Newbie with questions

Basically with an idea in mind, you have to think what flavor u want to stand out the most and possibly second, third and then research each flavor as to what % might be used in your idea. This may help ya: Tips For Navigating the Flavor Page and Optional Flavor Choices For Beginners. If you come across something similar to what u want but dont have that brand, this may help ya sub if the taste of the substituted brand is similar. How I Sub A Flavor (or Flavour). Gl to u!

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Just using your recipe as an example, I would first decide which flavors I wanted to be up front, like I would want the donut and caramel up front with the nuts and bananas as an accent, so I would make a caramel donut recipe first, get that where I liked the ratios, and then add in the other flavors a little at a time until I found something I liked, there is probably a quicker way but that would be how I would attack it. The more recipes you make the better feel you will have for what flavors work at what percentages, and in the meantime you can start with the median mixing % in the flavor notes on the recipe side and adjust to taste. Single flavor testing can also help you, but some people don’t gain anything from it and are still good mixers. If you provide a link to your flavor stash some people might be able to give you ideas, but it will just be a starting point as what tastes good to me might not taste good to you. Another thing you could do is take someone else’s recipe that you enjoy and start making small changes to it and see what happens, and take notes, this will give you a good idea of how to mix your own stuff but you get to start with a recipe you already like. Good luck and don’t be afraid to ask more questions!!

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You can just buy a lot of flavors, look at the labels, pick out the ones that you think would go together and start mixing. It’s as simple as that.

Without extensive knowledge about flavor concentrates, how these flavors work (taste, off taste, density, strength, mouth feel, steeping etc) and interact with each other, it’s unlikely that you’re going to whip out 5 star recipe after 5 star recipe. You can always get lucky and hit the jackpot from the first try, but a lot of recipes are developed over several months to get it just where the creator wanted it to be.
Steeping is an important factor in why this can all take so long. If you cook a cake, you get the final result after an hour or two. With liquids, it can take weeks to steep and if you have to adjust your %s, you’re in for a long wait again. Custards and bakeries are a bit notorious for that…

Worm gave you some great threads to go through to get you up to speed, but honestly speaking, it’s worth skimming through the whole forum and picking up whatever information is useful to you. I’d start by picking out Beginners and go through all the pinned posts.

If you have specific requests and want help with the creation of a recipe, you can always reach out to fellow mixers. You can post a new topic in Recipes with a specific request or if you’re working on a recipe and need help with it:

Keep in mind that the quality of help is often related to how much time and effort you put in it too. Give proper descriptions about what you tried, what works and what not, what you’re after, keep your flavor stash up-to-date, public and share it so that others can see what you’re working with.

Oh, and welcome to ELR :slight_smile:

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Thank you both very much just been reading the forum form past 2 hours almost and feel more confident and learning is a process and I’m looking forward to seeing the results.

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For every flavor you buy…sit down and do a flavor test. (You can find single flavor testing information everywhere.) If you want to start mixing your own liquids it is paramount that you familiarize yourself with the properties of each flavor you plan to use.

Not gonna lie. It can sometimes be a lengthy process, so if you are the impatient type you’ll need to learn patience as well. Copying someone else’s recipe is fine for starters but you’ll get a deeper sense of accomplishment when you can churn out your very own.

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@TorturedZen is correct. If you want to compose from flavours you’ll need to know them.

Adapting recipes is not bad either and can be done in parallel. You find something you like, you substitute something for something else using other’s experiences. Pretty error prone but usually you get something useable out of it.

Say in your case, you find a great caramel glazed doughnut, another recipe that uses banana and nuts and you combine the two making a guess about how to do this from a third recipe.

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Don’t apologize. We all started at zero at some point. You are new and immediately came to a forum for advice and research- that is more than I can say for myself. That is a great first step.

That is abundantly true. It is also true that even with that extensive knowledge, there will still be swings and misses. Failures can be much better than successes, as they teach you much more.

Hang in there, @Nathan171. It will not be long before you will be giving the advice rather than seeking it.

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Agreeing with all of that above. Not much time to post today :frowning: so I’m just throwing something in here quickly.

You could throw the butterscotch cream pie out, and replace by (WF) deep fried pastry dough +/or/and (WF) Glazed Donut. If you don’t want Wonder Flavours bakery, you could try (FA) zeppola, or look into tpa (example: banana cream, banana nut bread) cap, fw.

Another banana I could recommend besides the WF is banana custard by vape train Australia (vta)

Might be something you’re looking for.

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Thank you I have spent a lot of time today doing just this looking at differentiations of recipes to try and bring something together see how that goes then adapt from there I also attempted my first recipe of my own today, I have made them all public so people can comment on them. I’m absolutely loving this and believe you can’t ,I’ve forward without learning and ,asking mistakes to better yourself in every walk of life.

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Thanks @anon44944642 i hope so one day

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@eStorm thank you for taking the time to share this, seems I have joined a fantastic community!

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Welcome to ELR, Nathan! I hope your new mixes work out well. You’re on the right path, for sure!

A tip on publishing (making public) your mixes…

You don’t really need to make them public to get comments or advice. In fact, there are so many recipes popping up every few minutes, that it’s probably the least effective method. You’ll be on page 6 in a couple of hours.

There is also the clutter factor. If you haven’t mixed and tested the recipe and added some notes about it, it’s just a list of ingredients that very few people will find interesting if they happen to click on it. It’s a good idea to say a little something about what you were going for, why you chose the flavors you chose, how it turned out after mixing, steeping, etc. There are thousands of recipes with no notes, and they just clog up the works, making it difficult to find anything inspiring.

If you want real feedback or advice, tips, encouragement… hit the wrench icon near the title of your recipe and click “share recipe privately”. The page will refresh and you can find a long url at the bottom of the page to copy and paste over here in the forum. There are a few threads dedicated to unfinished (WIP) mixes, ideas, or mixes you consider good and want to share for feedback, or need help with.

And for mixes you are stuck on and can’t get to taste right:

This is just food for thought, you can do it how you like. I just don’t want you to be discouraged if nobody leaves a comment on your recipe over there on the calculator side.

Good luck on your mixing adventure!

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Hey thanks fo the great advice I willl certainly use this way and also write notes from now on .

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Right on, hope I didnt come off as preachy! Notes are a great idea just for your own benefit, too. They don’t matter too much if you’re sharing unpublished mixes on the forum, you can write about it when you post, and make notes on the recipe before you go public.

There’s no right or wrong to making notes either. They’re there for you, primarily, but very helpful to others wanting some insight.

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Unfortunately, any notes entered are going to be seen by all. You’re actually best to keep notes elsewhere unless you intend for them to be publicized. A little quirk in that database we all love.

Isn’t the whole intention of this website and forum to share information so that others can benefit from it in whatever way they see fit?

As mentioned many times, most users do not realize that anything they enter is published, even if that was not the intention. Often that is misunderstood, and cryptic notes that are meant for personal eyes are inadvertently published. I am letting Nathan know that in case he was not aware (as you noticed that I did mention that he should enter a note if he wants to do so for public consumption but be aware that all entries will be public ones regardless). Always being argumentative, my friend. Take a rest sometimes.

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Those are flavor notes. I’m talking about recipe notes. Did I miss something?

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I really don’t mind if people keep the notes personal. Sometimes people even simply mention where they got it from and even that can be useful info for others.

Nope, I should have clarified the ‘notes’ thing as it pertains to flavors vs. recipes as I meant it. You are correct.

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