Hello, I'm going to taste test all of my flavours soon and I was wondering how you do it.
Do you let it fully steep?
Do you use a tank or a dripper?
If you were to use a tank, would you recotton the coil after every flavour?
If you were to use a dripper would you change the cotton for each flavour?
What increments do you go up in? I was thinking of starting at 2% and jumping to 10% and work from there.
Thanks!
When you get an order in, just make each flavor in a 5-10mL bottle. The flavor percentages vary by manufacturer and flavor, but generally, TFA, CAP, LA=~9%; FW=~6%, HS,FA=~3%, and INW=1-1.5%. Taste them after you mix them, then forget about them for a week. Taste them again. Give it another week, and then give them a final taste.
Use a dripper.
I don't rewick for each flavor. I put on a fresh wick, and decide what order I'm doing these flavors in. I usually start with the lightest flavor profile, then go to flavors that are similar to it.(berries-berries, fruit-fruit, citrus-citrus, pastry/bready-pastry/bready, creams-creams) Don't cross over flavor groups, or you'll pick up something in your tastings that shouldn't be there. Rewick when you finish a category of flavors.
Go up by 1%, except for FA,HS, and INW. Go up by either .25% or .5% for those three.
1 oz shot glass of water, 1 drop of flavouring.
This method was taught to me by another mixer on this subreddit, and is actually quite brilliant in my opinion (although the user uses 1.5oz instead of 1oz). Gives you an idea of the flavour, as well as the strength of the flavouring. It's great for making tasting notes!
This is how i do it as well. You can also combine flavors in the glass, this helps with how each flavor will alter another. Certain chemicals, that comprise the flavorings, can clash, enhance or totally alter the flavor of another.
I've only been mixing for a couple months but I've tested a pretty decent amount. I test my juice after a ~30 min warm water bath then again after it steeps for at least 2 weeks. I have so many different experiments going I usually forget about them for a while lol.
A dripper is waaaaay easier IMO, and I've read that you can use fused claptons and not even have to wick. You can get a couple hits off just the coil before dripping again. I just use a standard nickel coil and rewick after each test. Also the 2% increments is what I do for most flavors, unless I know they're gonna be really strong. 10% is a pretty good max in my experience, again less if I know it's stronger.
Hope that helps, you can search the sub/sidebar and probably find more info.
Edit: a word cause I'm tired
I find it best to steep but if you have to taste just do it in very small increments. A dripper would be the best in my oppinion, unless you want to fill a tank and really run the flavor through it's course. You can drip pg on your coils and burn to wipe the flavors from the cotton/coils. It mainly depends on the company you choose for flavorings. For TFA I start at 3 or for FA I'll start at one. A good side note is to check here e-liquid-recipes.com, If you make an account you can put in your flavorings, select them and see what other users tried to mix it as a single flavor.
Fused claptons give me about 2 solid pulls before it dries up so I will drop like 3-5 times to taste test with them. They do work though for sure. Once I get my whiteout I'll just use that instead though because there is almost a metallic taste that throws the juice off slightly from a wicked coil.
if you have the means to mix each flavor individually then i would suggest this.
- 2% for INW, FA and FLV
- 5% for most of CAP, TFA and FW (these are the only companies ive used)
i would mix in 5 or 10ml bottles to save on vg/pg and nic if you decide to nic them. and no one says that you need to do all your flavors at once.
i used them in both tanks and drippers to see how they change. i also taste most of them fresh and then again every 5 days. creams and custards are the ones that i let sit at least 2-3 days. take notes! and annotate the ones that are too week and then go back and give them a flavor bump depending on how week they are.