So what is a juice rotation and why should I do it? A juice rotation is when you create a variety of juices that you can continually vape over a period of time (my definition at least) There are many benefits to this and the first and most important is steeping.
When I first started mixing I was probably the worst at steeping and my pallette was paying the price. I wanted to try every recipe under the sun and wanted to vape it as soon as my hands could grip my mod after the shake. This was okay for some recipes but all, even the S&V ones, benefited from a good rest after mixing. When you create a rotation you will be able to steep your juice much more effectively and not be mixing every other day of your vaping life, well you might still be. ;)
Now you might be asking, how do I start a rotation? The first thing to do is to find some tested, true S&V recipes. Some of my favorites are Vurve's Best Damn Pink Lemonade, Fizz Mustard's Bombies Nana Cream Clone and Returnity's Cinapple Fritter. You will want to make a week to two week supply of your S&V recipes. Once you have made your S&V's, you now need to mix the ones that you want to steep. I'm not going to list any of these because I believe every juice needs to steep, so find the ones that you think you'll like and make another week to two week supply. When I mixed my first rotation, I mixed my S&V recipes up one night and my steepers the next. I only did this because i didn't want to sit at my mixing station for over an hour mixing 8 different recipes, but if you can mix your S&V's and steepers in one session then more power to you.
Now you should have around a months supply of juice, but where does this rotation thing come into play? A week to two weeks from when you started your rotation you will now want to find and mix new recipes or create some of your own. At this point you will still have juice steeping and you've just added to your "steep collection" I call it. Every week to two weeks you will mix your weekly supply of juice and you will always have steeped juice to vape on. Let's say that you really liked the Cinapple Fritter from the S&V's you made, you can now mix this again and have it steeped in two weeks (adding it to your rotation)
IMO this is the most effective way for mixers to get the best out of there juice. I struggled for a while to get in the habit of steeping/making a rotation due to the pure excitement from making my own juice and I hope this helps some new to intermediate mixers here. I still consider myself a new mixer though wanted to share a tip that the pros use.
>I wanted to try every recipe under the sun and wanted to vape it as soon as my hands could grip the mod after the shake.
YOU DONT KNOW MY LIFE!
Haha! I'm starting to think I do now ;)
i started diy'ing pretty much from the start of my vaping not smoking. in two months i've gone from 6 flavors and 6mg premixed nic/pg/vg to almost 80 unique flavors, 100mg/ml nic and just bought my first gallon of vg. i bought an assload of small bottles so i can work on my single flavor test backlog.
i actually do have a steeping closet but it seems to be filled with bakery mixes because apparently that's not my jam so they just sit there. i think i finally have enough resources that i can make some mixes and just throw it in the closet and won't have to pull it out early because i ran out so some time next week i'm going to mix up some of my ADVs and throw them in the closet and forget about them.
next step i guess is to get some carolina xtract nic and see what all the fuss is about and then finally get around to finishing my first recipe.
great post, thanks for the advice
The key is to keep at the least 20-30 bottles for personal stash. I always put the date on the home made labels it creates a mental note to not touch them. Im really bad at estimating days and time so if I don't date it it can feel like it was mixed weeks ago but then I see the date and think wow it's only been 4 days lol. Also i burn thru a lot of juice so this gives me around a month of steeping if I were to rotate in order. Also replacing the empty bottle when your finished with a new one to keep the rotation going is important. You kinda get an idea just thru trial and error what needs a good steep and what doesn't. For instance I make a cherry limeade that I absolutely love. I can usually vape this the next day. Good tutorial though
Thanks for your input! I'm the same way when I don't write the date it was made. I also do the same with the bottles. I'm cheap (like a lot of people on here) and I hate using a new bottle for something I've already made.
Yeah I'm defiantly cheap lol. I stopped in a new vape shop today as I was passing by, didn't want to feel bad not buying anything and I sucked my tank dry so I bought a bottle of juice. Man I was disappointed as it was just a bottle of sweetener and I paid 20 bucks for it. It was a premium lost art flavor and man this stuff was junk. The shit is so sweet I don't want to even vape it I gotta find someone to pawn it off on lol. I repeat this process every couple months I buy some premium for 20$ then feel so bad considering how much amazing juice I could be making for the same price. 😳
Interested in sharing your recipe? (The cherry limeade)
I sent it to you. If anyone else wants just LMK. I don't really post recipes because I am not very good at writing the notes and all that stuff required on here.
I don't do dates on my bottles, but every recipe I have is in a notebook, 1 recipe per page. I record the date every time I make a batch and how much I mixed, and also keep tasting notes during a steep with dates to kind of gauge how long it takes to reach peak flavor, and also if something weird happens after a month or two.
I am very obsessive compulsive but that is like one step beyond me lol. I just keep everything in a doc on Google docs that I access from my phone. But I'm very perticular about how everything is formatted.
Damn, this is like the 6th time I've seen Best Damn Pink Lemonade repped this week. Glad you guys are enjoying it!
As someone just getting ready to start diy, I can honestly say that recipe is going to be one of the first I try. I have a serious weakness for pink lemonade.
Compulsively mixing way more juice than I could possibly ever vape in a month helped jump start my juice inventory. Mix 5-10 testers at 10-15 mL each, throw together a few new 30mL trial recipes, maybe 100-120mL if they're really good recipes, rinse and repeat weekly. I typically make lists of what I plan to mix and run the recipes through a calculator, write the weights in my notebook, and just roll through the list on mixing day. Next time, swap out fruits, swap out creams, play with accents, maybe add some koolada... It's so much fun knowing that the combo possibilities are endless. I'm really happy to find a hobby that I thoroughly enjoy no matter what the outcome is.
This is especially a good idea for tobaccos. I make 350-450 ml batches of my favorites so by the time I've finished one, the others have sat for a month. Then I mix up the one I just finished and it gets to sit for a month. In between I make small test batches that I can forget about and try in between juice A and B. Getting started on my rotation was a bit tricky though. Not a whole lot of S&V tobaccos out there. But by the end of that first 450 ml, it was nice and tasty.
I'm a little lucky in that most of my preferred flavors are florals and fruits, so steeping is rarely an issue. But I do basically the same thing. Every Sunday I sit down and mix around 240mls, but I only use around 180ml a week, so I'm always adding to the steep box more than I take away each week. Then at the end of the month I take a break and do single flavor testing/revisit single flavors.
Yep I have 3 boxes labeled Short Steep, Medium Steep, and Long Steep. I put the 'Vape On' date on the label and have more short and medium flavors going at a time and remake a bottle within 2 days of taking it out. All 60mls with maybe 3 or 4 30 and 120s going. Gotta have that rotation man especially if you want some of the more complex flavors.