I've been working on a Cherry Limeade recipe. I'd like to go ahead and post the recipe along with some development notes, but my question relates to how I used Citric Acid.

FW Black Cherry - why this cherry and not the myriad of other cherries available from all the other vendors? My favorite flavor is cherry and when I first started DIY, I wanted to make a good cherry vape. Unfortunately a lot of the cherry flavors out there suck. I've tried every cherry flavor available from FW, TFA, and FA and this is the only one that I've liked so far. I read that INW Cherry or one of the NF Cherries might be a better alternative so next time I order flavors, I'll grab those and keep experimenting.

For now, FW black cherry provides a decent enough cherry flavor for what I'm trying to accomplish with this recipe. It's ideal usage seems to be between 5-6%. Anymore and it starts to become cough syrup, and at any less you can hardly tell it's there.

TFA Key Lime - this is a great lime flavor hands down. I've used this standalone, and in combination with FA Lime Tahiti Cold Pressed. For simplicity in this recipe I just used TFA and it works just fine.

I also added Koolada and Menthol to add a touch of cold.

Version 1.0
FW Black Cherry 5%
TFA Key Lime 2%
Koolada .5%
20% Menthol 2 drops per 30ml (.06g as measured on my trusty LB 501)

Too much lime. TFA Key Lime is particularly strong, especially compared to a weaker flavor like FW Black Cherry. Knowing that increasing the cherry would turn it into cough syrup, I lowered the Key Lime instead.

Version 1.1
FW Black Cherry 5%
TFA Key Lime 1.5%
Koolada .5%
20% Menthol 2 drops per 30ml
80VG/20PG 3ml nic

Much better, as I can now taste the cherry and the lime! But it was missing something. It wasn't quite sour enough. At this point I had vaped 1.5ml of a 30ml bottle, leaving me with 28.5 ml of black cherry. I had a 5% Citric Acid solution in VG that I picked up from Nude Nic a while back and I decided to add 2 drops to the mix (.09g as measured by the LB 501).

I was then satisfied with my creation and decided to mix a larger 120ml batch to steep while I vaped on my 30ml bottle.

Here's where it gets confusing for me: I changed the calculator to make a 120ml batch at 3mg nic and mixed all the ingredients together except for the nicotine and put it in the drawer to steep. A few days later I took it out and added the nic, shook it up and vaped it. I couldn't taste anything except a hint of a sour note. No cherry, and no lime taste at all.

I know that I added all the ingredients in the correct amount, and I know the scale has been recently calibrated. The only difference was making a larger batch, adding the Citric Acid in with the other ingredients and adding the nic later. I ended up making another 120ml batch adding all the ingredients except for the Citric Acid and Nic, allowing it to steep for a few days, and then adding the Nic and Citric Acid later. Now it tastes just fine.

I still have some now about 2 weeks after I mixed this last batch and it still tastes just fine. Should it matter what order I out the Citric Acid in, or did I really miss something when I added the first large batch together?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.