Ok so I've mixed over 50 recipes now, all from Reddit or all the flavors, I then mixed large batches of my 10 favourites. Now their all on the more complex side, bakery/desserts. The fruit mixes I do use still have depth and darkness to them.
Now I've gotten about 7-8 people off smokes, meanwhile telling em I'll make em juice when they get going. Problem is I think being new to vaping, all they want is fruits and candies. They don't seem to like any of my top 10, and I've read that to most people, taste will normally develop over time to prefer bakeries. I'm basically wondering for those who mix for someone new, what are the first recipes you get em to try? I don't really vape simple fruits or candy recipes so I have a difficult time judging their quality.
I am aware of the search function, but most fruit recipes are tweaked with strange flavours to personalize their recipe, normally too complex. I also know in the sidebar is a few links to recipes sorted by flavour company, but I can't help but get the feeling those recipes could be vastly improved, if it wasn't for purposely restricting yourself to one company. I could be wrong on that though...
Side note, all these guys are vaping low-mid level tanks, so recipes like Apple Buttah (one of my favs) are sometimes not appreciated in a cheap tank. (So I hear)
#Unicorn
%|Brand|Flavor ---|----|------ 4%|TFA|Peach (Juicy) 6%|TFA|Strawberry 3%|TFA|Hibiscus
Ripe strawberry on the inhale, and just like taking a bite out of a giant peach on the exhale. It's pretty much my ADV, and I've failed to meet anyone who didn't love it. You don't really taste the hibiscus, I think it just helps to blend the strawberry and peach.
Keep it simple, familiar, yet flavorful enough even for a heavy smoker. A year ago I made this recipe with that in mind, and it's been quite popular even with non-vapers:
%|Brand|Flavor ---|----|------ 1%|FA|Fuji 2%|TFA|Strawberry Ripe 2%|TFA|Juicy Peach 1%|CAP|Apricot
It's shake-and-vape, but give it a few days for the peach to mellow out and it turns into an apple vape with peach and apricot as supporting notes and a soft and sweet strawberry to bind it all together. Works with any setup. This recipe can easily be tweaked and flavors substituted, the point is to keep it simple yet balanced.
That flavor percentage is really low..seems to low to me.
1% FA Fuji is plenty and dominates the flavor, the other 5% just spices it up. You could use 0.5% FA Fuji as a single flavor and have a mild but pretty boring apple vape. I would say, don't get caught up on percentages, but the truth is that a lot of juices are over flavored.
How about the honey pearry clone? Refreshing Pear and Honeydew with a sweet strawberry undertone.
TFA Honeydew - 3%
TFA Strawberry - 5%
TFA Pear- 6%
Or /u/fizzmustard's Mustard tiger (search for it, I'm on my phone). It's an accurate rendition of the classic snow cone.
3% honeydew?? I find even 1% takes over and kills everything else I use it with :(
I just started diy and this is my first..But the version I found used 6% pear 3%strawberry 3%honeydew (all TFA).
After a 3 day steep I sampled it and thought bringing up the amount of strawberry is what this one needed.
My 2 consistent ADV's have been TVC Honey Pearry and Hobbes Blood. I'm hoping to find a nice finished recipe or a solid start that I can tweak to be near spot-on for those two flavors.
I've found that 1-2 flavor fruit recipes and menthol are some of the best things to get people off smokes.
You have to keep in mind, they've been smoking for a while. Their sense of taste is next to non-existent. Not to mention, vaping is just plain weird to them. It carries such a huge stigma in America thanks to anti-vaping campaigns, and cloud chasing dickbags ruining it for people trying to actually make a healthy choice for themselves.
Overall though, there is no reason to get super complicated. Pick up some TFA Strawberry, FW Blueberry, LA Watermelon, etc. and give those to people.
I never really got into bakery/cereals and shit, I still mostly enjoy fruity vapes. One that I've been enjoying lately is [honeydew bubble tea] (http://diyordievaping.com/2016/05/10/honeydew-bubble-tea/). Make sure you use circus cotton candy, it's quite different from regular. Not every vendor carries it, I got mine from ecigexpress.
%|vendor|flavor ---|----|----- 3|TFA|Honeydew 3|CAP|Cantaloupe 2|FA|Whipped ceam 2|TFA|Circus cotton candy
Another I usually have in rotation isn't one of my favorites but it's easy to vape on all day is a nana cream clone, it was an adaptation of fizzmustard's made by /u/skiddlzninja but I was missing quince and still haven't gotten around to getting it so I just mix it without it for now.
%|vendor|flavor ---|----|----- 8|TFA|Strawberry 5|LA|Banana cream 1.5|TFA|Apricot 1|TFA|Dragonfruit .4|TFA|Quince
I've thrown together a few mixes myself that are vapeable but aren't really worth mentioning, these are probably the two I vape the most.
