do things. This is my way. It’s worked so why should I change it? I’ve seen people put their flavors in water, whip cream, even milk. The latter two are going to change the flavor too. I’ve worked with some of these flavors so long I can tell by instinct when adding a new flavor in exactly what it brings into a mix.

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Definitely not asking or advising that you do! :wink:

Just saying that if this is presented to a DIY noob audience, I think it’s well in their best interests to SFT. New mixers may not necessarily know that one lime can be vastly different from another, and could easily find themselves frustrated very quickly by failed recipes where the real problem is not their skill, but their familiarity with a flavor. MF Blueberry is top notch- the best there is for a’natural’ blueberry. But it lacks the body and depth needed without help for a pie filling vibe. How do you know that if you don’t test the flavor individually?

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The beginners show I’m doing isn’t building on creating recipes at all, Phil. They want to know how to adapt recipes and mix them from recipes already created. That’s my focus when I say beginners show. If they want to go learn to make their own recipes I’ll point them toward Tam, Wayne, Fresh, Frank, and the others that have that niche pretty much covered. Basically they’ve asked for someone to teach them how to do that, I guess I should have been clear about that.

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Sorry… I wasn’t commenting on this solely as a post you made about your own preference. I just couldn’t help but notice that advising a new mixer to skip SFT wouldn’t be my chosen path, and since I like to make words, naturally I commented on that. But through the lens of you simply explaining your own personal style, of course I have no issue with that.

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You’d be amazed how many beginners haven’t started mixing because they don’t understand the concept of using the calculator here. Dan has talked about doing the beginners show with me, so if he wants to get into the aspect of SFT he’s welcome, I won’t. It’s just not something I do.

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Well slap me silly and call me Sally, I don’t do SFT either! Maybe get to that someday sometime when I have absolutely nothing else to do.

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high five

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Not quite sure as to how we went from “How I create recipes” to beginners strategy here.
For me creating is a ground up process where I can use my experience starting off with a combo. But still it’s a 3steps forward 1 or two steps back and repeat… repetitively…

As far as presenting beginners with a “well I can just tell what to do” approach. I believe you could NOT possibly do more harm than that. A newbie will just throw shit together nillywilly and it will in almost every case set them way back if not causing them to quit altogether.
If I were to tutor a beginner this is how I would do it.
Find out what profiles they want to start with.
Let’s say fruit n cream. I would recommend an assortment of fruits that would allow them to see how one is different than another and allow them to discover it for themselves.
Creams are a beautiful thing to throw in here because you can hook them up with something they can mix individually to get their legs under them. While at the same time introduce them to a stones that they can play with.
Whatever the profile they may choose I would try to include a stone just to boost the ability to succeed with something decent.
Most importantly… SFT’s!

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Because I picked that part of her post to nit. That’s on me.

Couldn’t agree more, and that’s my train of thought. Myself, as I’ve said before, did a lot of willy and a little nilly when I was new, sans SFT too, and I was a disaster. I just think from a new DIY’ers perspective that some things, like knowing your flavors, are fundamental. An experienced mixer can get away with more but a noob needs every advantage possible…

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Mental note dont give Phil an inch to nit lol!

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Sound advice! I will nit when I see a chance!

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Ok I dub thee Sally!

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Nicely put @authormichellehughes. You just put the Y back into DIY.

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I agree with @anon70102222, and being one of the more public SF testers, I DO do a lot of them. Sadly, with over 700 flavors, I don’t have time to do all of them, AND, even with the ones I did, I often test at a standard percentage, and after a standard steep. I typically do not test, re-test, re-re-test at varying percentages, or even steep times (for the most part), as again, it would take too much time to do so. This doesn’t in any way de-value SF testing, because I’m still doing them. After testing as much as I have, talking to other mixers, AND, reading their notes/thoughts, I know who has similar tastes to me. This is GREAT !!! If I’m in a pinch, and I find notes from one of my “taste-alikes”, most times, that can and does work for me.

I figured I’d better post up on my stance on SF testing, as I do so very much of it, BUT, even I, don’t do it for all flavors. Some is better than none, but all is NOT required either.

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Nicely put @anon70102222.

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#BringInDanTheMan

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