A while back, /u/longglitch/ started a thread with his progress on cloning some of Murdock’s juices. It was cool to see so many comments about it, as I don’t see these juices pop up much here.
Interesting as well, is that Murdock apparently caught wind of it and I was sent some Facebook screenshots of the comments of him poking little jabs at us, as well as his followers throwing around terms like “scrubs,” “amateurs,” etc. hell even the dude from Good Life Vapor apologized to him for attempting to clone Pluid back in the day. Was pretty comical. So, in case that happens again and his village of followers stumble here again: DIY is a hobby, coming up with clones is fun. I am not saying “OMGZGZS THESE ARE THE ACTUAL RECIPEZ LOL OMG,” but these have completely replaced my desire for the real stuff.
So, here are some clones.
I’ve seen a lot of Pluid clones in my days and don’t ever recall anyone mentioning the fact there is clearly oil sitting on the top of an unshaken bottle. Pluid uses a “proprietary absinthe” essential oil blend around 4%. So, anise oil, maybe fennel oil, I don’t know. What I do know, is using 1% of NOW’s Essential Anise Oil is perfect. I messed around with lots of different fruit combinations, you can use whatever fruits your little hearts desire, the oil alone gets you in the ball park, so have fun and try new things. This is where I landed. Mouth gets numbs from anise, fruits don’t come out until your taste buds are used to the anise and is a perfect, to me, Pluid replacement. Some say TFA Mary Jane is in there too, probably is, haven’t tried it in the mix. Murdock mocked the use of apple, but I dig it.
Pluid:
- NOW Anise Essential Oil - 1%
- FA Orange - 2%
- TFA Apple - 4%
- TFA Kiwi Double - 2%
- TFA Key Lime - 3%
- CAP Golden Pineapple - 4%
Again, try whatever fruits you want, the oil gets you in the Pluid ball park big time. I sent /u/longglitch/ a sample, I’m sure he can chime in with his comments.
Bledan Lotus has a strong lime taste, with tropical, earthy-isn undertones. It uses a small % of essential lime oil. I found that NOW’s Essential Lime Oil fit the bill. TFA Mary Jane (thanks again /u/longglitch/ for opening up my eyes to this flavor) was perfect for the earthy tone. I have vaped a shit ton of mL’s of this mix and side by side with the real stuff (albeit, it was over a year old and thoroughly steeped) and it is perfect for me.
After a few attempts, here is where I landed.
Bledan Lotus:
- NOW Lime Essential Oil - 0.5%
- TFA Coconut Extra -1%
- TFA Key Lime - 4%
- TFA Mary Jane - 2.5%
- CAP Golden Pineapple - 6%
Maha Ras, a love it or hate it juice, tastes like an incense laced spice fruit cocktail, more or less. I had a few different variations for a long time, none of which hit the spot for me. I struggled with the spice aspect of it. Again, /u/longglitch/ mentioned his attempts used a high level of TFA Coconut Extra (I know, scary right?) and he sent me some samples of what he was working on. So, what I learned is that TFA Coconut Extra at high %’s really doesn’t taste that coconut-ish and instead put out an interesting spice. Murdock once mentioned that there was more coconut that anything else in Maha Ras and when you vape it you would ask “Where is the coconut?”, so it really added up. I also had a hard time with the fruits. To me, Maha Ras has almost a cherry-merlot wine taste to it, if that makes any sense. After huffing some flavors for a while, and failing with other cherry flavors, I thought it might not even be cherry. Turns outs, equal parts of CAP Sweet Strawberry and Cap Raspberry were the final piece I needed to make the clone. Vaped side by side with the real stuff and absolutely love it and is spot on to me.
Maha Ras:
- TFA Coconut Extra - 5.5%
- TFA Musk Candy - 4%
- TFA Mary Jane - 2%
- CAP Sweet Strawberry - 3%
- CAP Raspberry - 3%
Lastly, apparently Murdock uses at least 5% sucralose in all of his juices. I don't use it in any and it works fine.
Further reading:
It's been a blast working with /u/shutdown924 and /u/tusman777 I've made some progress with agent orange that I'd like share here.
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lemon Sicily 6% (FA)
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Mary Jane 6% (tfa)
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Sweetener 3% (tfa)
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Sweet Tangerine (pg base) 1.5% (cap)
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California Orange 1% (tasty puff)
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Harvest berry 1-1.25 (cap)
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Capsicum heat 2-3 drops/100ml
I'd like to thank /u/gremlinjuice for bringing harvest berry to my attention accidentally. Man what a great flavor. I've also been working on M4 I'm playing around with different flavors and percentages of Irish cream, vanilla, banana cream, chocolate, creme de menth, cinnamon and eggnog. Will report back here when I have something noteworthy.
I've just tried this recipe with a 5 day steep. It's got the spice kick for sure but at this point I'm getting a lot of berry/orange taste. I'd like to know how long you've steeped it. I'm going to try again at two weeks and then I might tweek the flavours a bit. perhaps the ratio of flavors is too high. Any thoughts. Also, I should mention it's tasting pretty f^^^ing good as is. I made a batch of your previous recipe. I'm calling it Agent Lime. It's also pretty good. Thanks.
