Heat only degrades flavor and nic, never slow cook your juices. That method is only for the impatient. If your mixing the recipe correctly, mix it up good, cap it, and put it away. Check on it in 2 weeks and see what happend.
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Castlelong is my all time favourite juice so the recipe was
Nic strength 48 mg
Coconut extra 3%
Kentucky bourbon 3%
Toasted Almond 3%
Acetyl pyrazine 3%
Vanillin 2%
Brown sugar extra 1%
Madagascar vanilla bourbon 1.5%
Vanilla ice cream 1.5%
I tweaked it a bit… Did a 4 hour steep in crock pot with shaking every hour let it sit for 24 hours in dark place and still a little muted… Sorry for taking so long to reply… Had a few beers
Also the temp of crock pot was in between 120…140 Degrees
Crock pot probably killed the flavor. I’m a flavor chaser, I want to taste amazing flavors, that’s why I don’t slow cook my juice. just shake it up and put it away. This is not a hobby for the impatient.
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I’m also measuring them with a syringe
Thanks DanHank it is hard as newbie cause I want to taste what I created lol but if that’s what I have to do then so be it… I appreciate all the feed back…
So with a recipe like castlelong are we talking about a 2 week steep or more?
I had to learn the hard way to. So many people abuse the term shake and vape, I think they all watched to much talladega nights and want to be Ricky Bobby, it was Shake and bake not vape lol. Watch Wayne on youtube. the chanel is diy or die. He is very good at mixing and thinks like I do about steeping. He says 99.9% need 2 weeks in a dark place to steep and .1% is ok to vape right away. It would help you to watch all of his videos, they helped me.
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Thank you… I will watch those… Its just i even tried even whipping up a raspberry with vanilla ice cream and after 2 days still lacking in flavour… But your probably right… All it takes is time and im being to impatient
They acetyl pyrazine could be to high. I know enhancers can mute. I use AP at 1%, watch his videos he explains about enhancers as well.
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Weird though cause I followed a recipe on here and there was at least 10 people saying it was the the best clone out there… I’ve tried the real castlelong and it was amazing… If i can can come close to cloning it i would be a happy man!
Hmmm. Welp. Yeah as mentioned above AP may be a bit high. Also, is that vanilla or vanillin like the additive? With so many additives they could be fighting each other. Also, maybe you added to much vanillin…which can mute flavors.
Also is the ending nic strength, in the bottle you mixed up, 48mg? That may be a bit high unless your a three to four pack of cigs a day.
As for the crock pot steep. Yup. Youve seen it. Some will say it’s horrible and others will say it works just fine. If you do alittle research you will see people on both sides of the fence. most will say it’s not good for spices and tobacco flavors. It may also not be super good for AP and or vanillin. All will say time is good.
Lastly, are the flavor concentrates above FA, cap, tfa, and or? Did you use the exact flavor companies as to what the recipie listed? Percents can very between flavor companies…for example 6% vanilla cap is 0.5-1.0% vanilla FA (numbers are just an example, please don’t use as a sub)
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wouldn’t 3% be pushing fritos more?
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What is your VG content? Are you cutting your VG before you mix with vodka or water? If you use high VG you have to break down that vegetable molecule with some kind of alcohol if you want to get those flavors permeating the VG. VG is a stubborn substance that resists absorbing flavor. If you use 1% Vodka (Use good vodka not dollar store stuff) and a tiny bit of distilled water (2% to 3%) you can vape it faster than a couple weeks, but you still need to wait a few days. Distilled water is just as good of flavor carrier in my book as PG but some here would not agree with me. I personally take the lid off in the cupboard for a couple of days because a chemist told me they need 24-48 hours to gas off the alcohol and residual chemical reactions from the reaction of the flavors and VG coming together. You can heat it it to speed the steep time (cooking blends flavors like in a casserole in an oven) but dont heat it for long and not very high. These guys are right, the best flavor in liquid comes with time but if you need it fast, that’s what I do.
Yes I am following the recipe with all TPA as it says except for the toasted almond im using Cap… And im also mixing at 50/50…and the ending nic is 12 mg not 48 mg lol… But I’ve also mixed up a raspberry vanilla bean ice cream… a banana chocolate… Milk n honey… All seem to be muted… And a gambit clone… Gambit actually tastes really good except some flavours are lost like caramel for instance… Tastes more like apples in whipped Cream but not super flavourful…
Hopefully a cap expert will chime in soon. I typically mix all FA flavors and add touches of cap and tpa to add notes of a flavor profile.
I think think recpie is a good starting place except for the AP. Sometimes you here ppl just adding acouple drops per 10ml of finished juice.
I bet this trick will get an expert in here. @Amy2 and @daath Are two of my fav mixers. They normally chime in before me. 
There are 10 more regular mixers. But let’s not summon everyone.
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Yes…I hear your summonsing me lol I am not a cap expert but my thinking is after reading a bit of what the OP is experiencing muted flavors after he mixed that recipe he posted up there^ .
Personally he may consider looking into another recipe those % look off here is a thread on Castle Long Clones ! I don’t ever remember it having Vanilla ice cream in it. Too much cream mutes flavors. The coconut is a cream the vanillin can mute the % look a lil wonky ( just not the way I remember it , it’s been a while ) check out this thread and take a HARD look at Bathvapor’s recipe it looks the closest *** @Dsp1
I personally heat mixes when I feel like it and it is well under 120 degrees usually in the 90 degree territory and it’s typically around 15 minutes then the cap comes off for a bit and then I’ll put it back on and shake it and then I may put it back in for another 15 minutes. Not every juice gets a warm bath and I personally never have had too good of results with AP at full strength let alone heating it. I feel it has an off tasting frittos like flavor so I dilute mine.
Capella’s Toasted Almond is a little weaker than TFA’s if that info helps.
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I actually put the vanilla ice cream in that recipe to get more of a creamier vanilla taste… But obviously it was a mistake… Live n learn! Thank you very much too everyone that has responded to my question… And thank you @Amy2 for the castlelong recipe that is the one I will mix up!!
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You are welcome. I love cream too and fall victim to adding too much sometimes as well. Think of it as a sponge in high %s thou it just eats up the flavor and doesn’t let any smaller % flavors peek thru like they should. If I remember correctly Castle Long is kinda harsh from the Kentucky Bourbon so I had to cut it in half …may be perfect for you thou. I also believe it is a 50/50 blend.
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I’ve been trying and tweaking for years. I’ve tried almost every castle long-alike out there, and I’ve found a few that aren’t bad. My favorite so far is check mate from red Rock vapor, out of vegas. It’s a hard flavor to replicate, and nothing I’ve made has satisfied me… yet. Five Pawns has top of the line facilities and equipment, and even if they are using tpa/TFA flavors, they’ve got a leg up on the equipment and whatnot. I’d love to nail this recipe, though.
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