How Low Can You Go?

[anon84779643]

@BoDarc

I think this is one of the most important threads in recent memory. We can all agree that Vaping is waay safer than smoking, but vaping 20% flavored e-juice surely has waay more impact on your respiratory system than any of these “how low can you go” recipes. Many older recipes almost seem to ask “How high can I go?”

Thank you, @BoDarc… really. I see a few catching on to how low… I used to take a lot of criticism for how I mix, (I still do get the occasional) and after so many years of mixing with the standards, it really has been a joy to find the ultras, starting with Baker’s Flavors… I never published any of those older recipes here on elr… in a way I wish I had. Too many notes and recipes to even contemplate doing so.

Flavoring by total percentage, yes the more one uses, the heavier they are. The more you can kill your taste buds quicker (think strawberry ‘blindness’) and in some circumstance (New Vapers transitioning) you really do need heavy, but most think heavy in the wrong approach… Think juul pods… simple recipes but done a touch higher than regular juice, added with a few extra compounds to make that first “hit” an eye roll of omg so damn good, I can give up smoking!

As one goes to more clouds and less flavor, the natural approach is flavor heavy… give it to me now! However, you will have some complaining of water/vapor heaviness in the lungs… coughing too much (pg sensitivity) so yes, I agree.

@BoDarc

Folks are worried about PG sensitivities etc (minimizing your PG%s), and I suggest we should also be more thoughtful about high flavor % inhalation. If your entry point into Vaping was targeted on your Health, then considering the Health benefits resulting from lowering your Flavor Total% consumption is apparent to me.

Totally agree… 100%

@BoDarc

Thanks @SmokyBlue for coming back on ELR and sharing. Your one reply above to Dardyvape had many tasty details to ponder. The biggest take away is that great mixing can be easier and cheaper and tastier and maybe even a little healthier. We have been over-thinking it …we have been over flavoring it …in our search for more flavor we’ve been blinding it.

I wish indeed I could say it was all of me, it came from conversations from the lab I used to work for. The depth of brainstorming at work, and how we put flavors together. Over thinking and over flavoring is what effects us all. Thank you, tho… for that one saying “Less is more, less is better and better for you” my employer, mentor and friends at the lab will always live on. The things they have taught me, the ideas we bounced, and the good flavor times we shared, I wanted to give back to the community what it is that got me hooked and will always love about vaping… is that we are different. Not just in tastings, but in how we mix and think of what equals good tastes.

@BoDarc

Over the Holidays I found myself in a B&M Vape Shop. I bought 100ml of Vapetasia Royalty II which was surprisingly enjoyable …many complex tiny flavor notes to enjoy. The flavors are barely detectable, but definitely there, and as I have said before I believe Taste is a manufactured construct in your brain. Heh it’s the Vape Matrix! I mean put some blue coloring in a food product and people taste/imagine Blueberry.

I have done this with our flavorings as well… putting a mix together and having someone blind tasting it. With the power of suggestion, they had presented to themselves they tasted “x” but x was not in the mix. It’s rather fun to do it… I get a lot of giggles!

@BoDarc

Interesting thought… SFT can not only give you experience with a new flavor …it can also be like Taster Cross Training. The fact Smokers loose their taste and that New Vapers require some recovery time (I can’t taste this juice!) is generally the advice given to Newbs. It make sense that it could be possible to watch your own recovery (or ever-changing taste-ability) with just some lower-limit flav% testing

Exactly. This works for any manufacture, not just the standards. I have found too, once you go low, it is harder to vape those “in you face” type juices too. It really does show off how “newbie” those mouth full of nothing but flavor overload is. (Good for the cheaper consumer tho, as they could split the juice bought) Just like with nicotine step down… flavor reduction can happen to make things right.

@BoDarc

Wow Advising folks to seriously embrace Single Flavor Testing as not only a way to gauge their Subjective experience re: a Flav (really? how low can I go?), but also more frequently gauge their Taster itself … and even as something smart to track, makes sense. After all, it seems like this whole topic could be like putting our Olfactories on a regimen of diet and exercise and tracking it …and perhaps answering the question “Does lowering my overall Flav% actually also help my tongue/nose recover their ‘Sight’?” …then we could use waay less, because we now may have developed an improved ability to taste in the process. Compelling idea IMHO

It does help, at least myself, to become a better mixer. To contemplate what can go with what, what could be the contrast, what to use when, and the results.

I retest all of my flavors in batches now days… some are just solos, some are doubles, once in a while I do 4-6 flavored recipes, but keeping things simple is my end goal.

Speaking of end goals… since I am not working for my lab now, some things I will be wrapping up. I will always support @Flavorah when I can… but I am working on other projects nowdays and not sure where it all will take me. I am much happier and learning new things once again! <3

Thank you again @BoDarc and I hope you all find new spots and tastes and keep things going!

[semantic_accident]

Nice Idea! I started going low very soon after I started mixing my own juices. I have a tendency towards FA (mostly for reasons of availability) flavours and the customer percenteage recommendations on the various shops are usually like “I mixed it at 8% in 80/20 VG/PG, tastes great” or so. But with some (e.g. Mango) flavours that will only taste like soap or worse. But it really depends on the flavour, so, unfortunately, there’s a lot of trial and error even for flavourings of the same manufacturer.
I think INA are the ones that require the least % of those that I own.
I’ve gone to 2% total with FA, but that’s too little for my taste, although it may be due to a “bad” PVG base that I had at the time. Meanwhile I’m usually aiming at 4-5% with FA, 5-6% with Capella and 2% with INA flavours and try to take that into account when combining flavours from different companies.

One of the reasons I started mixing was to go along cheaply with my vaping and I hate the tendency toward “shake-n-vape” stuff that comes at a 1:5 ratio at a ridiculous price.
I support this thread and the go low movement