Mixing bulk flavour concentrates, flavour degradation?

Hi guys,

I know this has probably been mentioned but I can’t find it.

I want to mix up 100ml batches of my favourite recipe concentrates. That way, when I go to mix up a new bottle I just need to open up the bottle of say ‘Unicorn Milk Clone’ and metre out the required 8.25ml for a 50ml bottle.

My questions:

-Will the longterm(3-6 months) storage of the flavours in a mixed state cause any unpleasant changes or degradation to the flavours?

-Will this enable the flavour molecules to bind thus reducing steeping time?

-Will it not alter anything, except saving me time and mess?

I know the commercial juice manufacturers employ this practice, but their turnover is pretty large so their flavour batches wouldn’t be sitting around for extended periods like mine would.

Thanks fellow mixers.

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In my opinion

Will the longterm(3-6 months) storage of the flavours in a mixed state cause any unpleasant changes or degradation to the flavours?

Not in my experience as long as the flavours are stored correctly.

Will this enable the flavour molecules to bind thus reducing steeping time?

In my experience it doesn’t reduce the the steep time (it may a little but not a huge difference)

Will it not alter anything, except saving me time and mess?
Pretty much - it is a great time saver for me

Other people may have different opinions on all of this but for me it just saves time and mess plus the added bonus if at some stage you feel the flavour is too strong or weak you can alter the % of the one shot that you use.

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Pretty much that! :slight_smile:

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@woftam wrote everything that I was thinking. I completely agree.

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What they said, basically your making what is termed a “stone”

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Thanks guys.

My instincts tell me it’s going to be ok, but I just wanted to be sure before I mix up about $500 worth of concentrates.

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Yup @woftam covered it all… big time saver and mess reducer… go for it

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Beautifully written @woftam I can’t really weigh in since it’s so rare that I even mix something at 100mls. I would though imagine some binding of ingredients but I wouldn’t say there would be a negative impact at the 3-6 month stage…but I cannot speak from experiance though and have more trust in what woftam is saying.

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Some of the flavors will get weird if they get old. Coffee is a perfect example. For me it’s a cost issue. I have a coffee recipe I love but have learned this one isn’t worth losing the rest of what is in the concentrate (The Creams) to have the coffee get old and sour it.

But my cream base is a staple and it doesn’t change over time so I make a premix of that.

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ofcourse you can mix them

  1. in long term there’s no problem… just keep everything away from heat and sunlight and make sure that the bottles your will save it is closed well (being closed well, i would also choose a glass bottle with a good cap on it) and everything will be fine…
  • just only a small notice… just notice if your flavors have an expiring date… you wouldn’t like to use something that expires soon or before you use them… if they also have a production date just know that in average most of them expire in average after two years :slight_smile: *
  1. they will bind probably together though in my experience this is not reducing steeping time for real… let’s say that the “8.5” ml you will get from that bottle is already steeped/homogenized… what about the rest 92,5% of the base (VG/PG/Nic) that needs to be homogenized too ? flavors have flavor anyway… the thing is to bind in WHOLE not just in a part of an eliquid…

  2. nope it will not alter anything… at least in most cases… though anytime i made this i consumed them very fast anyway (it’s also a matter a cost tbh, when making recipes of like 20% flavor the cost is kinda high and i vape at about 30mls per day sometimes even more)

yes commercian juice manufacturers employ this practice… i can guarantee that! at least two producers that i know they have adopted this practice as your said…
though for explaining it’s not about faster steeping as both have told me., they use standard base (VG/PG ratio and nics) and know how much flavor they need anyway from the flavors… the thing is that a producer might need to make 10.000 bottles at once or even more… so for putting it simple it’s a hell lot faster to do it like this, less cleaning in the labs, and the production goes way way faster… and where’s steeping in this?
a) usually they sell an older producted batch that has been steeped
b) even if it’s fresh, calculate the time until it’s finally delivered to customers… let’s say for example an american eliquid company that sells in europe will need weeks or months until a ship comes there and deliver inside europe… .

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OK. i need some clarification please.
I want to do less routine mixing but some of my recipes seem to fade by the month mark.

  1. What do i do to preserve flavor?
    I dont understand the mixing seperate ingredients method to preserve said recipe
  2. What are the steps to take?
    I noticed at my local B n’ M they have the recipe in a big bottle and the nicotine in another. Both in plastic bottles.
  3. Where the heck do i start?
    The goal: not having to mix once a week.
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do the recipes that have fading issues have flavors with maltol in them ?

Im not sure. I will do a quick check on flavorah site

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ahhh thats right you only use FLV i have to regiter that in my brain i dont use a lot of flv flaves so im unsure , but i have recently made a pretty good cinnamon crunch recipe with their cinnamon crunch being the main flave and that was the ticket

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I thought maybe there was a general procedure for keeping recipe flavors alive.
I didnt find an answer to the maltol question. Going to email them.

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Unfortunately this could be a case of either underflavoring or overflavoring. Could also be one flavor muting others based on % or as @fidalgo_vapes said one that is high in maltol.
Can we see the recipe?

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I’ve started making flavor bases for my favorite recipes. You’d still have to mix, but you could pre-mix your nic base and set all your recipe bases to be the same % so that you’re adding the same amount to everything every time. A little more work on the setup, but it’d save a lot of time and effort only having to do two ingredients per bottle.

To make a flavor base, go to the recipe and click the blue wrench, then click “Make flavor base/oneshot”. At the bottom of that page is a place where it says “Desired mixing %”. You can increase that to whatever % works for all your recipes and the calculator will have you add PG to your base to make them all the same. With your nic, if you don’t already have a premixed base, you can create a single flavor recipe (pick a random flavor) at something like 500ml with your normal desired strength, PG/VG ratio, and then whatever % you decide on for your flavor base. Then just mix together the PG, VG, and Nic at the weights it says and leave off the flavor. Whenever you want to mix a recipe, just make a single flavor recipe (again random flavor is fine) at whatever amount you want with your flavor base %. The recipe has the total base grams so use your premixed nic base at that amount, and then use your flavor base at the amount it tells you to.

Hope that all makes sense. LoL.

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Yes ma’am it does!! Thanks! Had to re read it but i understand better now.
Do sweetners give flavors more longevity?

As weird as it may seem some of them are bakery recipes.

It is awesome until about 3 weeks.

No idea about the sweetener. I would imagine if it has EM in it the answer would be no, but since I don’t really use any sweetener at all I can’t help. Sorry! :confused:

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