I've been dabbling in DIY for a good bit and have tried various recipes. One thing I've noticed is that the DIY juice is not as flavorful as I want it. I mean I can taste whatever flavor I'm using but it's not as in your face or as sweet as I'd want it. Ive tried flavorings from 10% to 20% total. All flavors are TFA. Does anyone have this issue?
I have the same issue untill one day I added flavors with no plan, It ended up tasting like robitussin that was a in your face tast. I never want recreate that flavor again.
Build your flavors with touches of other flavors to create a more full bodied juice. Adding a touch of pomegranate can boost sour flavor that in turn picks up a sweet flavor. A good juice excites all your flavor senses. So take a muted juice right now and add a contrasting flavor to see what I mean.
I've made space jam Andromeda clone and the recipe is 8% blueberry, 4% pomegranate, and 3% vanillin. I mean it's good but I expected it to be a little sweeter? How do I get that "mmmm" taste know what I mean? Hahah
Individual flavors usually have a 'high' or 'low' note to them. When you want that full flavor, you need to mix flavors to fill out the senses of flavor to give it that body.
For example, TFA dragonfruit has a high note, quite subtle even at 12%. While still good by itself, it lacks that full "in your face" flavor. So I mix a bit of TFA pomegranate and strawberry to it for the low-mid notes, basically they serve as a base flavor. This gives the mix more of a fuller flavor.
The last step is to your additives to the mix. These can be sweeteners, koolada, vinegar, AP, citric acid, malic acid. By adding these, you will spice up your juices a bit to give it that final kick to it.
I have been DIYing for a month or so. All my flavors seem to be muted as well.
What are we doing wrong? They taste decent, and I can definitely taste the notes of the juice. But it's not that flavorful.
have you figured it out cause im having this same problem. just all my flavors are there but muted even at higher percentages till it tastes chemically. iv tried em iv tried sucralose from low to higher with long steep but still nope lol
Not really. I found certain simple recipes that contain only 1 flavoring (example: 10% TFA strawberry) taste pretty good. Keeping it simple and basic yielded pretty good results. More complicated juices were harder to get to taste good. It's hit or miss. I just browsed around for highly rated DIY recipes and replicated them and some taste spot on and some don't. I had an excellent mothers milk clone that was identical to the original but I've lost it unfortunately . Ultimately, I've given up to just making DIY simple juices for my drippers and buying pre-made juice for my kayfun.
You count drops or us ml for flavors. 25 drops is about 1ml the truth is from the test i have done 25 drops is short .1 -.2 ml short of being 1ml.
Here's an "in your face" recipe. It's all tfa flavors and one of my favorites.
7.5% banana cream
6% strawberry
5.5% juicy peach
1% ethyl maltol
2 drops of sour per 10ml
try using additives like lemon (fruits) vinegar (tobaccos) koolada anything, sour and sweetener.
makes a world of difference. Like eating a plain boiled potato then adding salt, pepper and butter to make it not just edible but delicious.
And make sure your adding correct amounts of flavouring. Some flavours at 20% will kill your taste buds but at 5% will be awesome.
Based on your analogy this may be what im looking for. I'll try some koolada and sweetener. What do you recommend?
try lemon concentrate or even fresh (sieved/filtered) lemon in fruit. It will give it a zing and excite your taste buds. The friendliest sweetener imo is ethyl maltol. get crystals and dissolve in warm pg or try TPA sweetener. Too much will kill it though and make the fruits taste stewed. For tobacco I use a few drops of red wine vinegar. you can use any really but try and get around 5-6% acidity. Koolada is best in small doses. depending on how cool/mentholated you want it start at around 4-5 drops per 10ml.
hope this helps
Your skill will come with experience. Try some different brands of flavoring too. My favorite is capella and flavor west. Sometimes a little goes a long way, and sometimes you have to use a lot. This all depends on what flavor you are using. Here is a quick example: A flavor like Capellas/VZ Coconut should not be used at a high percentage because it becomes very harsh. 1-2% could be enough, whereas another flavor like Capellas Vanilla custard (If used as the base/dominant flavor) should be used at around 7% and up to get a desired outcome. I am at the point where I can "usually" know what percentage to start at just by smelling the concentrate....usually. This experience will come with trial and error. Feel free to message me with any questions that you might have. I have been mixing for about 2 years now. It's fun!
Do you not recommend TFA? what b are some good flavors/recipes for in your face fruity juices?
Twentysacked,
I do recommend TFA as well. I use their stuff too. I use a bunch of different vendors. Capella and Flavor West are just some that I use a bit more often. You will find that some vendors make some flavors better than others, or that have different flavors that you are looking for all together. "In your face" fruity flavors from Capella? "In your face" can mean a couple of different things. I never make just one flavor. It's always a combination to bring out different notes of each. For example, Capella Strawberry/Strawberry & Cream are pretty subtle to me. For a subtle flavor, you want to pair it with a "sharp" flavor. Remember how I said you should only use coconut at small percentages? This is where you would use your coconut. With strawberry being a smooth kind of subtle flavor, you want something sharp (could mean acidic) to bring out the flavor and add complexity. You want to have certain notes come out, not just a bland tasting strawberry. You could mix coconut in with this, or you could use Capella Pear. Capella pear is one of those that can be overpowering and sharp as well. With a bit of Pear or Coconut you could spice up a fruit flavor. With too much, you can completely destroy the bottle and make it harsh and taste bad. So to recap your question, flavors that are "in your face" fruity flavors would be coconut, pineapple, pear, most citrus, and raspberry to name a few. One of the fruit flavors that you can mix at a fairly high percentage and still be good would be Harvest berry from Capella. This is one that I like as well. It tastes good, smells good, and vapes good. What are some of the flavors that you currently have? Maybe I can help you make a good mix.
I have TFA strawberry, blueberry extra, vanillin, EM, pear, canteloupe, honey dew, sour, sweet tart, and a couple others I can't remember off the type of my head. I've been following people's recipes and while the flavor is there, it's not as "sweet" or savory as I'd expect it to be. Does that make sense? It's more like a very subtle flavor that I taste.
Vapor...chicken is right. Capella is has a little bit of concentration inconsistency. Bubblegum is at most a 1-5 drops per 10ml flavor, but watermelon is like a 20 drop per 10ml flavor. I love the way Capella juices taste, I just hate how thin and dilute they make them in the end. They need to up their flavor potency.