Real Flavors Super Concentrates Tasting Notes (Part 1)

I keep hovering over the ‘add to basket’ button on this one - how do you find it my lovely?

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Ya we all hate waiting but I am not sure if you are aware your premature reviews may turn customers away from good flavours and or may turn customers to shit flavours.

Sure I have had some RF that were not as I had hoped and it may not be that they are bad it is quite often that they are just not to my taste - but it is the same with every flavour company.

I will say that of the few that I do not like or cannot use I gave them a fair shake - i mixed a few different % and left them mature before making a final decision a few of them i used in recipes just to make sure that I was not a fan.

I am pretty sure that I will not be placing much value on a review of a mix that is less than 24 hrs old.

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I handed it to my girlfriend the next day and she said it tasted like paint thinner.

That paint thinner taste is likely ethanol (alcohol) used in concentrates to help the flavoring molecules miscibility (that is, make the concentrate into a homogenous solution). Citrus flavors, likely the case with your Orange Candy Burst, need more help than others, because without the ethanol citrus flavors tend to separate (even with the ethanol they still have a tendency to separate–look at the RF Blood Orange picture in this thread or the other RF thread, forget which). If they separate, the flavoring molecules won’t be consistently/evenly spread throughout the bottle.

I’m not going to pretend I have a 100% grasp on the chemistry behind it all as I’m mostly regurgitating stuff I’ve read, but there is a reason why people suggest you steep. The steeping process evaporates the ethanol to the point where it’s not detectable by human tastebuds. If it tastes like paint thinner now, it definitely needs a steep. Perhaps it’ll still not taste very good, but I don’t think it’s fair to judge a flavor on a day or less steep.

Anyway, I hope you give it a try after it has steeped for a while and report back.

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ya im all for everyones opinion , however i think these flaves should be tested straight out of the gate , one week , two weeks before an opinion should be given , and then at 4 weeks , after two weeks ( unless its a custard ) i think a person should have a grasp on their opinion , i also know from private messages there are several people who have feedback that isnt positive but are concerned with offending someone or rocking the boat ( things said by others ) this is unfortunate imo i dont wish to offend anyone but good or bad these flaves need as many notes as possible …

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I am personally no longer going to give my opinion until my testers have reached OVER 4 weeks steeping and then only if I am satisfied that the flavor will not change/fade at that point. I have found several that changed at 2 and 3 weeks and 1 that did a change at just past 4 weeks. I am also finding that adjusting the %'s will in most cases compensate for this.

I do agree that we need everyone’s FAIR and HONEST opinion on these but as you pointed out after a proper steeping period. I think opinions at 24hrs 1 week 2 weeks and 3 weeks are premature and becoming confusing for some.

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Totally agree mate - I am all for opinions and i wish people wouldn’t worry so much about being negative or offending anyone over a flavour I just thought that it was not useful to post a review on anything after a day - I hope i didn’t come off as not wanting others input.

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For the the record on my comments on the Gauva being strong. This was after about 36 hours of venting off the mix. It was not a review. The mix is now in the steeping closet and won’t be tried again for 2 weeks.

I agree with what both of you are saying. 24 hours is not enough time to give a valid review. And when you do give a review be brutally honest. The only way we will get changes we want is by honesty. @Walt_RealFlavors has been great and I think he would appreciate solid feedback.

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no not at all i was actually agreeing lol but half asleep while writing

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ill test all at four weeks as well i feel at two weeks ive always been able to have a grasp on what the flavor is like , and not just with RFSC and at 4 weeks if its improved or changed ill state that , its also my opinion if i have to wait a month for EVERYTHING to. develop the line of flavoring is not for me ( rememeber im talking about single flavor testing ) and if there is that much change in a flavor from 2 to 4 weeks on a flavor that is great at 2 weeks like the strawberry milkshake that another problem , IME if ive made a good recipe and at two weeks its good and ready to vape the 4 week mark its typically better that should be the case with these as well , with all that being said these are just my opinions and personal experiances hopefully they will help others

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Personally I never look for absolutes. If something tastes good as a shake and vape, then it tastes good as a shake and vape, if it looses it’s luster after two weeks then I note that I’ll need to vape it prior to that time. And while I do need to start making better personal notes in my database, my testing of flavors at 3 or 4 weeks (normally) is just left overs from 15ml tester bottles I make up. I don’t drip I use a tank and will vape about 2 or 3ml or so of a tester at a time let the flavors clear out the last thing that was in there then use another 3ml of that tester. If/when I mix using what I’ve learned over the past for an actual constructed recipe, I use what I’ve learned (yes I do look at most other people’s comments with exception of the few people I’ve learned to just ignore), but for the most part, I’ve decided not to only vape testers for the rest of my life.

