I purchased an e-liquid from Emporium Liquid (brand from California) called Melia Havana. The company’s Instagram page describes the flavor as “smooth vanilla and sweet caramel dessert paired with a familiar shag undertone.” I’ve asked the store about the flavors and they said it has tobacco, vanilla, and caramel in it. I can’t recreate the flavor. The flavor tastes creamy, sweet, vanilla, and a smoky caramel flavor. There’s also a cuban cigar undertone. It’s hard to determine all of the flavors, but it’s very creamy and rich, and not super sweet. I’ve tried mixing RY4 Double, Bavarian Cream 8%, and Hazelnut. It doesn’t taste or smell like Melia Havana. Next, I mixed french vanilla 3%, RY4 Double 8%, Caramel Candy 3%, Hazelnut 4%, and French Vanilla 3%. This tasted bitter and made me nauseous. I think I put too much RY4 and hazelnut. Basically, I can’t get it to be sweet and creamy. Everything I try turns out bitter. How can I mix caramel and vanilla without it getting bitter? Because i find that caramel makes the juice bitter.
Use a custard to smooth them. Or worst case use MTS vapes wiz
I haven’t had this juice before but you asked about getting caramel to not be bitter perhaps you need another type of caramel. What vendor caramel are you working with ? For instance caramel candy TFA is sweet and could help add some sweetness. Also certain vanilla’s aren’t as sweet either. I have recently started using caramel original dx TFA ( the non dx version is a classic and gets a lot of praises ) but I wanted a friendlier version (dx)
Tobaccos aren’t my thing maybe someone can help you like @Jimk or @Josephine_van_Rijn I would not know what havana style you’d be after to get the effects you’d like to achieve. If you happen to have other caramels I have often used a smaller % of the candy and the remaining % needed of the original with good effects. Good luck !
On their website it says Vanilla caramel custard- there’s your creaminess the custard which if you go with vanilla custard cap’s its creamy and vanilla and slightly sweet. Add your vendors your currently working with because some of your %'s seem high and that can lead to bitterness as well .
Also try a different tobacco .because ry4 is Carmel and vanilla tobacco already
I use caramel TFA dx in my first batch. I bought caramel cap v2 but I haven’t used it yet. In the new batch I made, I used caramel candy (french vanilla 3%, caramel candy 3%, ry4 8%, hazelnut 4%), but i tried it yesterday and it had a strong hazelnut flavor and made me sick to my stomach. What percentages do you suggest I use? Maybe I should use original caramel with caramel candy? Or should i just use the caramel candy?
I made another batch with ry4 double 7%, vanilla custard 2%, hazelnut 4%, candy caramel 2%, caramel 1%, sweet cream 2%. This one had a really strong hazelnut flavor. I didn’t taste the ry4. I don’t know if I should take the hazelnut out?
I’m not sure what to do. I’m really frustrated. I wish you guys could taste this flavor and help me out.
Ry4 may be the wrong tobacco try Cuban .and try butterscotch TPA with vanilla swirl. That may give you those same notes in a different way.
Hmm wondering why your putting the hazelnut in there ? From what you were describing earlier it didn’t seem to have nuts in it.
try for less is more effect.
Caramel candy 1%
caramel original dx 2%
RY4 ( probably isn’t ever going to achieve an" Havana effect " ever ) But if you must go around 2.5-3%
vanilla custard cap’s 2%
Bavarian cream dx 2% Or reg. 3%
French vanilla ( this may not be the right vanilla ? ) but 1.5%
Custards and tobaccos take loads of time to steep so if you try it too soon it is guna be harsh and may be bitter. I suggest you mix your batch up, shake it well and put it in a warm bath ( small tuberware will do )
let is warm for 15 mins. shake it really well. then do another warm bath with fresh warm water for an additional 15 mins. then shake it again and put it in a dark cabinet or drawer and shake daily try it no sooner than 35-30 days this is jmo and what i’d do. Make multiple small batches trying different combos, and let the ones you’ve already made keep steeping they just may surprise you. Take notes and mark them so you know which is what.
Yeh i think so ,I bought Cubano TFA but i don’t like it,IT has very bad smell i didn’t use it,and i bought Desert Ship-HS but i haven’t used it yet,I have these flavors right now:
Vanilla Custard V2-Cap
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream-Cap
RY4 Double-TFA
Smooth-TFA
French Vanilla V2-Cap
Ethyl Maltol (PG)
Desert Voyager WG-INW
1 x Fresh Cream-FA
Madagascar (Vanilla Classic)-FA
Vienna Cream-FA
Desert Ship-HS Caramel V2 - Cap
Vanilla Whipped Cream-Cap
DX Bavarian Cream-TFA
DX Sweet Cream-TFA
DX Caramel Original-TFA
See you need a tobacco guru that ain’t me IDK the difference in them nor the %s.
so sub the v2 where i put v1cap’s VC
you could take out the bavarian cream altogether and add the Vanilla whipped cream but use it low bc it steeps a but sweeter than you’ll probably want so in the 0.75-1.25 % range
A Lot of flavors smell terrible off the bottle but taste fantastic FA’s fresh cream isn’t exactly roses off the bottle more like curdled milk but it does a wonderful job adding cream where you don’t want an additional flavor. You may consider using it in one of your test batches in the 0.5%-0.75% range just to add a back note or some depth to the caramel or the custard.
thank you so much for all of the advice i really appreciate it! You have been very helpful! One more question, should i add the nicotine before i put it in the bath or add it later?
