Pretty soon I'll be ordering a quart of VG and PG as well as a bunch of equipment such as cylinders, bottles, syringes, etc. However I'm realizing there's a possibility I could accidentally waste a lot of money on flavors I don't end up using..
What are some proven flavors to be pretty good and don't contain a bunch of flavors to actually make? I enjoy fruits, menthols, and desserts.
I suggest skipping all the syringes and cylinders and go to using a scale for weighing. It is less hassle and easier to cleanup. Also I use the Recipe Calculator from the sidebar. In the options you can turn on grams for weighing out your recipes.
Make sure to check out the "DIY Beginner's Guide" which is also located on the sidebar. In that guide you will find a link to botboy's guide on using a scale for diy.
Find a few recipes you think you will like and just order those flavors to start off with.
After reading /u/botboy141 I still don't under stand why it's easier to measure by weight. It's worth mentioning I haven't tried it yet, but to me it sounds even more strenuous. My process is as follows.
- Get recipe off interwebs and type the percentage into my juice calculater.
- Read down the list and use recommended amounts of flavor and pg for recipe.
Done
With measuring by weight you just replace the syringes with the little dripper things. The is no difference as far as I can tell. Except reading the amount from your syringe verses your scale.
Am I missing something?
Yes, there's cleaning all the syringes for one. Also, lots of flavors come in dripper bottles to begin with. I just find it easier to drip straight into a bottle and not have to hassle with the cleanup. Cleanup for me consists of chucking the pipette I used for the nicotine.
Yup. So much cleaning avoided. I almost gave up diy before switching to measuring by weight. I've also got my nic in dropper bottles and will have my VG in dropper bottles soon also.
I've knocked over a few vials if flavoring while drawing up with syringes - it's a massive PITA when it happens. This is mostly avoided when dripping out of a bottle.
Measuring by weight is also more accurate. Volume changes with temperature but the mass is always consistant.
There are no syringes involved that you have to clean. Everything is dripped into either the bottle that will hold your juice or a cylinder. It is easier for me as I hated using syringes and drawing up flavor totals and getting the right amount in the syringe and repeating. With a scale it's just drip until the desired weight and repeat until your done. Each to his own though.
I'm a single flavor guy. I clean two syringes and I'm done. I don't need cylinders, beakers, pipettes... it's just a simple process. I suppose it's easier with complex mixes but I'm not that guy.
I'm relatively new to juice making myself. My suggestion would be to download eJuice Me Up, there's plenty of 1-2 flavor mixes in the pre-loaded database to tinker with. That's how I started out...
Download - http://breaktru.com/ejuicemeup.zip
Video tutorial - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0wG-NKf3T0
If you're a nana cream fan /u/fizzmustard's clone is a relatively simple recipe. It also uses flavours you're likely to use elsewhere.
I'm on mobile right now but if you search this sub you'll find it.
I second this suggestion. It's also customizable... pretty easy to add another flavor to modify it a bit. I sometimes lower the TFA Strawberry percentage and substitute that with TFA Ripe Strawberry in the same percentage I took away, and also add 1% TFA Pear to boot.
Thanks for that, I'm not far off mixing another batch so I'll give the Ripe a shot.
Also, I mixed up a bunch of batches with minor variations, the addition of TFA Pear being one of them. The batch with pear held up better with age than the ones without. If you're planning on keeping some of this around the addition of 1-2% pear is a good idea.
Throwing out another vote for mixing by weight right out of the gate, for all the reasons already mentioned.
In addition to the recipe sources already listed, there are a ton of great recipes, clone and original over on vapingunderground.com.
I use TFA strawberry in almost everything I make. I think it's a good starter flavor
i picked this up as part of my first batch of flavors, and at first i couldn't seem to get something going that i liked. fortunately, i have learned how valuable steeping truly is. most recently i did 5% strawberry, 5% dragonfruit, 10% bavarian cream (all TFA). at first i thought it was gross but i picked up the bottle again after a week and its incredible! there's definitely too much bavarian cream, so last night i did 10% strawberry with 7% bavarian cream and i'm hoping that works a little better. do you have any recipes for strawberry with other fruits? i just picked up peach (juicy), wild blueberry, and lemon. im hoping for a lemonade or sour fruit fusion if you have any recommendations. also got some koolada
My favorite beginner is "can't even berry"
5% tfa strawberry 5% tfa raspberry 3% cantaloupe
Adding more cantaloupe will give it more of a milky feel, adding less will give you more of a berry feel I like 3% because it reminds me of hookah
Cool- Is the Cantaloupe also TFA in that recipe? Also- have you tried adding any sweeteners or is this good to go as is?
I like it as is and yeah! All tfa I got my kit from heartland and I second them on the scale. I got a great one off amazon if you want the link!
I recommend starting off small with single flavor mixes or browse the clone recipe thread in the sidebar to see if any of those interest you. Unfortunately a lot of DIY is trial and error so I would start with smaller bottles of flavoring. Most companies sell between 8-15ml amounts. This way you wont spend a ton and find out you don't like it. If you do find something you like, you can always order a larger bottle later. I would also recommend mixing by weight (something I wish i knew before i bought tons of syringes/beakers). It so much easier and there is less cleanup involved. Good luck!