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The thing is, DIY how many people actually leave recipes to steep for 4 weeks? Only stuff I usually have that long are some custards or leftovers of stuff I havent been mad on so put away to use up at work. I remember people saying leave the vg line for four weeks for the flavours to develop and I did notice with the cookies and cream and the bread pudding that after three weeks they did improve quite a bit, none of the others did at all, was just a waste of patience.
It does seem with Real Flavors there is a lot of talk of having to get percentages lower, now having to get percentages higher, then leaving stuff to steep for weeks. Seems to me these concentrates are either extremely awkward to use or the more likely conclusion I have long since come to, just pretty bang average and still weak in terms of a full flavour.

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ya i dont want to HAVE to wait 4 weeks for anything to develop thats not a custard or super creamed out lol , or need to vape something within a certain amount of time because its gonna drastically change in the next week or two , i dont add Nicotine until im ready to vape so i dont worry about it degrading , @Will_G you pretty much nailed it imo

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this guy right here. When I first started I was speed-steeping and mixing shake and vapes of well reviewed recipes so I had something to vape while testing other recipes. Once I had done some testers and found recipes I liked I just mixed up a bunch of 100 and 200 ml batches. Everything I am currently vaping was mixed late last year and tastes great whether it is RF SC or TPA/FW/FA concentrates.

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i think what @Will_G is saying is its not the Norm and i know therr are lots of people that would argue its not needed to steep things that long especially recipes that dont have custard or heavy similar creams

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Sorry I didnt word my question very well, I didnt mean it as in nobody does that, I was meaning to say rather it is I would guess very much a small minority of people doing DIY. The point I was making regarding the original post of saying they would not make an opinion until something had steeped for four weeks was that I would expect that opinion would only be relevant to a very small percentage of mixers, like yourself. Personal opinion, from the small amount of recipes I have made and left for a period of time, bar the custards I found very few of them changed much at all.

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I steep everything for atleast 4 weeks. Custards at 6 weeks. When your mixes are fully steeped it’s easier to replicate the results. For my own fruit vapes they taste the same from 4 weeks to 8 weeks. That result is what I aim for.

If I know life is going to get busy I can do a big mix session and not mix for 3-4 weeks. Every vape I pull out of the drawer is different since I mix mostly 15ml and 30ml bottles.

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This is mixed and smells so delicious but I haven’t tested it yet. First I’m testing the straight up fruits because they’re more likely to be S&V. The creamier flavors are next on my list.

For those who question the value of immediate testing and reviews, I can only speak from my own experience. When I was a newbie I longed to hear about single flavor S&Vs or very simple recipes that I could vape fairly soon after mixing. This kept me from having to buy retail juice which saved me money to invest in more complex flavors moving forward. To this day I value such knowledge. Life is uncertain, if I waited a month to review something that’s delicious right now I might never get around to it.

When a flavor is not wonderful right away I take my time to give it a fair chance and a fair review but when it’s really good right away, that deserves recognition too. If the wonderful flavor takes a rancid turn after a week or a month or does unpleasant things in a recipe, I amend my notes to reflect that. It seems unfair to diminish anyone’s review based on your personal mixing/vaping/reviewing style.

This really is unfortunate. Walt has said more than once that he wants to hear the bad reviews. This way if there’s a trend he knows what he needs to do to improve a flavor. With my last two orders I got so many flavors that it’s unrealistic to think I won’t find a few stinkers. In such a case I’ll be honest about it.

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I wish people would at least PM me if they do not want to post. The thing is… if a whoooooole lot of people do not like something, we can make a different version.

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Most of my stuff is two weeks, I find recipes can change a lot up to that point but not hugely afterwards with most stuff. Maybe I am being ignorant with the percentage of people that steep for 4 weeks+ with mixes but I would assume it is a minority rightly or wrongly.

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Walt has been great i commend him for being so active and appreciate what he does for DIY , im sure we are a very small part of his companies revenue , however he gives all the attention he can so obviously its not just his intent to profit , i understand those who would rather pm they are people not well known yet , why they chose to reach out to me ill never know lol , im glad they did though and in time they will contribute greatly imo they already do , i agree with every word you wrote and will give my honest opinions then ill give the flaves another go lol

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