so i just started mixing my own juices and i have a few questions for anyone that can help me out.
i picked up a bunch of stuff from RTS Vapes, and i was curious as to what flavor concentrates are the best to use? i bought a bunch(10x10ml) and the majority of the ended up being The Flavor Apprentice, with a few Capella. are these companies good to buy?
i mixed up my first batch which was a Blueberry Cheesecake, both flavors being from TFA. i used the following recipe which equates to 30ml at 4mg of nicotone:
3ml nicotene diluted in VG
15ml VG
6ml PG
3ml Blueberry
3ml Cheesecake
i let it sit for 20-30 minutes and it seemed kind of strong off the bat… should i let the juice sit for a few days to mellow out? seemed like i got a little more cheesecake then i did blueberry so i added a little more(prob less than a ml) blueberry.
thank you in advance for any and all tips, i’m excited to be mixing my own juice!! ready to save some money!!
Yes, both of those are great companies to use. You can’t beat the variety and price of TPA (flavor apprentice/perfumers apprentice are the same thing). I wouldn’t call them the best, but they have some great stuff. I started with their flavors, then got some Capellas, now I have a few from FlavourArt, Flavor West, and Inawera. If you search in the forum here, there are threads for just about every flavor vendor that typically give some great advice on what flavors are good and which ones to avoid.
For mixing percentages, if you search for the flavor in ELR’s flavor list (or your own stash if you’ve inputted the most popular one) you can click on it and it will show you the minimum amount people have used, the maximum amount they’ve used, and the average amount used in recipes on ELR. I found that to be an excellent place to start from. The naming convention at ELR is FlavorName (VendorAbbreviation). So the most popular ones will typically be named like that. For example: Blueberry (TPA) for The Perfumer’s Apprentices Blueberry, or Blueberry (Cap) for Capella’s Blueberry.
Steeping, especially with cheesecake (in my experience), makes everything better. So far, I haven’t had a juice that has gotten worse with steeping. I’d let what you mixed up sit a few days (and/or weeks! Lol) and try it again. Then, you can adjust your recipe accordingly. If you’re using TPAs cheesecake, I’ve found it to be pretty strong. Hope this helps!
@gmleonard; I just invited you to the shake and vape topic posts. This is good for new mixers, as we all have been impatient diyers in the past. Sometimes you just don’t want to wait for something to steep! You want it NOW!
If you are diligent and fill out your flavor stash with all the info it suggests to store, including pricing for flavors, you will see exactly how much money you are saving. In your recipe, ELR will tell you how much your mix costs to make.
With flavorings you kind of need to be specific as each flavorings from different vendors have different tastes, strengths and weaknesses. Take Cheesecake TFA and Cheesecake with Graham Cracker Crust TFA for example. Most people HATE Cheesecake TFA but LOVE Cheesecake with Graham TFA. With the first you may need to add graham to get the New York style cheesecake flavor. And with blueberry, there are several different blueberry flavorings that TFA sells and each one is very different. Personally i like Blueberry Extra TFA mixed with Blueberry (CAP) to give me that real blueberry flavor i want. I seldom find a single fruit flavor yields the flavor i am looking for. But taste is selective so you may find different.
Just some quick tips:
Never be afraid to experiment
Always write down every detail
Make test mixes without nicotine
Mix 5-10ml bottle test batches
i actually used the blueberry extra TFA with the cheesecake with graham TFA… i think the problem was the cheesecake is a little stronger than the blueberry… that and it was just strong out of the gate haha
Well ill tell you this, the flavor of Cheesecake with Graham (TFA) tastes completely different after sitting for a couple weeks. I cannot vape anything with graham unless it sits for awhile to mellow out, it makes me cough otherwise. But i find the opposite is true with most blueberry flavorings, once they sit for a week or two the flavor comes out better. For some BB Extra has a slight licorice/anise taste in the beginning and feel it is very fake. Taste it a week later and it is completely different, the BB flavor is more pronounced and the anise taste is gone.
Now this wasnt meant to be a cheesecake but could be easily altered to be so. Here is one of my favorite BB recipes:
I use Lorann Cheesecake because it lacks the graham cracker flavor, it adds depth and mouth feel to the end product. Even in my cheesecake mixes ill use it @ 2% in addition to TFA Cheesecake with graham for NY Cheesecake (CAP).
And we are glad you found the site too, always nice to meet and chat with new people.
Agreed, 99% of blends will improve with time. If it tastes decent after just a shake, they will usually improve with steeping. The one and only flavor I have experienced that actually became worst was Green Tea in a Arnold Palmer mix. The mix was to die for with just a shake however once steeped a couple weeks the Green Tea became extremely strong and the mix tasted terrible (Putting it nicely). Careful with Tea flavors!
Interesting! I have a strawberry hibiscus green tea that is good straight off but has a little kick. After a few days it mellowed out some. Not sure I’ve had enough of it around for long enough to have it go sour. I’ve got a 30ml that I’ve been letting sit. I’ll have to keep an eye (tastebud?) on it and see how it changes. I love tea flavors, but haven’t had much luck with them yet. This is the first that is halfway decent. I hope it doesn’t go bad.
Arnold Palmer as you may know is actually a Green Tea mix with Lemon made famous by the golfer Arnold Palmer (not that that is important). What I’m getting at here is that Green Tea will be the major flavor in that mix. It’s very possible that if I had the time to really play with that mix that I could have dropped the %s of green tea to compensate for the tea becoming stronger with steep. Can’t say it soured, just became unbearably strong. You probably had your Green tea %s lower than I did or maybe lemon brings out the tea more. Who knows? Guess that’s why I said CAREFUL WITH GREEN TEA. Green Tea, Cherry, and pomegranate seem to be my bane. Can’t seem to mix with any of those…Later!
If you like cardamom tea, you’ll love FA Cardamom. It’s super punchy, but a very nice, spot on, cardamom flavor. Start with .5% and go from there; I made the mistake of 2% on my first mix and the flavor overpowered everything else in the mix. It was good, but there was no depth to the juice…just cardamom!
tfa cheesecake (graham cracker}is very strong and harsh for me untill it sits for 3 or 4 days. i have reg tfa cheesecake now and im going to tweak it a lil and see how it goes.
Another blueberry that I love is TFA Blueberry Wild. That goes well with a lot of things. Dial up your blueberry and dial down your cheese factor. Also let it sit for a couple of weeks.
Cannot wait to mix this. Just need 2 ingredients. Thanks again. This is the second time working with floral ingredients. I love them so far except for TPA hibiscus, no siree bob. Blech.
