A couple of my recent mixes have tasted nothing like they smell. A tropical fruit combo tastes like a honey stick. My strawberry shortcake tastes earthy and strange (but sweet jesus does this juice smell AMAZING). Is this normal? Does steeping help bring the flavor closer to the scent? Maybe I have vape tongue? I'm flabbergasted.
Edit: Drat! Vape tongue! All of my fruity flavors are tasting very muted (even at high percentages). Guess I'll have to change it up for a bit.
I'd say a steep really may help out. In terms of the fruit blend, how much sweetener did you use?
Ok, I'll let it steep for a while then give it another test. It's just strange how it tastes nothing like it smells.
I didn't use any sweetener.
I was curious about sweetener, because it can sometimes overpower the rest. If it still tastes that way after a steep, some sour could help out if you didn't use any. Either a sour concentrate, some lemon juice, or apple cider vinegar can all work. I haven't tried the last two yet, but I probably will soon.
To steep mine, I've put them into a small cloth bag and put them on a windowsill/car dashboard for a day. The water/rice methods can work, too, for quicker batches.
Thanks for the tips! I'll give it a week or so then try again. If the taste is still off I'll try some sour. It's low 40s here right now so I probably won't be steeping in my car haha. I steep everything in a dark cabinet at (or a smidge above) room temp. I did do a few hot water baths before testing so that didn't do much for the smell/taste mismatch.
Check your wick. Often times a particular flavor used will take a while to clear out of a wick, if it ever does. Especially check the health of the wick, especially if any residue is formed. Other than that, check the tank and the drip tip and make sure they are clean.
Make sure you also consider that some flavors will only have a good taste initially and will steep too strong, and some flavors will be far too weak beforehand and may need to steep for a while. Are your mixes your own, or did you find them online? I find the ones online are the ones that need to be most heavily modified at the recipe to accomodate your personal taste.
I initially tested them after dry burns but was so confused by the taste that I tested them each on brand new wicks.
These particular mixes are my own (all with TFA).
The strawberry shortcake:
6% Bavarian Cream
5% Graham Cracker (Dark)
3% Strawberry
and the (semi) tropical fruit:
6% Strawberry
3% Watermelon
3% Double Coconut
2% Bannana
2% Koolada
I'll see what steeping does to them. I've just never experienced juice smelling and tasting so damn different.
On the strawberry shortcake, I'm going to go ahead and say your primary issue is the flavor strengths. You have a combined 14% flavor in a 100% solution, so it's no wonder. I'd consider boosting the Strawberry up significantly, maybe 6%. Graham Cracker is probably good where it is, so is Bavarian Cream. I personally try to get my flavors to at least 20% (TFA user) so my recipe would be a higher amount of Strawberry, pushing the bavarian cream up a bit, and maybe adding 1% to the graham cracker. YMMV, but this is how I've managed.
On your tropical fruit, AFAIK, Koolada is purely to simulate a throat-tingle. Coconut is very powerful to my tastes, I often use it lowered such as I would mint.
One last final note, and sort of a suggestion, have you tried vanilla bean with the shortcake? And maybe lime with the tropical fruit? They are fairly good flavors, IIRC. I haven't tried them personally, but I hear they taste well. :)
I planned on adjusting the flavor strengths. My concern is that it tastes nothing like it should. If I vaped it and said: "wow that strawberry is weak...I should add more" I could adjust it. However, when I vape it I don't taste any of the flavors. I think I'm going to wait a bit, try it again, and then try boosting the strengths to your suggestion. Maybe it's just too weak to have any noticeable flavor come through.
Koolada is like crack to me. I love the cooling sensation combined with a nice, warm vape. I agree that the TFA coconut can be pretty overpowering. But I can't even taste it. Even at ~3% I can taste it in my other mixes but not this one. I don't understand.
I'll pick up some vanilla bean and lime with my next order. The bavarian cream has vanilla in it but I'm not sure how much. I had some lemon-lime that smelled pretty good but got disgustingly cloudy so I didn't vape it.