No problem! Glad you see the similarities with AO. I'm still working on it...always working on it. Ao is a tough one. Capsicum heat takes a while to mellow out. Sorry I can't answer your steeping question. What I do know is in all my attempts these flavors taste good right away then about 2 weeks later start to act weird. Sometimes it taste really good and other times not so much. I think a juice is stable right around the 2 month mark (natural steep). Anyway I have some flavors coming in this week. Hopefully I'll have a breakthrough lol
I've had a breakthrough with this recipe. My girlfriend is a highly trained chef and has a nose for flavors. She has helped me with a lot of recipes. She got close with our first try which came out very similar to your first try. She always thought she smelled a little pineapple and mint in it. I hate pineapple so ignored her and I didn't think of adding mint to your new recipe. I've added 1% capella golden pineapple and .5% TFA peppermint(might be too much) to this recipe, it is so much closer. I'm going to try it out with different mints and ratios of existing flavours, but at this moment it is almost spot on. AO is my ADV and almost impossible to get in Canada and really expensive ordering from Europe ( Can't get it from USA) so I'm really happy with this variation of your recipe. I pulled back the Berry to 1%, Lemon Sicily to 5% and upped the California Orange to 1.5%. If you try this variation I'd appreciate your feedback. Thanks for your work on it.
Gonna have to try this, I use a lot of Mary Jane in my Pluid. Kinda simplified my clone as well, just use all things green!
TFA Citrus Punch - 5%
TFA Green Apple - 4%
TFA Mary Jane - 4.2% (seriously)
LA Anise (my personal favorite) - 8.8%
Sucralose - 5%
let the Murdock butthurt commence.
now i gotta get sweet raspberry and mary jane flavors. i've been convinced that there is some Cam T Ultimate in Maha Ras for a long time. Maybe I should put that down and try again without it.
Are you referring to the floral/spice aspect?
to my nose/tongue it is distinctly sandalwood/patchouli. when i first opened the bottle of cam t i was like "that's it." but if you've hit on overflavoring with coconut candy as a similar note, i gotta try it.
This is some serious commitment, and some very plausible recipes -- I’ve been following attempts to clone pluid forever... not cause I like it, actually I think it’s a bit gross and it hurts my lungs, but because murdock likes to drop hints and uses strange ingredients and essential oils, people have been chasing his juices, and pluid in particular, for a while as a result. It's a fun mystery -- I've had my own theories for a while, but I've never been motivated to buy a bunch of flavors I don't like to mix stuff I'd have to throw out solely in the name of satisfying my curiosity, so I watch... and yours look like the best ones I've seen. Your Pluid seems to meet all the Murdock-confirmed criteria that I'm aware of, both conforming to the general consensus on the flavors without being derivative at all. Serious props, man. Please post in the clones 3 thread if you haven't yet?
Maha is one of my favorite juices of all time. Just made your recipe and holy hell it is 95% spot on. Right out of the bag super fire. After a week of sitting it is going to be so tasty. Good work!
Why anyone would clone this noxious concoction is anybody's guess :D
I feel the same way, except I get exactly why... =P
Very impressive work guys every now n then I look round for Pluid/Maha clones and yours are far more worthy of trying then any of them, needless to say I've tried the Pluid and Maha recipes here both still within a week on the steep, I'm not quite getting the strength on Pluid though, may I ask why you opt for 1% on the now anise oil as opposed to 4?
The Maha rah clone is soooo close :)))
Thanks for the kind words. To be honest, it smelled so strong and apparently the oil in Pluid is a blend of different oils to make an "absinthe oil," so, if there were more than 1 used, it wouldn't be 4%. So I just winged it with 1% and it did the job for me.
As for Maha, it is really damn close isn't it? I am thinking about lowering the coconut extra to 5% and raising the fruits to 3.5% each. And Murdock uses a lot of sucralose, so adding 5% of it would bring it closer, I just don't use it for coil longevity.
Yeah to be fair I've only just had a few toots on Pluid tonight (I added a little sucralose) and the kf I'm using hasn't been fully cleaned out, also there's a possibility the anise hasn't fully blended properly as you say minimum 3 days, I've had trouble with proper Pluid in the past, that yellow separation at the top of the bottle all the time etc and ive never wanted to add alcohol to ensure it blends either.
Maha, this mix of yours is very very close to how Maha goes over quite some time imho, I generally cut my Maha down into smaller bottles to keep the fresh zing of it which can go rather quickly with too much air in the bottle. Mad props though coz that's a damn tough one to replicate, going on the smell I wasn't so entirely sure if it would be any good, but then I did some on my atomic dripper n boom! Gonna try it in a nautilus looking forward to it
Just made the Maha Ras, been chasing this recipe for years, you have definitely nailed it with the Musk candy and the Mary Jane, spot on!
Edit: Mixed up the Bledan Lotus as well, very good stuff! never tried the original so unable to compare.
Bledan Lotus: I think MM using http://www.nowfoods.com/Lemon-Eucalyptus-Oil-1oz.htm
I thought eucalyptus before. It's just lime oil although. TFA Mary Jane gives off the herbal vibe in combination with the lime. /u/longglitch can confirm as he has mixed my recipe as well. The lime oil itself has the eucalyptus vibe also I'd say.