I've noticed an influx of recipes streaming in on this sub-Reddit. And as much as it makes me happy that people are eager to share what they have, it does make me question the validity of some of them. Take for example one example I saw a couple of days ago:
10% TFA Pineapple
10% Strawberry
This type of recipes help no one and only contributes to the cesspool of new threads such as "why is my mix so perfumy" or "why does my blend have no taste?" I propose that people start to mix the recipe, taste it fresh, let it steep for week and then vape it. If you deem it shareable, then yah, proceed to share it with the others.
1%TFA Cola 2%TFA Sweet cream 3%Inw Fuji Apple 4% Tfa sugar cookie 6%Sweetner 1%koolada
Call it American pie, flavors reminiscent of drinking a Cola beverage and eating and apple pie style food item while on a beach.
The ones that really get on my nerve are the hypothetical recipes. Like: "I think this sounds really good can someone try it and let me know..." and continue to rant off 10 random flavors that they created a recipe from but never made it due to laziness, inability to mix, or lack of the actual flavors they named off.
God that drives me insane. I know I've seen quite a few recipe posts that just sounded way off and then ended with "if someone could mix this up and try it..."
It is even more prominent on ELR. I know people use it as their personal recipe storage/calculator but I'd swear 50% of the recipes there are shit/have never been mixed by the creator.
Which is why all mine are private, they're shit
you too hu? I'll share one one of these days... i got a Peach Yogurt on a version 10 that i've let each one steep for 3-4 weeks before testing.... and none are good enough in my opinion to post. I'ev vaped the whole 30ml on a few of them, but i figure if i'm gonna post something, it better be good.
I'd rather be the guy on ELR with 2-3 dope recipes than 20 half ass ones (that i did a crock pot open bottle bath steep for 3 days, then threw in the ultrasonic cleaner for 2 days, then put it in rock polisher for 1 more day to finish it off).
Yup, I appreciate the enthusiasm from the newcomers, I'm glad you've discovered the world of DIY and you're welcome to pick our brains and share your experiences, but be realistic about it.
Just starting out, everything is new and you're going to be excited about the mix you just threw together that tasted great, but please don't share it. I repeat, do NOT share it. You have no idea how it will taste after a few days steep, let alone a few hours from now. It may taste like soap tomorrow, it may obliterate your coil after a few tanks, it may become muted after a week or cause olfactory fatigue if you vape it too much. But above all, you haven't put any effort into developing the recipe. What else could work in it? Are those the best ingredients? Are the ratios perfect?
We understand your excitement, we've all been there, and in all honesty at one point or another mixed up exactly what you just made. I'm not saying you shouldn't post your creation, I'm saying it's too soon. Most likely you'll look back at this recipe in a month and wonder how you could find it enjoyable. Version 10 however.. or 30.. now it's starting to look like something worth sharing. With a lot of experience you may sometimes nail a recipe on the first attempt. Sometimes.
Agreed.
Things can change greatly between v1 and v10 lol. And once you get to v10, generally you'll look back and wonder how you ever thought v1 was good enough to warrant further work...
I guess ultimately there are just different kinds of people out there in the world though:
- People who will post every recipe they see, even if they haven't mixed it up yet.
- People who refuse to post recipes, because they haven't "perfected it yet".
- People who refuse to post recipes in general.
- People who post recipes that they've mixed up, and that they think others might enjoy.
I'm totally the guy who refuses to post recipes because I'm afraid I'll make some magical breakthrough after I post it (even if the recipe is basically complete) lol.
I'm mostly in the boat of those who don't post recipes. I've posted in comments before of a recipe I regularly use, but doubt I'd ever make a full post of it just because I'm shit at flavor notes and have much less experience than many users here.
I'm shit at flavor notes
You are not alone. That is why I put the ones I feel "are there" into the monthly thread. Not just ideas or random "hey this tastes good", but rather creations that I have put some time and effort into. Doesn't matter if I made 1 version or 10 versions, typing out even minimal notes bore the shit out of me (but I fully agree with it being required for a standalone post).
Rewarding when someone takes the time to say how much they like it, and sometimes how they have tweaked it. Feedback is good!
