I don't proclaim to be a master mixologist by any means, but in nearly every single recipe thread there's always a " that's too much flavoring" guy, when the person isn't requesting help. There's a trend the last few months of trying to use as little flavoring as possible, all the cool kids are doing it.
So what if someone is using an all TFA blend with 8 different ingredients with 18-20% total flavoring? Maybe they're not vaping on a .03 ohm Magma RDA. An all FA blend with more than 5%? Cats are fucking dogs. There's a lot of variables when it comes to flavor, and bad on the OP if they don't post what ratio, wattage, device, and resistance they tried it at. Until you make it, vape it (which I know you didn't do within 10 minutes of a post), keep your opinions to yourself.
tl;dr Let people experiment and keep your mouth shut unless they ask for help.
If someone posts a recipe and asks, not necessarily for help with a mix, but feedback, I think it would be perfectly valid to point out if you think they're using more flavoring than needed. I get what you're saying, but at the same time, it's an open forum. The same right that allows you to post this allows me to tell someone that I think they should try a lower percentage of flavor. This sub is all about sharing your experiences mixing up liquid. If your experience tells you someone's posted recipe is using too much flavor, why not say so? Nobody is forcing the OP to modify their recipe.
I certainly point this out frequently when I see recipes. I can see your point when people are just saying "too much flavoring" and not much else – it's sort of like "too much cotton" on RDA builds. However, it's not always incorrect or poor feedback if the person expounds on it a bit. Many of us, without mixing a recipe, actually can tell what might be causing a problem. I've mixed most every flavoring I own in test batches at each percentage from 1-15%. I'm sure others have done even more extensive testing, so I try to give folks the benefit of the doubt that their feedback comes from a position of experience and they're genuinely trying to help.
I guess the point here is less the specific feedback and more the quantity of supporting detail. If you see folks giving vague feedback, urge them to be more specific! We all benefit from that kind of dialogue.
"keep your mouth shut unless they ask for help."
Well, that's why they're on /r/diy_ejuice right? Also, if someone is using 12% of a flavor and someone else knows for a fact that the same taste can be achieved using, say, 6.5%.. why wouldn't he/she call it out? Not only is it pointing out the too much flavor aspect, but it also helps you use less resources which allows you to make more juice in the end.
When I first started back in the fall, I would use anywhere from 20-30% total flavoring in my juices. Hey, they tasted great but after researching, even outside of Reddit, and trial and error with better recipes I found that my sweet spot definitely falls within the 12-15% sweet spot.
We're all out to essentially help each other here, man. You come to a DIY sub and surely someone is going to chime in with how they're going to do it, or how they'd tweak to make it better. It's how it goes.
If you don't want feedback on what you're working on, then don't share it.
It's really as simple as that.
15% is too much. use less flavoring.
I'm almost always near 20%, especially on more complex flavors - but I am almost always using a tank between .5-1 ohms. I bought so much max VG juice for dripping before I decided to DIY I may never get through it all.
Most of my complex mixes that are 8 flavors or more reach 17-20 percent usually. It all depends on the flavoring too. Some flavors are just weak and need more % for the flavor to be noticeable. I tend to ignore the less flavor bro crowd. Some of my mixes have 10 percent and taste great but only deal with 2 or 3 flavors.
As someone who mixed FA Cola at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6% trying to get it right I say amen! I enjoy FA Cola at 6% despite being informed it should be used at around 2-3% max. Now to try and up that FA Black Cherry from 3% to be able to taste that too. :)
I think it really depends on the recipe. Like fizzmustards nana clone is ~16% last I recall, and pretty good. There's a recipe I've been making for a spot on Mother's Milk, but it's 30%. That recipe is delicious, and not too sweet either. I think a lot depends on the flavors used, their strength, and how they mix.
Obviously not saying mix everything at 30%, but sometimes it has to be done. There are some people on other forums that regularly mix high %s for flavorful shake and vapes vs 1-2 weeks steeping time. I guess if a total noob is mixing 30% for his first try, and throwing a lot of shit together, saying that's too much % is helpful. But...sometimes you can find magic this way, if you are methodical. My 2c
There is such a thing as too high percentage of a flavoring. Some of us have enough experience doing this that we know better and actually have a clue what we're talking about. Yes, every flavoring is different to varying degrees but not to the asinine degree that some people claim they should be used at such as the morons that try to convince people that a flavoring should be mixed in at 20%. Even some of the sites that sell flavoring recommend an extremely high percentage to start from.
It's pretty much just a fact that most people that DIY are mixing flavorings at way too damn high of a percentage and they should be told that it's probably not the best idea.
Even in a pen device you don't have (depending on flavors used) to mix your recipe at 20% total flavor. Just yesterday I created a recipe for a friend that requested one @ 9% total flavoring and she loved it.
You know what you are talking about for you. I mix mine near 10-15% and its delicious, but my brother says he can barely taste it. I kick everything up a notch that brings it to 20-25%, and all the sudden it is delicious to him. So you can know all you want about flavours, but you don't know how, what, and how much other people can taste.
It's called vape tongue.
You should learn something new.