Whenever I mix, I think about how much "real estate" I have, and how much I can occupy it with different flavors. A good example is a recent bakery blend I was working on. I have a limited amount of space to use that I have to decide how to fill with creams,fruits, nuts, spices etc. That in an ideal world I am able to at the very least address all of these spaces in some way to create as much depth as possible.

Take a banana cream pie for example. The most simplest form of this is going to be banana flavor + cream flavor. The next step would be addressing the crust of this pie. You may reach for graham cracker, cookie, pie crust, apple pie flavor depending on what direction you are going. This is where most people are going to stop. Which is fine, you have practically everything you need for a convincing pie, but why not try to find ways to take advantage of some of the real estate or space left in the flavor to create more interest?

What haven't we hit on? Let's start with spice. Well.... cinnamon goes dang good in a banana pie, maybe I'll throw in a drop or two of FLV rich cinnamon. Hummmm what else... maybe I can touch up on the some of the bottom-mid notes that are only lightly occupied with the crust flavor. Pecan flavor sounds good, I'll throw some of that in as well. Pecan won't make our blend distinctly nutty, or transform it into a parfait, just adding a little interest and depth to the crust and body.

So with just a light inclusion of nut and spice flavors, we were able to provide a certain richness that we were able to actuate by filling in some of the open space that hadn't been occupied or only lightly addressed previously.

A good practical demonstration was done recently by our very own /u/skiddlzninja check out his bangin bourbon bread and you can see how he does this masterfully and subtly with peanut/almond/hazelnut flavors for nut, cinnamon crunch for spice and complexity to his biscuit crust, and even bourbon as an exotic finish.

link to his recipe - https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/comments/3o809o/new_autumn_adv_bangin_bourbon_bread/

>'On the inhale', 'on the exhale', 'hint of', 'top-note'. Taste is subjective but is this all just bullshit?

If the you build the flavor correctly, there is validity in these claims. Aroma compounds have vastly different volatility across the spectrum, and depending on what temperature you are vaping you may be able better perceive layering. When you first hit the power button on your device, you are going to be tasting flavors with the highest volatility on the front end or "inhale". These tend to create the first impression. After they subside mid vape and during the exhale, space opens for the rest of the blend and you will be able to perceive a more fuller representation of all the flavor in the mix. Some flavors are mainly perceived towards the end and tend to linger. Lychee, Coconut, Anise for example.

Always strive to find ways to fill in all the space you can in a flavor, and in as many ways as you can while retaining the identity of what you are trying to create. Use nuance to enhance the the main notes of your blend. This is fundamental for creating richness and depth.

Ah, I was dreaming of the day someone would ask the question.

95% of taste is smell based.

The tongue can only sense sweet, sour, bitter, salt and umami - everything else is perceived by the nasal region.

Flavor concentrates react to vaporization in very different ways. After extensive unscientific testing, you can manipulate the flavor profiles based on the volume in relation to each other outside of the total flavor percentage. Things like power, wicking material, vaporization vessel are all going to affect how the flavor is perceived by the end user.

I've also been sending out random flavors without any information. I'm shocked when I send out astronaut ice cream and get responses like Baileys, toasted caramel, banana, coconut when none of those things are in the actual juice.

Much like wine, you can perceive different flavors on the nose and on the palette that aren't actually there due to nuances in the chemicals that produce taste.

But, you have to train your palette. When I was studying for the sommoliers test one of our excersizes was to go to the bulk bin and smell everything in it, and try to identify a trigger in our brains - later we would do blind smells of the same key ingredients to see if we could determine what they were. The first few sessions were a disaster, but after a few weeks of training, it was easy to smell and say what it was blind.

So the TL;DR here would be - yes, due to the nature of the human body and the vaporization, there are millions of nuances of flavors present. Without a highly trained palette (either from studying as mentioned above, or just experience with something in life) you may not perceive them all. This doesn't even get into olfactory fatigue, not just in vaping, but life in general from day to day eating and drinking. I doubt anyone cleanses the palette correctly when tasting ejuice.

a) Yes, it's all mixed up in a nutribullet. b) That jumbled mix can affect different parts of the palette at different parts of the heat-condense-inhale-hold-exhale cycle.

Some flavors evaporate faster, we got those "up front." We rarely inhale vape through our noses, we exhale some of it out of them. So "exhale" can trigger in the nose. Some flavors need a beat to register, those kick in after the inhale, sometimes after the exhale - they "linger."

Different flavors play on different parts of the olfactory and taste apparatus, and that (along with the "marketing" of the description) is how we perceive and translate factory-blended chemicals in a homogenous soup into "chocolate chips in a cake batter base."

It is all in the taster's head, but so are nearly all tasting experiences.

>'On the inhale', 'on the exhale', 'hint of', 'top-note'. Taste is subjective but is this all just bullshit?

Personally, I don't think so. You could say the same thing about any food/drink - cheese, wine, beer, spirits etc, they're all basically a blend of flavour components but doesn't mean they have a uniform flavour. On any juice I vape I usually get light flavour on the inhale, high flavour on the middle and moderate on the exhale. While it tastes like the same juice the whole way through I can detect different flavours at different levels at different times.

In terms of vaping. What I think is happening in terms of inhale, middle and end notes:

You fire your mod and inhale, probably pretty quickly, usually straight into your lungs. For us to 'taste' it, these aroma molecules have to reach our olfactory receptors in our nasal cavity. During the inhale, due to the way the vapor is travelling, only the the more volatile compounds are going to make it up there to those receptors.

