Tonight I am going to do some experiments, but I also wanted to get some other opinions. What kind of mixes do you use smooth with and why? How does it taste different than if you weren't to use it? Thanks
Edit- I was also wondering the same thing for EM, but I am going to save my EM experiments for tomorrow. If you would like to answer those same questions but for EM too, it would be helpful. Thanks.
Smooth aka Triacetin is an interesting chemical. I find it used best in a few situations but they are few and far between. Most of what I'll say here can be found in the Notes-Additives-Flavor Enhancers thread linked in the sidebar.
Personally, I only use Smooth in one flavor that I frequently mix/vape. I use it for the purpose of backing off a small bit of harshness, it also brings some of the minor background flavors up a little more while dumbing down the stronger flavors that are in the foreground.
Unfortunately, if not used perfectly, at exactly the right percentage with exactly the right flavors, it WILL mute the overall flavor profile of the juice over time.
While I don't mix many tobacco blends, I'm also told that it is quite frequently used in tobacco mixes to help reduce throat hit a little and to help the background additives used in most tobaccos to stand out more.
Summary - Use it in complicated recipes where you need to help flavors to blend a little more, bring background notes to the front, or to cool off overpowering flavors/flavors with too harsh of a bite.
Just remember, if you use it simply to eliminate bite and 'smooth' out a recipe, just know there's a good chance it'll mute everything in your recipe over time.
Thanks. I had read the description in the notes, I was just hoping to get some more specific situations. I have a coffee mix that I have been working on that sounds like it could fit the profile of use. After using it, I think it helped a bit, but the bottom line is that my mix was garbage to begin with. But you cant make every mix tasty. I noticed you are obviously one of the most knowledgeable people in this sub, so while I have you here, do you think it is best for a new DIYer to start by mimicking others recipes or going straight into expermentation. I have been doing this for about a week and I have not bothered with making others recipes. I want my mixes to be unique. I do have a pipe dream of selling my own line as a source of income and I do not want my mixes to just be the same generic recipes that others use. But would I benefit by doing others recipes anyway?
I mixed others recipes when I first started DIY'ing as honestly, I didn't have a specific flavor profile I really liked. I started off by mixing maybe 2 dozen random fruity recipes that looked good to me and had solid reviews. It helped me to learn a bit about how juices mingled, and eventually I adjusted those recipes I liked the most out of that batch to fit my palette the best.
Eventually I learned flavor combinations that might work together and just started experimenting. I think a lot of people get into DiY knowing there's a possibility that they could sell juice later on, I did at least... I'll warn you now, if this is your plan, be ready to commit 6 months to a year of your life, 4-6 hours a day at a minimum and several thousand dollars before you have several unique creations that you feel comfortable putting your name on (at least it'll take that much if you are half as picky as I am).
But honestly, the biggest thing, make sure you find something you like to vape that you can make. Once that is accomplished, spend as much money as you want on flavors and start experimenting.
I always recommend to newer folks to ALWAYS start with single flavor mixes before experimenting. You MUST know what the flavor tastes like so that you can figure out what it'll mix well with.
Take extremely meticulous notes about everything you ever do.
I'm more or less 2 years into mixing, 6 months of actively mixing 4-6 hours a day and I still haven't found my dream all day vape. Still never had a juice last me more than 3-4 weeks as an ADV and I rarely ever go back to one I've vaped that long.
Edit:
> I noticed you are obviously one of the most knowledgeable people in this sub
I think this is terribly untrue, I could name a dozen people here that have much greater knowledge than I, I just tend to be a bit more active as I spend 10+ hours a day in front of a comp (3 monitors ftw) and always have reddit open on one screen ;-)
Also, regarding:
> But you cant make every mix tasty
Something I should have mentioned before about smooth. I've never used it really to try to fix a bad recipe or had it turn a mediocre recipe into an amazing one. I've only really ever used it to take a great recipe and improve it. I tend to dump my terrible mixes, and throw my 'barely vapable' stuff in a box and drop it off @ my local B&M to die in their 'misc vape box'. Occasionally, someone pulls out a juice I mixed 3-6 months ago and likes the profile so I go back to work on it.
Thank you so much! It is awesome to have people around who are willing to take the time to respond thoroughly to my questions. I do spend at least 4 hours a day mixing and experimenting. A lot of this time is also spent reading. I love mixing because it is such a broad playground for experimentation. I would love nothing more than to see my bottles get sold. Tonight I made a mix that absolutely makes me drool. One of the best feelings ever. So rewarding. But it is definitely a long road until I am able to make multiple juices that could stand up to some of my favorites and I know it. But, I am totally willing to put in however many years it takes. Thank you again. Is it ok if message you if I have some questions in the future? I promise I won't blow you up and I always search before asking.
I use it to add a full body to flavors that I don't want to use Bavarian cream, or vanilla in.
What could you not want to put bavarian crwam in?!?! jk. But for real. Bavarian Cream is one of my favorites. I made a breakfast cereal mix last night (nothing like cereal killer) and bavarian cream is what made it. My favorite creation to date. I have vaped almost 30ml of it in the last 10 hours and i was asleep for 6 of the 10.
Smooth works really well with bubblegum flavors, it makes it taste like bazooka joe from back in the day. It also works well in drink flavors and tobaccos, that's really all I've used it for.