I was thinking that by mixing together your nicotine base and flavorings it would be easier to steep with heat and/or agitation before adding them to your pg/vg. It would be less liquid to work with and would have more contact with oxygen/ more nic in contact with flavorings which I equate with a faster and more thorough steep. Just a thought because honestly I don't know what the actual chemical process is between nicotine/flavorings/oxygen. Anyone have any more knowledge about this?
As a side note, I have not been able to find a single (satisfying) scientific explanation for what occurs during aging/steeping. Does the nicotine oxidize? Do the flavors react with nicotine or with each other? Probably all three, but I would love to know exactly what's going on. Reactions are definitely happening or heating and agitation would not speed up the process, but it seems that no one has a clue. Where are the chemists at!?
Edit: Maybe no reactions are happening and perhaps heating and agitation only speeds up the homogenization process.
A small amount of oxidization, mostly homogenization from my experience. I think its the reason an ultrasonic vibrator can cut steeping time from days to hours. If you want to steep quickly, I'd say get one of those.
So you are basically talking about nicotine curing the flavoring, right? Trying to get even distribution of flavor throughout the concentrate. The only issue is that it seems aging allows for the flavor to penetrate the carrier liquid, PG/VG, and this doesn't really address that issue.
I have thought about making 50/50 mixes of flavors @ their acceptable percentages and then mixing as ratios so the flavor has a chance to blend with the carrier, but I feel like this wouldn't be worthwhile. Instead, I prefer to mix small batches for myself for flavor play and make 400ml batches in mason jars for selling/friends/my favorites.
Basically what I'm trying to say is that, IF there are chemical reactions between flavoring, nicotine, and oxygen then aging the concentrated mixture seems like it would be more effective because these reactions would happen quicker in the concentrate. What you're saying is that this concentrate needs to homogenize with your pg/vg, which I totally agree with. Now I'm just wondering if aging is all about homogenization or is there a chemical change component as well.
Edit: There, their, they're problems
There are changes going on. I bet you can do what you propose. Add nic and flavoring. Cure it, then add PG/VG. I'm not sure it would go any faster though.
PG/VG mixes pretty quickly with whatever you mix it with.
Hmmm that is an interesting proposal. From personal experience the nicotine does affect the flavor, but I believe that is just he inherent flavor of the nicotine solution itself, somewhat peppery and tobacco-like. 0mg nic juice just doesn't quite taste the same, but I don't know if it is actually because of the catalyst of nicotine being gone or just the added flavor of nicotine.
Yeah it is interesting, I was thinking about Grizzly vapes top secret mixing procedure and this popped in my head haha. What I really want to know now is what the actual reactions are and between what components of the juice. Maybe I should do a little research into flavor chemistry.
I mix my flavors and nic prior to pg/vg. There is a small exposure to external heat that I add in the curing of the flavor/nic prior to adding carrier liquids. (As well as a small settling time) I find you get a more honest flavor more quickly. It's more time consuming, but I feel like I get a better end result. :shrug:
Truth :) Free lone pairs in nicotine's pyrrole nitrogen like to interact with pi bonds in complex flavoring molecules. This post has good science behind it!
Awesome! I'm going to try it out as soon as I get my shipment in from you guys! haha Your company is great by the way, I basically got all my gear minus flavorings from you and your prices were really good to. The wait is killing me though and to put salt in the wound I got all my flavorings in today with nothing to mix it into! :(
Oh you are making tea with PG/VG? Probably not. Learn the difference between steep and aging.