- People who refuse to post recipes, because they haven't "perfected it yet"
One day... One day, I'll get one of them perfected. I think I'm on revision 12 or so of my Raspberry tobacco recipe, probably 18 of a Raspberry fuji custard, and 20 at least of a peanut butter and honey mix. Most of those are minor changes on a new bottle that I don't note until the next proper revision (others get titled 2.3 or some such). Another 20 or so recipes that have been mixed for my SO before she stopped vaping that haven't been touched in ages and still need tweaks... But i can only vape it so fast.
I suppose that this being the 3rd 30ml of this v4.2 Raspberry Tobacco that I've gone through with no change, it's got to be getting close. Should be ready in a year or so.
No just all sorts of no. If it tastes good unsteeped then feel free to put it in the recipe thread and clearly say when you tasted it then come back later and update when it kills your coils. Maybe other new mixers like myself are looking for something that is quick and tasty as a change of pace from our current "good enough" mixes. Not everything is a masterpiece.
You can find thousands of recipes that meet that criteria at the press of a button, or just toss random flavor A into random flavor B and see what happens, it's often pretty good, sometimes amazing. But then you start to notice flavor A becoming muted, flavor B is changing a bit, and the next day it doesn't taste anything like you intended. And a few weeks from now you wouldn't even consider mixing it up again yourself without some serious modification. I didn't say it had to be a masterpiece, but if you have virtually no experience mixing, you should wait and see what happens before you share.
The cornerstone of reddit is the hive mind of stuff people haven't had personal experience with. Example is people shitting on Sigeili, Samplebox, Ejuice Mafia.
Not that these examples aren't shit companies and or products, just some people have no personal experience. Some only feed the echo chamber with borrowed experiences.
Not saying they aren't right, just counter arguments and positive experiences get drowned out/ frowned upon.
Wait... people shit on Sigelei?
I love my Sigelei... it's a 150W tank. It's been dropped hundreds of times in the 18 months I've owned it and works like new. It looks like shit on the outside from the amount of times I've dropped it while riding my bike. It even got kicked off a third floor balcony and never skips a beat.
I agree with this to an extent. I feel like a lot of new users try to give recipe suggestions without actually knowing much about what they're recommending. However, users like /u/tranceinate, /u/notcharlesmanson, /u/enyawreklaw, myself, and others that have years of experience and have done an ungodly amount of experimentation and application of flavors could at least put our experience to use and suggest a recipe that would be better than anything most new users would be able to create.
Most of the veterans don't have the time to mix up and steep every recipe suggestion we make while still working on perfecting the recipes we selfpost here.
Truth. I don't know what's up with all the salt against this, obviously years of mixing experience and hundreds of flavors would allow someone to think up a pretty good recipe without mixing it. You (and most of the other guys you listed) have given me some solid tips almost surely without having mixed it up, allowed it to sit, and vaping it.
Yes, thank you. I think this is a timely PSA, but it's also something that's going to increase in the coming months with regs and such. I think it may piss off some new mixers, but really it's helping them not mix shitty recipes. Ie. we're doing this for your own good.
As much as I agreed can't we all spot a shit recipe just by reading the list of ingredients. It's going to take a lot more then wow this was really good my first time to convince me to actually mix up some crazy percentages.
If you bother to make single flavor test mixes, you'll know what recipes to skip. To me, FLV Peanut Butter is strong at 1.5%, so when a posted recipe calls for 6%, yeah, that's not going to work.
And when the mixer says "I realize that 8% FA Hazelnut is a lot, but believe me it works in this recipe", sorry, that's just too much. I don't believe you.
I regularly do this, share recipes that I have not personally mixed myself, in the weekly "Suggest a Recipe for My Flavors" thread. But not anywhere else. And when I do it there, it's only with flavors that I have tested standalone at various percentages and mixed with other flavors. Flavors that I have come to know. Usually they're recipes that I've made myself or that better-known mixers than myself have shared, with one or two omissions or substitutions to fit the limited stashes that posters there tend to have. If it's something that I'm really just dreaming up on the spot, I'll warn them that I'm just dreaming them up on the spot. Do you think I'm out of line doing that?
That's kind of the point in my response to this. If we had to mix every recipe we suggest, the suggest a recipe thread would be empty every week.
That's fine. That's considered theorycrafting. That's essentially what this forum is for, and about: collaboration. However some people skip the foreplay and go straight to the recipe threads/or open new threads to share fictional recipes, recipes they have not created, and even worse, it's obvious that a lot of them don't have basic knowledge of mixing. That's what I have problems with.