Is there a list of flavors someone has compiled with a recommended steeping time? Being new to this it would be kind of helpful deciding on which recipes to make based on how long they have to cook.
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I havenāt seen anything like that and would be skeptical if I did. There are simply too many variations in our combination of flavors. For instance, I may put FAās Fresh Cream in recipe #1 and itās a Shake-n-Vape, but in recipe #2, it needs a 3 week steep to be itās best.
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Iām with Alisaā¦too many variables to say. I suggest testing your juice right after you make it (or a couple of days) and then once a week up to a month. If you donāt like it after a month steep, chances are itās not gonna get better with three. The only reason Iād say give it a month is if itās tobacco or custardā¦those two types of flavors seem to need a long time to age properly.
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That makes sense. But if you have a recipe with a flavor that takes a day to mature alongside one that takes a month to mature, wouldnāt the recommended steep time be a month? Not doubting. Just trying to learn 
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I guess what I mean is, if you have a strawberry custard, would the strawberry note be noticable first, then the custard flavor develop later? Does mixing two or more flavors change the time it takes a single flavor to develop?
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From personal experience, Iām gonna go with no on this one. Typically you can pick out the flavors that usually do well as shake and vape almost immediately. But, there is the potential that they will change as they āmarryā together over time. Kind of like the way chili or stew is good the first night, but really amazing after a couple days. All the flavors kind of come together to make a ānewā flavor. so instead of having something like āStrawberry AND custardā you get āStrawberry custardā.
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Yes steeping changes everything. Flavors interact with each other so like @JoJo said one recipe may take 3 weeks to be well rounded others may be developed after 24 hrs. Juice can taste great on the shake and then after steeping taste bad if the balance wasnāt right. As youāve seen reading reviews some flavors are not suggested by themselves best bet is to try your mix in intervals and take notes like " @24 the apple was fading @7 days apple has returned, graham cracker notes have developed " IDK Honestly but its worked so far for myself not sure how anyone else does thereās.
I make multiple versions of my juice at dif % - if possible- of each flavor attempt, Apple Pie V1 V2 V3. This way it gives me an idea of how things are developing in each mix 
Iāve made a small recipe notebook to easily track all my attempts, percentages, and outcomes.
Not sure if any of this will help you on your DIY trials but ya flavors vary on steeping depending on the blends
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Thanks for the informative replies. That makes sense. I am an avid food network watcher so I do a lot of cooking. Which is why I have taken to this hobby so much I think. I just wasnāt sure if flavors reacted with each other as they do with cooking. And yeah, I can make a mean pot of chili two days from now. As long as you can stand the heat
Maybe we need to start a cooking thread. I bet a lot of you mixing gurus are hella chefs!
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That we do! Ironically Iāve been too busy getting my ass handed to me, that I havenāt updated it in a whileā¦
With all these events Iām doing I should have some pretty cool pictures soon
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Was reading through it Darth. I have been humbled. I donāt even have to taste your food to know you are an amazing chef. You ever been on Chopped? I love that show!
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Well thank you LordVapor I appreciate the compliment a lot! Itās the only thing in life I know how to do!! Haha thankfully people have to eat because I would be screwed
I havenāt been on chopped, no. During the JBA time I had been asked by The food network to do somethings and my wife keeps telling me I should do one of those showsā¦based upon the miracles I pull off when thereās nothing in the house but a can of tomatoes, cinnamon and a carrot hehe
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A lot of the people that win are on the show because someone told them to do it. If I were that good I think it would be a blast. But very challenging.
So what are your thoughts on flavors marrying together while steeping? I think we need a chemist to chime in lol.
The one and only regret, if any, would be that I didnāt take a class on Molecular Gastronomyā¦ It always interested me and in a way thatās how I feel about DIY with all the flavors, etcā¦ to me it is a form of MG and equally as fun!
I went from a casual mixer that had a handful of flavors plus a few vendor juices to a full blown fāing lab with 100s of flavors, juices, tanks, mods, etc over night!
I donāt have time right now to get in to it but I am still learning as I go on what certain flavors/companies do over a long period of time. When I say long period of time, I am speaking months or a year+! I am now at that point where I am going back and tasting blends that are almost a year old and what time has done to them and taking notes!
It is pretty amazing what time does and how certain flavors pull back, while others come out! Especially florasā¦
Iām also finding there are flavors that enhance a juice without actually producing the flavor they are. In a quick example, Fa Fuji and Pear are 2 great flavors, that if used at .2-1% will add body/juiciness to a mix without giving you an apple/pear flavor and so onā¦
It is addicting and a lot of fun!! Even though I have 30+ years as a chef doesnāt mean that making juices are easy! Sure I can easily pair flavors and that but this is a whole different ball game with %s and different vendor flavors. I am still learning my flavors and with 300+ flavors and a window of 12 months to see what they do, it is a longā¦but fun process!
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When I first started DIY I just jumped in head first. Made a lot of really crap mixes until I did some research. At one point I was like Iām only gonna ever make shake and vape juices then in time I found that some of my S&Vās would be so much better after a week or two. Once I had made a lemon cookie that was just not good at first. I threw it in a drawer and found it again a couple months later. I hadnāt labeled it and forgot what it was. When I tried it again it was like holy cow, where was this when I mixed it?
