Vendor Juices - How much flavoring do they use?

I’m sure others wonder the same thing. Some premium liquids I’ve tried taste like they have little flavor at all, such as High Calibre. Others are quite strong. Vintage comes to mind. As a DIYer I try to think about the potential pitfalls to vaping and, while I have nothing to base it on, have set myself a limit of 24% max flavor on recipes. Is this an arbitrary number? I have to say yes, it is. However, at least I know how much of that unknown component is in there. I look at flavors like Mother’s Milk (way too much hype if you ask me) and think perhaps they have as much as 35% total flavoring. But who knows. And I have no inclination to start contacting vendors to find out the percentage of flavoring used in their liquids. But I will say this. In our attempts to recreate some of these fantastic liquids, it may be wise to keep in mind that sometimes these elusive flavors could be that they are very high in overall flavor and it may be best to just buy the occasional bottle and move on. I say this because most of us are former smokers who wanted to try vaping as an aid to quit cigarettes, cigars and pipes. Being that the jury is still out on the potential harm of inhaling flavor concentrates, it might be a good idea to try and limit recipes to those that don’t have higher and higher amounts of flavoring. Of all the juices I’ve tried, most are achievable at no more than 20-21% total flavoring. Let your conscience be your guide. As for myself, when I see people put up these killer recipes that call for 28, 30, even 35% flavoring…I just smile and go on…reviewing my ever-expanding list of recipes.

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I tend to hang around the 20% mark, just because I like a bold flavor to my vape. Now, granted, I have yet to mix up one of HIC’s concoctions with only 4% in a bottle, but I can bet I’ll be saying, “where’s the flavor?”.

I think it was reddit (urban legend land), where I read that Ben with Alien Visions used as much as 40% flavoring in some of his juices. Maybe…maybe not?? Guess we’ll never know, cause Ben ain’t giving up that secret.

I guess the percentage of how much flavor you put in your mix depends on how strong a particular flavor is to begin with. Trial, error and reading reviews is how I decide. But, in the end, I like to be able to enjoy a nice strong flavor with all my mixes.

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I pretty much try to make my blends at 20% flavor, though I have a hand full at 22% or 24%. There are a few exceptions such as menthol or tobacco flavor mixes. Straight menthol for the customers I blend at 10%. Tobaccos I don’t do as standalones but even so still blend around 7-8% flavor. Started going through some recipes I picked up here and there and started weeding them out. I did happen to notice one that I must not have noticed before that had 34% flavoring. Perhaps one you skipped. I deleted it. I have been also deleting recipes that are more than 5 flavors. Trying to eliminate dups, similar recipes to my own, and those recipes that I had to ask myself why I saved them. You know the kind. Anyway, I do think any more flavor than 24% is overkill and in excess of 5 flavors is well on it’s way to overkill as well…

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I’m with you guys as well. I try and hang around the 19-24% range hoping to be on the lower spectrum as well. If there is a maker that requires more flavor as in flavor west I tend to have it higher for that cause. I agree if less of the unknown is in my daily mix the better i feel.

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Damn I love my Flavour Art juices :smile: I have full flavoured juices that sit around 3.5% flavoring :laughing:

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[quote=“ringling, post:3, topic:15415, full:true”]I do think any more flavor than 24% is overkill and in excess of 5 flavors is well on it’s way to overkill as well…
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I’m not concerned with how many flavorings as much as total flavor percentage. I have a couple of juices that to me are indispensable that are 7 or more flavors. My favorite creation has 8…and I don’t know how I could recreate that flavor taking any one of them away. But I see where your head’s at.

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I don’t think lots of flavors are a downside - It depends on what you want to do. I have a recipe with 11 flavors (I still have to test it with a 12th) - and it’s soooooooooooooo good!

EDIT: Forgot to mention that even with 11 flavors it’s just 7.4% total flavoring. The 12th will be a test with Acetyl Pyrazine, but that will only be 1-2 drops/10ml…

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Many vendors make juice for tanks and low end batts so they generally have more flavoring than say a dripping line of juice. Personally, when i make juice i add the amount of flavoring that is needed to make the juice taste the way i want it, i dont set a limit. None of my juice has had a flavoring % above 21%. Its just the way it has worked out.

Ive looked at many of your recipes, SthrnMixer, and they look good. So many people make the mistake of over flavoring which just mutes the flavoring.

One of the main reasons i got into DIY is because i needed to know exactly what im vaping. Store bought juice just isnt right for me, for the most part.

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I have one or two with 6 & 8. Being I’m doing this constantly for a business it does get old at times. It’s just too much (overkill) for me personally. Just got done blending 32 bottles of juice. I often wish I could do this for fun as all you guys do…

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Ever considered doing flavor bases and normalizing your flavor %? E.g. say you have 10 recipes, varying from 8% to 17% - make a flavor base for each of your 10 recipes for mixing at 20% - that way whatever recipe you make, just dump 20% flavor base in, and top off with nic base :smile:

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i have a triple strawberry mix that i do this with, makes things go a lot quicker.

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I have been making flavor bases for the more complicated flavors as I build enough flavoring supply for each base. I usually mix 408 mls of each flavor base. Unfortunately I have a lot more than 10 flavors I have to make up. Approximately 50 flavors in 4 nic values. Luckily near half are one flavor mixes at this time. All new flavors I create now will be 3 or 4, absolute max 5 flavor blends. I just can not get too complicated doing what I do…

I also stick around the 20% mark and do not understand the HIC recipes that are so low percentages even if I use FA flavors. I guess that is why they say taste is subjective.

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I have to admit, now that I’m moving closer to more FlavorArt and Inawera flavors, the percentage I’m using in mixes is getting much lower. It seems like other vendor flavors take a much greater percentage to make the flavor come through.

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I have juicei mixed at 24%falvor and it doesnt seem to have much flavor. I went that high because they are all flavor west and i have seen everywhere that you need more with them. Is it too high or not high enough? Any ideas?

Depends on flavourings used. Something like CAP might be just fine at 20%, put 20% of Inawera or FA and it will be like drinking CAP straight from the bottle.

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Theybwere all flavor west:)

I agree. I have found that less flavor is a good thing. Also it depends on how much nicotine is in your juice. If you use a higher nicotine level, ie. 12-18mg per ml then I suspect the manufactures are putting more flavor in the juice to hide the taste of nicotine. When you cut down on nicotine the flavor begins to come out and less is better. Just my opinion.

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Especially if they use a crappy nicotine.

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Remember that flavorings are typically PG based and some are more concentrated than others. So 20% of one flavoring may not be equivalent to 20% of another. Be that as it may, I typically start at around 15% and adjust from there. As others have mentioned I also prefer bolder flavors for my juice. I do find that it’s best to start at around 5% with tobacco flavorings and higher for fruits but that is very much a matter of personal preference. .

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