I have been making ejuice a for a little over a year now and a lot of the batches I have made have turned out really good. However, when I let them steep for close to a month and go back to vape, they seem stale and lacking flavor. Some of the juices (Cinnamon Red Hot and Juicy Peach Combo) are really great from the get go and require no steeping but others (strawberries, raspberries etc.) taste like crap and require steeping but just don't taste like they do when you buy it from a vendor. Is there a trick to this (such as refrigeration)? How do the vape shops make such bomb juice? I let the juice steep in a dark, cool place for close to three weeks. The CiN Peach combo is awesome at first but after a week or two it seems to lose its flavor as well. Any help would be much appreciated.
The difference between the typical juice we make and the juices that a popular vendor makes is the vendors take an enormous amount of time testing & retesting & tweaking this and tweaking that .
I won a contest awhile back & the site had maybe 12 juices , 4 flavors were finished products and the rest were still in beta .
He said it takes a LONG time to really perfect a juice & he said he has been working on beta's for months but they are still not exactly right .
The ones i tried (finished) were outstanding , you can tell an enormous amount of time was put in with these juices.
I very very if ever come across a posted recipe that you typically see on DIY sites that even comes remotely close to how outstanding this guys juice was.
Don't get me wrong they are vapable and work but i have not been blown away by any i have tried.
A 3 week steep really isn't all that long , some of the best flavors take a few months .
A very small proportion of companies put the time and effort into creating juice that will stand up to excessive time on a shelf. The sort of effort that most DIYers don't have the time or money to spend absolutely perfecting a juice.
Honestly I've never made a juice with the intention of keeping it for long period. At most my juices will steep for 4-6 weeks and then be vaped, so build your recipes factoring that in. Try making a number of batches with: More of each flavour, complimenting flavours, etc etc. The only way you'll find a way to make it work for you is to do a good amount of recipe batching and letting them steep for a long period - or until a reliable method of accurately speed steeping is posted.
The other replies are spot on, it just takes a lot of time and effort. The only way to be more efficient is to make a whole bunch of samples at once with variations of the recipe. Flavors can go stale due to chemical reactions, some flavors can absorb or alter the perception of other flavors. Top notes are often fruits and berries that are comprised of smaller molecules, lighter volatiles that can easily escape if you heat the juice up, expose it to light or let it breathe with the cap off, or simply seep through plastic containers, so always use glass for extended steeping. The only shortcut would be to steep the heavier creams without the lighter components and add them in a few days before you intend to vape it but there's still no telling how well it will hold up with time.
Only use glass bottles (plastic has small pores that lets in oxygen), store in a cool, dark place. Honestly a fridge is the perfect place. I bought a mini fridge just for my flavorings, juice, and nicotine. And like everyone else said, make different recipes lol.
Purge your containers with an inert gas such as nitrogen or argon. You can buy small quantities that are for wine preservation.
Any source that explains how purging oxygen is good for steeping? I heard that the small amount of oxygen left in the bottle actually helps the steep, not hinders.
Purging oxygen doesn't help steeping. It's quite the opposite. You want to prevent juice from oversteeping and thus from losing flavor.
Oxygen oxidizes nicotine causing it to change in color and be much more harsh than it already was. Purging as much "normal" air from it will keep it from becoming stale and harsh. What you are thinking of is breathing not steeping. Breathing can be done without exposing your liquids to free air.
- Recipes
Some keep great, some don't. Your juice will change flavor throughout it's life. There seems to be a point though when the alcohols your flavors are bound to are evaporated (thus the juice is steeped) and the only chemical reaction that's left to happen is the nasty oxidization. You want your juice to be steeped but not oxidized. There are however flavors that'll lose their potency quickly. Especially citrus stuff comes to mind, while creams seem to stay forever.
- Bottles
The juice I keep in glass bottles is perfectly fine after 6 month+ while the stuff I keep in PE bottles oxidizes much quicker. You could also use PET bottles (the clear and hard ones) as seal a lot better from oxygen than the PE stuff, but they don't seem to be easily reusable to me.
- Oxygen in the bottle
Once you open a bottle and start taking juice out you let more and more oxygen enter the bottle. Oxygen causes you're nic and your flavors to oxidize and the juice becomes stale. Wine preservers like private preserve can help. If you mix big batches, refill in unicorn bottles or similar and use a preserver on the large bottle.
Edit:
- Light
Store your liquid in a dark place. Heavy exposure to sunlight is the devil.
Thank all of you who posted to my question. All of the feedback has really helped me understand the process and realize that the reason that many vendors have popular, marketable products is because they spend countless days and $ perfecting their recipes. You all highlighted specific areas where I have made mistakes, e.g., steeping in plastic bottles and relying to heavily on berry mixtures which explains why I have gotten the results I have. Your feedback is much appreciated.