Hi DIY,
Been a minute since I've posted on here, essentially because I've been struggling pretty bad with mixing lately. I don't know what happened, but over the last few weeks, all of my mixes just weren't tasting good. Either the flavour was just so muted that it didn't taste like anything, or the mixes I was putting together were just awful, and I felt like I was just watching my supplies dwindle away.
But this morning I decided to throw caution to the wind and boost my flavour percentage way up, stick to only 3 flavours, and go back to the basics, and I'm so glad I did. I feel like I've finally put together something I could consider my own ADV, which is necessary because I'd been struggling so hard with recipes lately that I've had to go out and buy liquid to keep myself happy. But that is just too much money being spent every few days.
So, this morning I went through my notes and revisited an old recipe I had been working on, and with some new knowledge I'd picked up from my friend Wayne over at DIYorDIE, I am very happy with the progress I've made on this recipe.
Nebula II : a cold blend of strawberry and pineapple (All TFA)
Strawberry Ripe : 8%
Pineapple : 2.5%
Dragonfruit : 3%
Koolada : 2 drops per 5ml
Some quick notes about this recipe. I'm still balancing out a few of the flavour notes just to get a more refined taste, but I finally feel like I have something that punches you in the tongue with flavour, and hits the throat nicely. I'm mixing it at 4mg of nic, and with the Koolada, it gives a really great throat hit. Overall a really refreshing mix that reminds me of that first sip of ice cold water in the morning. And the flavour, goddamn, it has that intensity that I've been lacking in literally EVERY recipe I've created in roughly 6 months of mixing. If you've got these flavours in your arsenal, which I'm sure you do, mix up a little bottle and let me know what you think. Seems like it's perfect as a shake and vape, hopefully it stands up to some steeping. But with an all fruit blend, I'm sure it will. If you have any suggestions on how to make it better, I'd love to refine this one even more.
I'm so glad to be back. Cheers.
Nice to see you on here, man. Recipe looks good. I fucking love your work, by the way. It reminds me a bit of Esao Andrews.
And I just glanced through your profile and saw you like The Contortionist. Wanna bang?
Ahhh shit Esao Andrews is a huge inspiration so that just made my morning even better. His work with Circa Survive is such a perfect fit. And his work in general is just beautiful. If you like his stuff, take a look at João Ruas aka FERAL KID. Not entirely the same style, but a similar feel. Very elegant work.
And duh. Any fan of The Contortionist is someone I'm trying to lay with ;)
Never heard of Ruis, but his stuff looks really cool as well. I'm not huge into the art scene, but I love the surreal/creepy stuff like you guys are doing. And yeah, Esao's work with Circa is phenomenal. I hope Anthony gets him to do something for the new Saosin album art, although I don't think their sound would really line up with anything he has so far, if that makes sense.
His style isn't the same, but I love Rob Gonsalves's style as well. Sort of mind-fucky for semi-"mainstream" stuff, if that's even what you would call it. I don't know.
I'm guessing you've seen it already, but in case you haven't, feast your ears on this. My godddddddd.
I mixed this up without the Koolada and it's delicious!
Curious what are some you had been working on and failing at?
Eh, it was just a few different fruit mixes and some fruit and cream blends. Honestly I think the biggest issue was that I wasn't using high enough percentages of my flavours. And then anything that just tasted awful was because I was putting too much into it in terms of different flavours. So for now, I'm just going back to simple mixes and revisiting some of my old recipes that were decent and just pushing some of the flavours to give it the intensity of this mix.
I don't have TFA pineapple but I do have INW pineapple, I think I'll sub it and give it a go tonight! Thanks for posting and I'm glad to hear you're getting back in to DIY! I know Strawberry Ripe and Dragonfruit go great together so this looks like a real nice blend.
Paging /u/Enyawreklaw since I didn't credit you in the post for some of the knowledge you dropped in that podcast I joined in on.