I'm a bit lost or perhaps dumb. I've looked around for guides on the basics of figuring out how to start your own recipe.
When I sit down and try to write down which flavors sound like they should be good together, they end up just being vape-able but not an ADV that I can be proud of, and ADV I can pass around to friends and family.
I've seen a few lists floating around on which flavors are best as additives or enhancers, best as desserts, best as fruity, etc.
But I'm wondering: What are the raw basics of sitting down and coming up with a solid recipe? Is it as simple as "lets try 4% of this, 6% of that" or is it more complex like I imagine it to be where you must know flavor profiles and how they work together, knowing what to add when a mix isn't quite there, etc?
- Sidebar
- Read for a week or two on /new sorting.
- Read /top posts going back two years.
- Get supplies (sidebar)
- Make Mustard Milk and Bro-Nuts
- Adjust percentages to both and see what happens
- Try your own recipes
- Go back to buying retail (optional)
-
Make Bro-Nuts
-
Give up because you've reached peak flavor.
edit: Stupid markdown keeps renumbering my list. I give up.
Lolol.
I Hate Wayne Walker Club member #293? Welcome!
This week we're dry burning cotton effigies of him.
I've been following recipes for a couple months now, and sometimes modifying existing recipes. But I'm pretty confused as far as shooting for a specific flavor idea and actually executing it.
For me, it's just like cooking. I come up with an idea for a juice, break the profile down into individual parts or ingredients, and figure out what I want as my main and supporting tastes. Then I go though a bunch of my flavors, open them up, smell them and start making notes. I've had pretty decent results doing this, but everyone is different. I take my time too, I won't rush a flavor and I won't make a shit load of different juices at once. I enjoy focusing on one, maybe two recipes at a time and tinkering until I get it right. There are certain flavors that you know just won't work together, just as in cooking. Again, I mainly follow my nose when mixing.
How do you go about tinkering? Say you have a solid basic flavor already mixed in your ideal VG/PG/Nic but decide "maybe lets try 1% of this and come back to it and taste it in a week" or whatever, is it standard to just add that flavor to the already mixed flavor, or do you start over from scratch for accuracy's sake?
I'll add the 1% to the already mixed flavor, make my notes in the recipe, taste it immediately, and again after sitting for a day or two. If I find myself going back and adding more and more, I'll then start a new mix with the updated percentages/flavorings since it's diluting the viscosity at that point. I also make small test batches, typically 5 - 10 ml, so I'm not burning through a bunch of supplies during the test phase.
Edit: worthy of noting that I'm still quite new to DIY, only mixing for a few months, but this is what works for me.
The way I go about it, not the correct way I'm sure.
I ordered flavors following clone recipes as a starting point. Made 5% and 10% tests of each flavor. Tasted each one with detailed notes, shaken and then a week steep.That was the most time consuming. I like creamy flavors so I combined those test flavors I thought may work together. Made detailed notes after a good shake and after a week steep.
This is where imagination/intuition comes into play. Take your flavors and % levels of what you would consider a good base. Shake,notes,steep,notes. Mix a 30ml of the base at the pg/vg level you want. Now split that same base into 5ml bottles. Add small variations, one variation per bottle %s based upon your notes, and repeat the shake,notes,steep,notes. Aim for the front flavors. Combine the ones you like. Now you could repeat this 100 times. Once you get where you like it...add the finishers. Sweetener, mint and/or small hints of other flavors.
Maybe not the most efficient way but as a starting point to save money I have ended up with very few bad juices.
Clone recipes, and then modify them.
Look at the top rated post in this sub (the clone recipe mega-thread), find a flavor you want to make, buy the supplies, and then make it. This already guarantees you a decent flavor. From there do small adjustments to the recipe to make it yours. A really simple example would be turning a strawberry cheesecake into say a blueberry or key lime cheesecake.
All of me and my friends' recipes come from modifying clones. Very rarely do we come up with a good flavor from scratch.
Hope this helps!
/u/returnity posted in this sub a really good guide on creating a juice recipe from a traditional recipe using FA concentrates. I'd use that as a starting point.
Check out /u/fizzmustards recipes, especially for 'Nana Cream and Mustard Milk - both had really good insights on recipe building.
As said already, start with clone recipes. From there you'll find how certain flavors play together. Also, you'll have some juice to vape on while you create some stuff and can actually let it steep for a few months. START SMALL. Start with one flavor. Let's say banana. Find what percentage you like the banana at. Let's say 5%. Now let's say you want to add strawberry and you want the banana to be the shining star in the juice, with a hint of strawberry. Let's start at 1%. Go from there. Don't try to add 5 flavors at once. Start slow. It's gunna take you a couple months to build a solid recipe. But don't forget, you can make some great recipes with 1-3 flavors. I've been doing diy for a little over a year and it's still a learning process. I make some awesome stuff and a lot of shit stuff. It's a process. Experiment
Knowing what percentage of concentrate to use with each flavor/brand is the biggest thing to learn. It will be different with every brand/flavor. I recommend looking how much other people use in similar recipes. Then you also need to take in to account that the recipe might be made by someone with a small atomizer. If you drip you will want them more diluted. Then also you have to learn what doesn't mix well with other flavors.
Then there is also steep times. You may have something that tastes bad tonight and it be the best flavor ever made three days from then. Start VERY LOW in percentages despite what you see. My biggest mistake at first was using too much flavor and unable to notice because your taste bugs will shut down and you will think it is a weak flavor.
I usually go over my notes on standalones when I decide what I want to be the focal point of the juice, from there I build around it. I'll generally mix a 10ml sample or two first to get a feel then start adjusting. Generally I do 2-4 test cycles before I move to 30ml batches to steep and test again. And then I get side tracked and make somethjng else and forget about it for a month. Then I randomly find full bottles steeping all over, and vape away