Hi all - I’m new here and was hoping for some help.
I’ve just started on the DIY train, and it all seems pretty straight forward (obviously not including refining flavour, which obviously comes with experience).
I was hoping for help and am not even sure if there are forum rules against this so my apology if I’m breaking any in advance.
I’m quite fussy with flavour and am not hugely impressed so far with a lot of the premium eliquids I’ve tried, however am a huge fan of Buddha Vapes Blackcurrant Burst.
I’m trying to work out how I would go about reverse engineering this and was wondering if anyone can give me advice?
It contains blackcurrant, menthol and the vague extra ‘mixed fruits’. The eliquid has a really nice and sweet berry flavour which I find hard to replicate. I’m assuming it might use stevia or some other sweetener as so far my DIY flavours are relatively dry. It’s also a really nice purple colour which is probably entirely pointless, but I like the aesthetic.
Does anyone have any tips apart from just to experiment?
If it helps, I’m starting out with the same ratios - 20vg/80pg, 3 nicotine. I’m testing with Blackcurrant (the Flavour’s Apprentice) and Extreme Ice (Flavour West) to start with, before I complicate things with extra notes.
I haven’t had it or any black currant anything, but I think something like FA’s Forest Mix or Cap’s Harvest Berry may give you the extra “mixed fruits”. Sounds like they’d go well with black currant.
I would even say it most certainly is a lot of sucralose. It looks like most juice companies use heeps of sucralose to mask flaws in the recipes and make they vapeable.
The recipes the good people here on ELR post are for the most part way better and superior than any mixes from juice companies without added sucralose or other sweeteners.
Definitely. I tried so many freaking “premium” juices before starting to diy and I swear 95% of them were over sweetened and poorly flavored. I used to get an ejuice subscription (how much $$$ I spent on those makes me want to puke) and every month I would pray that I’d like at least one or two. The rest always just seemed like I was vaping sugar water.
@Guy8 FA blackcurrant is very good, mixed with FA forrest mix will give a nice sweet dark fruit taste. You could brighten it up with some other fruits like strawberry or apple. I think starting with one bc and menthol is smart though so you can taste that and see where you can go with it. Good luck!
So is it possible to simply use powdered sucralose dissolved in water? I can tell it’s frowned upon, but I actually really like the flavour. I’m aware you can buy sucralose sweetener flavouring/bottles, but can I just put some in distilled water? How would I measure that?
•INW Shisha Strawberry 2% or Strawberry Ripe 2%
•FA Blackcurrant 4%
•TPA Koolada - Drop per 10ml (Adding till you hit perfection)
•Super Sweet (CAP) .25%
-Reddit User, ParaRupa
I added the super sweet because you said it needed sweetner.
Blackcurrant Burst e-liquid by Buddha Vapes is a delicious e-liquid that offers freshly picked blackcurrants mixed with a cold menthol breeze. 80VG/20PG
BLACKCURRANT BURST e-liquid by Buddha Vapes is 80% VG / 20% PG.
Flavours: freshly picked blackcurrants with a cold menthol breeze.
4.Buddha Vapes is 80% VG / 20% PG.
Flavours: freshly picked blackcurrants with a cold menthol breeze.
I’m only gonna guess that the mixed fruit is just a generic listing, that its just currant with additives to make the currants pop. also that’s its a 80/20pg, so its less than 15-20% flavoring.
Inaweras Blackcurrant is damn fine tasty, almost to the point where it’s quite syrupy, without the added sweetness, if that makes any sense?
What I would look at is
INW Blackcurrant. 8%
Flv Grape 1% ( almost all grapes add a lovely backbone to blackcurrant I find)
TFA Koolada 0.5% ( good starting point)
FW Sweetener 3% ( this is a smooth sucralose that verges on candy like compared to TFAs offering or Caps Super sweet)
Thanks for the tips everyone. I’ll keep you updated to my progress. I’m finding that at 5% the blackcurrant is far too weak and 2% for the menthol was too, so my next attempt is at 8% and 4%. We’ll see
Just for the record, FA’s Blackcurrant is also one of the main ingredients in FA’s Forest Mix, so like @JoJo said I think that’s your ‘mixed fruit’ and possibly backed up by an additional Blackcurrant.
OK. So progress has been made! Despite being officially the fussiest vaper in the world I’ve actually managed to make a liquid that I like. This is bearing in mind that I’ve only come across two premium vape liquids that I like, after trying many.
My main discovery is that Flavour’s Apprentice flavours are absolutely hideous (sorry FA!). Both their Black Currant and their Extreme Ice have a really nasty dry mouth feel with little to no discernible flavour.
The recommendations of Forest Fruits by Flavour Art, Blackcurrant by Inawera, Strawberry Kiss by Inawera, the Sweetener by Flavours Apprentice (yay - I did have something good to say about them. They make good sugary liquid) and Strawberry Kiss by Inawera, all worked out very well for me.
Each one of the above is superior to TFA’s range in both taste and mouth feel IMO. The only issue I’m having is that even the blackcurrant flavour tends to have strawberry notes in it. Replicating Buddha Vape’s very rich currant flavour is proving to be a challenge.
Still, I’ve managed to make a liquid I’m very happy with, so +1 EXP for progress.
this is me whenever I see sweetner above .5% lmao no worries though