Hi guys, Ive been a member on the ELR site for a while but this is the first time Ive used the forum.
Im one of the unfortunates who get the bitter/harsh taste from a lot of my vapes so Ive been reading up on Stevia after reading some of the posts on this forum. From what I`ve read the DIY extractions whether in alcohol or water have a very short shelf life, and the branded liquid preps use clever wording to hide additives.
I would be very grateful to get some users views to help me out. TIA
I have recently started using Pyure brand but have only used it in one or two testers at very low percentage so far. I had stopped using TPA Sweetener and basically wasn’t using any sweeteners short of EM or Cotton Candy. Pyure has some Citric Acid (and maybe something else that I can’t recall) that other’s have said are better for fruity vapes while DIY Stevia from powder without the acids are better for bakery flavors (which I lean towards more than fruity vapes) so I need to look into making some from scratch to do some testing with each in both a fruit dominant and bakery dominant recipe for some control testing.
Bookmarked out of interest as I am sure my rambling above was of little help.
Thanks for the reply @ Fozzy71, Im in the UK and couldnt find Pyure anywhere so I ordered some leaf powder intending to try a straight powder/pg shake and steep, a hot water infusion and an alcohol infusion to see which gives the best results
My main concern, seeing that DIY was my only option, was shelf life, reportedly about 2/3 weeks, which is fine for culinary use but not much use if I only need a few drops a week. Maybe my best option is to have a mixing day where I use up most of the extract.
As a by the by do you taste the WWV and CA in the Pyure ?
I haven’t used it enough to know yet, sorry. I am not even sure 0.25% made any difference in the recipes I made as I didn’t make a control recipe without the stevia at the same time.
1g Powder of REB A Stevia 98% or higher purity (Got mine from Amazon UK) to 9ml of PG. Leave to dissolve for a week (shaking occasionally) and run through one of those small micro or coffee filters to remove any residue left and your good to go. Then just add to mixes as per your own taste.
The pre-made stuff of the shelves can contain spring water (minerals) not the best for inhaling imho
I recently picked up Pyure. Expensive to obtain because i am in Canada. Had problem with harshness from fruit vapes. Ie pink lemonade, mountain dew, lime, grapefruit… I recently mixed a blood orange and added 3 drops pyure (30ml) and even tho a few of the flavoring were “natural” and most likely acidic i am having no problem with harshness. Grapefruit standalone (using several vendors) and 1 drop FLV pink gauva will be the ultimate test. Well off to the lab i guess.
My powder arrived today so Ill be making 3 batches up as described and try them all in some juice that will be steeped at about the same time. If I get any sweetness that will be a bonus, I’m hoping that the stevia will reduce the harsh/bitterness as reported by a couple of posters on the forum
I got mine off of Ebay, same purity, product of Paraguay
How long does each batch last (in terms of usability) Ive read that 2/3 weeks if kept fridged. Have you noticed any reduction in harshness in the juices youve added the stevia to ?
@mixologist13
Im hoping that one of the extracts Im trying will help with the harshness in fruity mixes.
Without knowing the concentration of Pyure it will be difficult to make any direct comparisons between it and any DIY extractions but I suppose that my tastebuds will be the final decider.
Good luck with the test, I`ll be interested to see how you get on
Ruby Red mixed last night Dec 6.
3% Delosi Grapefruit
3% FW Ruby red grapefruit
3% RF SC Grapefruit
0.5% FA grapefruit
.0.25 INW grapefruit
0.25 FE grapefruit
.08% FLV pink gauva total 10.08%
You can smell the ACV in the pyure bottle but you cannot taste it in the mix. I went as high as 0.5%
Which in my opinion was much too sweet but i used it in conjunction with Erythritol solution. I am pleased with the Pyure. I will not make final conclusions for up to 6months as its effect on steeping and staying power must be analyzed
With regards to sweetness I haven’t noticed any drop in usability over a period of time (2+ months so far). based on the test samples I have made over that time and the level of sweetness using the 1 drop finger taste test also of just the Stevia base.
With regards to things like harshness, I have found so far it doesn’t really affect the finished flavour with whatever attributes it has, only in a negligible way I have found it just adds a lesser level (that is more pleasant) of sweetness, than sucralose does as I can find sucralose quite sickly. Of course if the concentrate is already loaded with sucralose, then you are fighting a losing battle anyway over the level of sweetness in the mix.
This is only my experience though. If people are saying the level of sweetness is dropping off then you should take it into consideration, The only thing I would say though is without reading these posts myself, are they using the already diluted mineral water based stevia that is shop bought, rather than powder? as the shop bought one wouldn’t be as higher concentration as say a 1g/9ml self mix I use, I would have thought? Whether that has any effect overall I don’t know. As with everything DIY it is trial and error, so you can form your own opinion.
The ingredient that has surprised me the most in removing harshness, sweetness, tart or sour is saline. Used at the right level for the mix it really takes the edge of, say a lime or overly sweet strawberry and just leaves a smooth fruit flavour. It produces a much more interesting finished result for me, than any other additive I have tried so far in 4+ years of mixing, It is just about finding the right level of saline for the mix though as too much and it just mutes the flavour completely. Reminds me of TPA Smooth but has less drastic results and easier to use and has worked on Tart, sour, sweet and citric flavours equally as well.
But I am still at early testing stage, but every time I talk about it, I get quite a few negative comments from people about their perceived effects on liquid and coils that heavily diluted salt may have on it/them. I have yet to personally experience any of these things people say. But I am still in early days of testing it out for myself, so they maybe proved right. But I am going to persevere with it for a few months yet.
Can’t really tell in that bottle, but if you have managed to remove all residue from the stevia/vg mix you have done well. When I tried it with VG found the Stevia didn’t dissolve fully and there was just to much lumpy residue left to be effective for me, it was still quite cloudy even after filtering.
Interesting you have added, ACV and Lime would have thought they would have counteracted the sweetness from the Stevia, but I know ACV is used in the commercially available Stevia dilutions. So it makes sense to give it ago…
How many grammes of powder to VG did you use in your mix out of interest. I use 1g/9ml of PG or VG when I tried it with that.
I use 1 teaspoon stevia powder to 30ml VG.
I have no problem with it blending, but I only mix/stir with a magnetic mixer.
It stays milky colored, but smooth, and it stays blended. Takes about 50 minutes.
The ACV and the Lime juice is 5 drops each per 30ml
@ozo Do you use the green dried powdered leaves in your brew and leave them in ? Are the acids in there to act as a preservative ? Again sorry for the third degree
@ozo Over here in the UK we have similar looking products but when you read the descriptions they are guaranteeing that the stevia in their product is 97% pure but they don’t guarantee that the product in the container just pure stevia, if that makes sense.
Ive made a batch of stevia leaf powder/pg, Ill give it a couple of days steeping and attempt to strain it through some microporous material that I use in my aquarium filters to see how it goes.
I`m only logging all of this in case it can be of use to someone in the future
Thanks for your replies