Point is, aging is a crucial part of DIY in so many cases. After my lemon cookie incident I started researching and although I canāt remember where I read it, I did read kind of a guideline once and Iāve sorta stuck with it.
Candy and Fruit needs the least amount of steep time. Anywhere from overnight to 3 days.
Custards, creams and bakery 1-2 weeks
Tobaccos, coffees and some others (but especially tobacco) anywhere from a month to two months.
So if you make a primarily candy or fruit mix, your expected steep time needed will be shortā¦a few days. But if you add creams/bakery/tobacco, those flavorsā needed steep time should be what you go by to get a true steep and development of the flavor.
Right now, although I do somewhat go by this rule, I often vape my liquids before theyāve fully steeped because I do a lot of the same flavors and know what to expect in terms of how something tastes after 4-5 days to how it will taste in 2 weeks.
I couldnāt agree more. I use some apple and pear this way too. Another I find especially good for this is TPA Dragonfruit. You can add a goodly amount of it before it starts to make a mix taste like dragon fruit, although I would say when experimenting to start off at 2% and work your way up. Iāve made some great mixes with as much as 5-6% TPA Dragonfruit and not really noticed itās taste as much as how it adds some depth to a mix. Iāve only ever had TPA and CAP dragon fruit so I donāt know about other vendors, but the Capella version is quite pungent and I donāt use it this way. Itās in a class by itself.
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I bought a Strawberry Cheesecake from a vape shop in Indy after getting used to my local vape shops flavors. The Strawberry Cheesecake had almost no flavor. So into the cupboad it went. A month later I tried it again. Still no flavor. The cheesecake was slightly there. But definitely no strawberry. So I added some FA Strawberry to it. I put it away and never thought about it again for another month. I just put it in my Crown tank this morning and damn itās good. The cheesecake is even coming through a lot more now. Maybe they didnāt steep it at all. It has turned a dark golden color. I am actually going to be bummed when itās gone.
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I want to kind of revive this discussion for a moment. After giving it some thought, I think @LordVapor had a good question and thereās a good case for the database including Recommended Steep Time as part of flavor reviewing. Take just one flavor for example (this could work with most anything) ā¦ CAP VC v1. Anyone who has used this flavor understands that it changes fairly dramatically from the time of mix up through about 1 month after mixing. It will strengthen, smooth out, gain creaminess, and has a very unique and enjoyable quality once itās reached about the third week. Of course we also know the amount to which this is noticeable also depends on what else itās mixed with and the quantity used. But, can you agree that as a rule of thumb it matures at the 3 week mark?
Letās look at another flavorā¦TPA Strawberry (Ripe). I donāt find that it changes much at all after mixing. In fact (depending on what itās mixed with) I find it a shake-n-vape worthy flavoring.
In my view there is a difference between the results of aging that are desirable for marrying flavors and the need to steep due to the properties of the individual flavors in a mix. And thatās where I feel having a grading system in the flavor reviews would be helpful. Just as an example, if there was a place in the flavor stash for users to choose recommended steep time for flavors, say something like: zero, 3 days, 7 days, 10 days, 14 days, 21 days 30 days - that data could be delivered much the same as the quantitative data derived from the recipes where it shows minimum, maximum and median, only it could show steep time instead, perhaps an average. So if I never used CAP VC v1 I could look up the flavor and see it has a 3 week recommended steep time.
I feel if this were a feature available it would be used tremendously and people would get better results from their experiments.
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In my original questions here, that was what I was getting at. I guess I didnāt explain it as eloquently as you did. I understood that flavors needed time to marry together, and depending on the flavors used this time would surely vary.
But now with more experience under my belt. Wait, I think Iām wearing a belt. I canāt see it? Hmm. Anyway, I now know with certain flavors, when I use them in a mix, it is going to need to steep according to the flavor in the recipe requiring the longest steep time. This was what I was asking in my first post here.
And now that I have gotten to know a lot of you, I realize this is all a bit of trial and error for everyone here. Even for the pros. Because this just hasnāt been around long enough for anyone here to have all the answers. But all of you know enough about certain flavors that you instinctively allow a certain amount of time based on the flavors used, regardless of the recipe.
That was the info I was wanting when I started this. I think if we all put our heads together, a really good database can be established for individual flavors with recommended single flavor steep time. So that way someone new like I was can take the longest required steep time and have a better guess as to how long a recipe is going to need to steep before we mix.
My purpose for asking was I had no vapable juice. Everything I was making was needing to steep. And not knowing that, I was making juice that I was unsure if it was good, or if I just didnāt know what I was doing, or if a steep was going to make it better. So knowing what to expect before mixing would have come in really handy at the time, and I could have made better informed decisions when putting recipes together.
Now ya made me write another book lol.
Oh hey! thereās my belt.
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An option under our flavor stash?..
Pretty good idea - How about a field under each flavor in the stash, āTypical steeping timeā - Also a field for steeping time in the recipe? 
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