Newbie question about mixing

E-liquids Beginners
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Hey. Been at this for maybe three months. Started with a few bottles from NicVape, ended up with some crummy recipes (not their fault, I’m sure), bought a bunch from ecigexpress, tested some one-ingredients based on numbers I found here, created my stash, etc.

Have probably 4 recipes that myself and family love, so got lucky there. A lime one, a strawberry-ish one, a peach one, a honeydew one, and one that I tried to copy from a store-bought but turned out different but delish.

Question is about the first mixing stage that I’ve been doing the last month and comparing it to uber-mixing stuff like the magnetic heated stirrers and other infusion/aging/steeping techniques.

I get all ingredients in a small plastic beaker, let’s say 10mL, whip them for a minute with a milk frother, microwave it for 8 seconds, froth again (much thinner now), then pour into bottle. Then another 5 seconds in the nuke, shake for a bit, then to the cupboard it goes. Then, once or twice a day at most, another zap and shake.

I’m not getting anything harsh, the flavors are good, infusion time still very important and the taste only gets better, as usual.

I wrote to three flavor companies asking about their opinion on infusing/aging/steeping, considering something I read about the additives they put in their flavors are meant to help bond with the _G, especially VG, and FlavorArt was the only one that replied. After mentioning “high-shear mixing,” he still suggested that it all comes down to time.

Anyone heard of any harm or degradation coming from using a microwave oven for heating? Are magnetics really all that? Anyone use a high-shear mixer?

Interesting story. I ordered some juice direct from a manufacturer, very good to work with, very helpful and friendly. The product I ordered couldn’t be produced at that time due to one missing ingredient. I poked at him about a week later and the ingredient hadn’t arrived yet. Exactly 10 days later, I receive an email saying the order was on it’s way. That means that even if he got that last ingredient the next day, it was only like 9 days total production. I would think that top notch premium juices would be 2-3 weeks of infusion/steeping. Ya think this high-shear mixing process is key in some way?

I’d sure like to know what the big guys’ infusion/steeping/aging process is … They’re keeping it a secret as far as I can research.

Enjoy.

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Im not mixing since verry long but im now convinced about steeping, i got a magnetic mixer ( and will get the nitecore one from santa i hope) as i could not convince my self to microwave my juice, that being said the mix that i do takes at least a full 15 days to be good, and the recipe that got me convince is “bust a nut” could not touch that juice befor a month steeping,
So patience is one of the ingredients for me!

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Ive tried every quick steep/mixing/heating/frothing and god knows what else method out there man…dont do any of it now, i put all my PG together (flavours, nic & base) swirl it around for a minute, add the VG, shake the crap out of it and lock it away for a month (fruit maybe a week) …i cant taste the difference and neither can anyone who vapes my liquids 🖒

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Like @Steampugs I too have found Time to be of the greatest benefit. Microwaving Eliquids does not sound like a wise choice. After all we are DIY Eliquid Artisans, Not Ramen noodle Chefs :smile::ok_hand:

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You win the internet today :rofl::rofl::rofl::tada:

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Like others, I mostly just use time and a quick mix with a badger frother. The only time I’ve “frothed” anything for even close to a minute is if I was mixing a 120ml batch and that was only it takes a bit of time for it to mix due to the volume… otherwise the little badger mixer is used maybe 30 seconds max. I have not tried the microwave and really have no intention to start using it, if your mixing enough things up and not wait until you run out of a good juice you’ve created, but plan ahead… time is all that is needed.
I make the recipe (nic, ingredients, pg, then vg), mix it up with my badger for 20 - 30 seconds, wipe the bottle down if there has been any spills/drips, put a label on it and put it in a holding area. If I think about it I might give it a shake maybe once a week when I open the holding area up either to take something out or put something in.

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If I’m mixing up singles for testing, sometimes I’ll use a frother because I do a ton of them at once and it gets tiring to shake 50+ 5ml bottles. But for regular mixing, I shake and shelve.

I wouldn’t microwave the liquid directly. If you really want to warm it up, get a warming plate or heat up a bowl of dry, uncooked rice in the microwave (make sure it’s not too hot) and stick your beaker down in there. A lot of people use a crockpot full of water (or dry rice) on low. Personally, I ain’t got time for all that noise.

When you get things you like, make sure you make large enough batches that they’ll last for awhile. Then steeping becomes less of a “I NEED juice now so I can’t wait” issue and you’ll find eventually you don’t even notice anymore cuz you have so many ready to vape.

There really isn’t anything that can replace time.

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My mantra

“MIX MORE”

More often and larger volumes that way you’ll ensure your juice gets more shelf time, resulting in the shelf/time doing the work for you. I love it that a piece off plywood / time does the work for me ----> i’m lazy

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Thanks everyone. I guess I just gotta get into a habit of a rotating stock of infusing/steeping recipes, returning every other day to test.

I really only use the nuke to thin it out so I can mix it best before going into the bottle, but if it’s true that it will mix fine with time-only, I’ll do that too. I guess I just like interacting with my concoctions!

Thanks again!

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One thing I do to thin your VG for mixing at least (probably does next to nothing for steep time) is to place your VG in a small bucket (i use an ice cream pail) of hot water prior to mixing. It makes it so much friendlier.

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Be aware of hot-spots!

Microwaves are notorious for creating hot-spots where, even if the bottle as a whole is only slightly above room temperature, there can be small pockets that are several hundreds degree hot. There is even a risk that you can get quite severe burns, as these hot-spots can cause a volcano like eruption when you touch the bottle!

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This article pretty much says it all:
https://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/blog-entry/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-steeping-and-then-some.5010/

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Here’s another article I found

http://flavor-pro.com/e-liquid-steeping-tips-mixing-shaking-and-stirring/

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That’s so strange. I’ve been eyeing an appliance in my kitchen for a week now, wondering if it could or should be used.

Cleaned it up, ran a bunch alcohol over it to clean up all the junk from smoothies the kids have made, and ran my very virst 100mL batch through it tonight.

Then read this article. So funny.

What I have is something like this:

It’s a knock-off, cheap-ie but boy, did it whip the crap out of my juice. It’s been like 45 minutes and it’s still cloudy. Talk about homogenizing!

I’ll still let it sit for a bit, I’m not seeing this as speed-steeping, but what if, in the near future, the information in this article is proven, and “steeping” and time become less important due to this process.

I know that a big producer of juices took about 9 days or less to get an order to me, from mix to front door, telling me that time is NOT necessarily of the essence. And it wasn’t fruit, it was complex tobacco, vanilla, etcetera.

Proprietary “steeping” processes watch out - high-shear mixing, a.k.a. “whipping the devil out of it” may just be it.

I read the term “high shear mixing” from a flavor vendor, FlavorArt I think, in an email. Just a smidge of insider information?

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There are no secrets: http://www.silverson.com

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