It is very difficult to find a good cigar flavour. I’ve been looking for it a long time. IMO Cubano is one of the better ones that are around but taste is subjective so… I don’t know what this Melia Havana juice tastes like so it is hard to give you any pointers on that. RY4 double is definitely not a cigar like flavour, it will give you the caramel note but no cigar.
@Jimk has found a cigar flavour he likes called Cohiba, I have yet to try it out but heard good things about it. I’m afraid the only way you’re going to get anywhere is by trial and error and experiment with different cigar flavours to see which one you like best. That’s the thing that can make DIY quite costly but it is the only way to find your own personal best flavour.
Not to add more chaos to the mix, but you might look into getting some sort of dulce de leche if you’re not finding the creamy caramel that you’re looking for. FW Salted Caramel is so far my favorite caramel followed by TPA’s Caramel Candy if you’re looking for that caramel syrup type flavor.
I also cannot help you with much in the way of tobacco, but I have Inawera vanilla for pipe and like it a lot. That might work? As others have said, Josephine and JimK are the resident tobacco gurus. If anyone can help, they can.
Hee hee LA makes a creamy caramel that is super rich. If you add even 0.5 of dulce de Leche you will have a bakery note in the mix not that it’s a bad choice at all jojo but I believe he was going for straight creaminess. I stand corrected if in fact Shan you’d like the bakery note. Not to mention it add a pretty strong sweetness to the mix.
But LA’s creamy caramel isn’t very sweet and it’s super rich maybe worth checking out however very potent you’d have to use it low like 1%
Add whenever you want the water temperature isn’t going to degrade it unless you’ve boiled it to over 400 degree ( lol please don’t do this ) just a very warm water will do. Some ppl like to add it later I get it done at one time.
That’s very nice of you but a guru I’m not. I just like tobacco in my vape, but I’m wandering around lost in the forest like everybody else 
Oh puh-lease. You are so a guru even if you don’t wanna admit it. 
But I get you…I still consider myself a noob mixer. I look around at all the great recipes and think I can’t possibly keep up with all these fantastic people. It’s wonderful!! 
I think I’m noober than you 
I only vape for about 10 months, DIY maybe 8 but yah, if I can help someone who’s even noober than me with something that I have learned along the way, btw from all the marvellous people on this forum, then I will pass it along, just like you do. So if I’m a guru, so are you.
Ok Cuban cigar is not the flavor but the scent . Cuban cigars are a dark spicy and heavy smoke . this is not what your describing . what your describing is a brighter Carmel flavor with a nutty spice . with a vanilla Carmel cream finish .That is not Cuban …its cavandish . so that’s what I believe your missing. Cavandish is a supurb tobacco that’s easily blended with the notes your describing. I’ll bet that’s what your tasting .
@shan , First off, I stand with @Josephine_van_Rijn in saying, I don’t claim to be a tobacco guru at the top of a mountain. I’ve been doing DIY since this time last year. All I do know is exactly what has been stated here:
@Josephine_van_Rijn can tell you that finding the enjoyable tobacco flavors can be tough. I have yet to find the tobacco and other ingredients which make up my favorite store/vendor purchased juice…I’ve tried every “clone” suggestion on the web…nope, tastes nothing like my Bobas Bounty! I admitted defeat and moved on to enjoying a vast amount of other tobacco flavors! It’s a lose/win situation for me which I’m glad happened. As soon as my tunnel vision for Bobas Bounty disappeared, my tobacco vape life became very exciting!
Back to the “shag”. I smoked roll my own shag tobacco for too many years; loved every one of them! The term “shag” mostly has to do with the cut of the tobacco, not the flavor. There are many types of shag tobaccos, made up of many varying blends of tobaccos. So, for the vendor to say it’s a shag is a very nebulous thing!
I am still going down the road of finding enjoyable tobaccos and loving every day! 
The only way for you to get close to cloning your favorite vendor juice is to start buying tobacco flavoring and doing testing yourself. What tastes great to me might taste like worm dirt to you!
@Jimk @Amy2 @JoJo @Josephine_van_Rijn @mat2 thank you to all of you for your advice,I’m trying too make new batches with the flavors you guys suggested. I have one question: where do you guys purchase your flavors? Anyone buy from Bull Vapor City? I’ve made 3 orders with them and I just found out that someone hacked into the credit card I last used buying stuff from their site. They charged about $1100 on my card, so just in case, make sure you’re checking your card statements to make sure your card isn’t getting hacked!