Mixed a Dragons Blood recipe from the megathread last night, I've made this recipe many many times and am very familiar with the smell of the bottle of extract and the taste of the juice fresh. I bought a 120mL bottle of the extract for this recipe, but havent mixed it in a few months. I noticed when I smelled the dragonfruit bottle, the smell was more of a skunky pungent smell rather than a tart fruity smell. I mixed it anyways, thinking maybe my memory had failed me or the extract had steeped. There was no color change to the extract in the bottle. After mixing 120mLs of the Dragons Blood, and trying a shake and vape, it tastes like old raisins. Anyone have input with extracts skunking after a few months? Bottle was sealed and in a colder place.
~~I'm mobile so I can't confirm but I'm 99% certain that~~ TFA Dragonfruit contains 2-methyl butyric acid which has a refrigerated shelf life of only 3-6 months.
TFA's strawberry flavors and their kiwi flavor also contain 2-methyl butyric acid and can all go skunky. Like bad cheese.
EDIT Yep, it does have 2-methyl butyric acid, which does have a short non-refrigerated shelf life even in solution. I'd toss it and get a fresh batch. Consider refrigerating it in the future, it might help.
This is news to me...any other common flavors that should be refrigerated? I think this might need its own post. Thanks for your expert flavor molecule knowledge!
I suggest people buy enough flavoring and nicotine to last 3 months. I know it sounds inefficient but because concentrates can go bad for different reasons (or lose potency), mixing fresh means the best outcome.
It's tough to make suggestions on storage. Strawberry almost always needs to be stored -- if you watch for it, many people complain about strawberry becoming skunky regardless of brand. I prefer to just mix any aging concentrates and buy fresh.
Flavor in PG/VG has a longer shelf life so mixing older concentrates at least means you have liquid to vape or giveaway or sell.
As a relatively new DIYer who has been using tfa dragonfruit a lot, thanks for the heads up
It's a very potent compound but there's not a huge presence in most flavor concentrates. The likelihood of it expiring is pretty slim but it does happen.
I just got home and sniffed my Dragonfruit which is probably 8 months old and it's fine -- and I stored it in my regular cabinet. So don't sweat it if you aren't keeping a close watch on it.
If it's skunky just dump and replace.
I have a 2 year old half used bottle of tfa dfruit and its still fine
Dammit why must you break my willful suspension of disbelief?