Nature’s Flavors: essential information

I must admit, I’ve no actual experience with mixing with NF as yet, but that’s on the verge of changing ( as I hope to demonstate once I find my camera). What I have done already is a great deal of reading on these flavours, over the course of about 2 years. (Yep, that’s how long I’ve been hankering to try them. Since before I even started mixing! cos I’m the sort of person who researches things pretty thoroughly before diving in) ) Below, I intend to summarise what I’ve found out. If you’re thinking of playing with NF, read on! Because NF can be a real minefield for the unwary mixer.

First: what’s so attractive about NF? Well, most of their ranges are PG-free, gluten-free and vegan. They also have a vast range of flavours, including a very wide range of organic and diacetyl-free flavours. They are also quite highly concentrated, though less so than Medicine Flower and VZ SC, in the main. (with a few exceptions, NF flavours are generally reported as needing to mixed at about 5%)

Personally, I’m thinking that they might be perfect to supplement my MF collection, adding creams, butter, bakery etc to my range without too much compromise in quality. . And that’s not just my own untested opinion. My fellow PG-free mixer @Plunderdrum had the exact same thought, and has been using NF together with MF for about a year now, with great results. Also @Amy2 has promoted NF on this board in the past.

See this thread for some NF reviews . Despite the very unpromising start, the reviews are mostly positive. EDIT: and just found some more reviews in this thread :slight_smile:

The confusion arises when you want to actually order some NF and when you want to enter the stuff into your stash. Nature’s Flavors mostly cater for the food Industry, and offer a bewidering variety of flavourings, designed for a wide range of applications, so you have to careful what you order. Eg do not order the "concentrates”. In some ways, these sound better than the extracts, having greater heat stability, but the concentrates contain gums which are not suitable for vaping. Always order the “extracts”instead - or the “coffee and tea flavourings” (which are the same thing, diluted with a bit of VG)

Here we go. These are the ranges you can vape:
https://www.naturesflavors.com/279-flavor-extracts
https://www.naturesflavors.com/68-organic-flavor-extract
https://www.naturesflavors.com/218-natural-flavor-extract-without-diacetyl
https://www.naturesflavors.com/215-organic-flavor-extract-without-diacetyl
https://www.naturesflavors.com/88-natural-coffee-and-tea-flavoring

aaand…well there are three other vesrions of the coffeee and tea flavouring, as you might expect, but I;m getting pretty bored with posting links now and I’m sure that you can find them for yourself .

The next problem is quantity. You might notice that the minimum size NF offer is 1 oz (30 ml) , And if you check out the prices, then you might as well order 2 oz for around $2 extra! Or even 4 oz…but wait! Who wants to order something they haven’t yet tried, in those kind of quantities?

Well, there are two possible solutions to that.

  1. According to their website, NF do send out samples.Try asking!
  2. DIYVS do a wide range of NF flavours in handy 10ml size for just $1.99 a throw,. Here’s the link:
    https://www.diyvaporsupply.com/natures-flavors/

According to @Plunderdrum, these DIYVS ones are not the diacetyl-free variety, just plain extracts The only problem with DIYVS is that they don’t , as yet, do International Shipping (and that’s the reason why it’s taken me so long to get round to buying!) . However a note at the back of their website says that they plan to offer shipping to Canada and the UK in the near future. ( Please post below if/when you notice this actually happening)

The only other supplier of the 10ml size that I ever found is High Desert Vapes, which seems to have closed down. Again, if you find any new suppliers, please post below!

So, now, by hook or by crook, you’ve managed to obtain some NF flavors. Next question: how the heck do I enter these in my stash? There’s quite a long discussion on that question , starting here.

In conclusion , it seems the acceptable formats are:
Flavor Name (NF)
Flavor Name (Organic) (NF)
Flavor Name (Diacetyl-free) (NF)
And, it wasn’t explicitly stated anywhere, but I imagine we can add:
Flavor Name (Organic) (Diacetyl-free) (NF)

@daath didn’t want to complicate things by adding the word “extract” . That will be assumed. However, if you choose to use the (less popular) coffee and tea flavouring, I suggest that information should also go in brackets, to avoid confusion with the extracts.

Here’s hoping that others will join me on my journey of discovery!

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Do you know of ANY flavors at all containing gluten or any not vegan?

Yes, I do. MF recently told me that their butterscotch and caramel are extracted from real butter products , and therefore not vegan. As for gluten free, I really don’t know. I’ll usually risk it, but it’s reassuring to hear it, especially with the alcohol based flavours, because grain alcohol nearly always contains gluten - as I’ve found out, to my cost, more than once.

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Interesting. I’ve only been gluten sensitive for 3 years, and while it’s hidden even in BBQ sauces, I never thought of my concentrates suspended in alcohol, sometimes when I get caught and am left scratching my head. Just wow. Thank you.

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Gluten is present in almost any flavor that has artificial “smoked” flavoring. Wheat is used in things like liquid smoke and tobacco soaks. When it comes to vaping, gluten isn’t absorbed that well… they use that as a sales ploy.

Same thing with “all natural”. Did you know that artificial flavorings are still made from the most of the same chemicals as natural flavors and yes, some are derived from the foods… (the same chemicals are used for the flavor notes of a natural orange as artificial orange just the distillation or absorption used to get the chemical from the essential oil is different) and natural flavorings don’t have as strict of purity production guidelines that artificial flavorings have.

just a thought that natural may not always be best…

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the thought of the suspension alcohol being fermented with wheat in the process never crossed my mind… wow @jay210

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@ModAbidingCitizen , TBH, I did’t really expect that vaping a bit of gluten would hurt, not until after I - stupidly- started cleaming my kit wit vodka. Believe me, that teeny tiy bit of guiten in my vape caused havoc, until the penny dropped… Took a while, because , not being a vodka drinker, i hadn’t really thought about the gluten in vodka before.

So , whist I’m sure. you’re right, it;s a sales ploy, ifc, it’s definitely not just an empty boast.

I don’t know what kind of alcohol these flavour manufacturers use, but thankfully, I never yet got glutened-out by my vape, aside from that time when I introduced the gluten myself! :laughing: so i’m pretty siure tjat gluten-free really means gluten-frree. No worries there. And most of them them make that same claim.

PG-free is rather more remarkable, Most labels have PG in them, amd it’s hard to pick out the few that don’t. And guess what? i have a problem with PG as well. It sets off my asthmas

Hey! I could serve as the canary in our coal mine, couldn’t I? :laughing:

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Nature’s Flavors uses Cane Alcohol

MF:
" Ingredient: genuine flavor extract*
*Apricot, Bergamot, White Cherry, Pink Grapefruit, Lemon, Lime, Mandarin, Orange and Rum flavors require additional alcohol extraction and may contain up to 5% residual grain alcohol."

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thanks for the info :slight_smile: i;m kinda loathe to take my own thread further off track, but feel i’d better point that MF are also declaredly gluten-free. because you wouldn’t guess as much from that annoyingly non-specific “grain alcohol” would you? And I don’t wanna put anybody off MF, do I? :grin:

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thank you for interesting post!))

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