Towards the end of the inhale, you're starting to slow down your hit, vapor is getting a little hotter. Some of the less volatile compounds start to vaporise. The vapor is moving slower and may be slightly hotter, making it easier for those compounds to get into your nasal cavity.

On the exhale, vapor is at its coolest. It's moving in a direction now that makes it easier for the aroma compounds to get into your nasal cavity, maybe you even exhale a little through your nose. Possibly some of the aroma compounds have been absorbed or are left behind in your lungs/airway.

On top of that, I would be surprised if we pick up different aromas at the same rate. Maybe, bigger molecules take slightly longer to be absorbed and processed.

Of course, that could all be bullshit too, haha.

I think when it comes to actually tasting each element - it depends. I think if you were to mix say TFA Whipped Cream, TFA Dairy, TFA Sweet Cream you're basically just going to end up with a new cream. You may be able to pick out the mouthfeel of the whipped, the milkiness of the dairy and the cheesey-ness of the sweet cream, but at the end of the day, it's pretty much a new cream. Take TFA Whipped Cream and add TFA Strawberry, you're going to be able to pick out the strawberry and the cream.

I am pretty new so I feel like I can answer this well( pretty undeveloped or average glycerine palate). So my palate is very green for glycerine recipes, but I have been scratch cooking for 15 years. I mean to say that I don't have the mental flavor base with e-liquid flavorings that I can taste them and combine them in my head like I can with cooking yet. Glycerine, to me, is more chemistry than cooking hence being trickier for me. Food tastes are still my reference point.

I don't find it to be bullshit at all. I may not be able to taste the intricacies of a well-layered mix to the level of a master mixologist yet, but I almost always get the gist of it. Some profiles are readily apparent, some are hidden and complex to me. I practice tasting with new recipes. Close my eyes inhale exhale rinse, repeat. The better I get, the more my enjoyment increases.

As with anything, there is a caveat. In a muted mix/poorly constructed mix it tastes muddy and I get an idea of what is going on, but I don't have good notes to hang on and it gets jumbled. I note most mixes when I am done with them and once a cure has occurred. Blindly.. some are spot on to their description so I know it is possible which leads me to the fact others are not.. which leads me to either they are bad mixes or beyond my taste. Wildcard... some mixes just taste great to me despite not following their intended flavor profile.

Citrus flavors = flavor on the inhale. They contain perhaps the most volatile (and smallest) of aroma molecules. In the fragrance industry, they represent the smell of cologne/perfume upon the initial spray. They evaporate quick, and their scent can be described as "fleeting". Anything that may be described as "green" may fall into this category as well. An example would be mint.

Heavier, denser smells/flavors such as creams and/or vanillas, contain larger molecules and hang around longer/evaporate slower (i.e. flavor on the exhale).

I think everyone can taste each element, but flavor is as much in your brain as your nose and tongue. If you give someone a direction as to what is in the juice, they can more accurately describe it because their attention is being directed. Like when you get different flavors on each hit due to your perception, the mix, heat, and exhaling through mouth vs nose.

Some flavors together create unexpected flavors, and you can learn those too by knowing what you put in juice and what it creates. Basically as the top comment says, you are building a palate. Same with a lot of store juice being so sweet. It's appealing in a taster but not all the time, like coke vs Pepsi test.

"Snake Oil" real/clone is a good example of this, pear - coconut - cream, 3 flavs that are all distinguishable, but mix together surprisingly well into one package.

There isn't anything bullshit about inhale/exhale/hintof/topnote. These are the same kinds of subtle flavor distinctions that get spoken of in beer, wine, liquor, and cheese tasting.

All scents and tastes in actual food, are based on a wide array of chemical compounds. I think what you're missing is that some of these chemical compounds will go well together, and some won't. For instance, an RL piece of banana bread is SWIMMING in chemical compounds. It smells and tastes of wheat, molasses/ sugar, banana, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, walnut, butter, egg, and probably vanilla extract, which any good quality vanilla will be extracted in bourbon or rum, and last and definitely not least, the caramelization that occurs when baking. Each of these components has a set of SEVERAL different chemical compounds that create the aroma and the taste. And yet when you eat it, it's quite pleasant, because they are complimentary, and most people could easily identify a slice of banana bread.

Now let's say that Bob and Jane both make a banana bread.

Bob uses all the ingredients listed above for his banana bread, but his secret ingredient that he loves adding, is Madagascar vanilla.

Jane uses only egg whites, halves the butter, forgets the ginger, and uses vanillin instead of a true vanilla extract.

These products are both banana bread, but I promise you that everyone, except for the extremely aged, will be able to identify that Bob's banana bread is superior in flavor to Jane's. They may not have the kind of training required to articulate why they like Bob's better, but almost everyone undoubtedly will enjoy Bob's banana bread more. Even these small changes that Jane has made have a huge impact on the way that people perceive her bread. And just like a vape liquid, all the flavors have been mashed together into a bread

So when you're mixing, it's the same thing. You may not ever be able to distinctively taste a 0.25% biscuit flavoring in an apple pie mix, even on the professional level... but if you compare it to the plain old apple pie, straight up, you'll probably like it more. It's better, it's complicated, it's not just some shitty shake and vape from the corner vendor, preying on people who don't do know shitall about ejuice.

A Willy Wonka 3 course dinner is just what happens when flavors are poorly balanced, and/or combined. Nothing more, nothing less.