When I first started vaping, Mr.E's Blue JuJu was the one that did it for me. There's a very good clone on elr. The recipe is:
10%TPA Juicy Peach
5%TPA Raspberry Sweet
5% Sweetner
I think 5% is really high for the sweetner though, I thought it was sweet enough without it. If you don't like TPA peach, I'm sure you could sub it for a different brand
Just curious and at this point i just wanted to ask:
I read lots of recipes with huge amounts of flavor. Currently I am using mostly TPA flavors with 50/50 or 70/30 bases, but because of a recommended 5% (for tpa in this case) I am just calculating the flavor amounts down to a number were the ratio is the same but the total is about 5%. Do I am missing something? What about the issue that the flavor delevops a soapy chemical taste if used too much?
Would love to read an answer from somebody.
The issue is the base that you're using compared to the majority. Most recipes I see posted are 30/70 pg/vg or higher VG. Going 50/50 or 70/30 is why the flavor ratios always seem overpowering for you. The easiest way to summarize it is, PG = Flavor carrier ----- VG = Cloud/texture carrier. Usually when I find a juice's flavor is lacking, I just add in a couple drops of PG and it picks up a bit more flavor.
I'm not sure I entirely understand the question, but I think you're asking how people use lots of flavoring without having the juice taste too chemically?
If that's the case, your best bet is to just experiment. 5% is usually a decent starting point for a single flavor juice, but its not a hard limit or anything. Just expirement with different flavor percentages and see where the flavor tastes best.
Hopefully this answered your question, but if it didn't just let me know and i'll see if I can give you a better answer
Sorry for my bad english :)
Yes your were close to my point. You say 5% for single flavor, but if i use two or more flavors, should i use 2,5% on both or can I use 5% on both without having a funny taste.
I mean, there are so many recipes were the sum of flavors are near 20% or so. Im assuming it tastes extremely strong/sweet or so and i'm confused if the taste is even enjoyable.
I find fruit + menthol/tfa koolada to be a killer combo for new vapers even if they didn't smoke menthols (I love menthol juices, have a life long hatred for menthol cigs).
My go to for new vapers (field tested 4 years of nightly bar time while in the restaurant industry) has been what I call "that strawberry". As in "what is that? Smells delicious" "that? Strawberry".
Basically
8-10% tfa strawberry ripe (or your strawberry of choice)
~5% menthol or tfa koolada (I prefer the koolada, keeps the strawberry cleaner).
You can add a few % of a cream to give it that spin, a few % of another berry flavor, whatever.
There just seems to be something about even ironlunged smokers, but the first couple times they vape it's like watching you're high school friends take their first drag off a joint of dirt weed rolled in a page torn out of a bible. I must have let hundreds of people try my vapes, from the cig-a-likes, through a bunch of egos, subohm mechs, and a few high power boxes, and nearly everyone coughs like crazy at first. I think whatever triggers that, is helped by the cooling numbing of those ingredients.
Plus, that recipe is the definition of shake and vape. Eyeball the ratios. Whatever, still works fine.
I've always appreciated this attitude about mixing on some level. I do mostly precision work, but sometimes it feels kind of liberating to toss some fruits together with a little koolada or meringue and just roll with it for a couple days. Spices things up and makes me appreciate balance more when I come back to my serious mixes.
Right? I appreciate a well crafted, tweaked and tested to perfection juice recipe. For a while, when I found one like that I liked, I'd mix up a big batch of that flavor (like people do with the "stone" bases a la milkstone). But after vaping for 4 years or so, screw it. Slap some shit that tastes good together and enjoy.
These days I'm a big fan of the 2-3 ingredients recipes. They might not be as nuanced etc as a 10 ingredient masterpiece, but when I'm trying to force as much nicotine into my system in the 45 second break during a busy night as a cook in a restaurant as I can... Frankly it could taste like old hotdog water.
Let's not take ourselves too seriously
I second this. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I actually couldn't stand fruit flavors when I first started vaping; they were far too sweet compared to cigarettes.
I didn't smoke menthols, but menthol juices at 50/50 VG/PG were the only ones that had a strong enough hit. A week of chain vaping a thin mint cookie juice is definitely what did it for me, and I haven't looked back since.
One thing to consider is throat hit and juice viscosity. Mix at 70/30 down to 50/50 for that throat hit. And also because stock coils usually don't wick max vg very well.
I mix juice for my mother in law. All she wants is that throat hit and smacked in the face with Peppermint and Menthol. I have a recipe I created for her that she loves and will not stray from because it's that satisfying.
I think the key here is to work with each person individually to find what is so satisfying that it keeps them from smoking. If that's Lemon flavored cardboard so be it. Make it for them.
Cuttwood Mega Melon clone is good. I did not make the recipe tho. Credits go to gsxrmike04 on eliquid-recipes.com.
%|Brand|Flavor :--|:--|:-- 5%|TPA|Cantaloupe 5%|TPA|Mango 5%|TPA|Papaya
So, no recipes right now, but I've found keeping the vg at 60 or less helps some, and unfortunately, some sweetener (for new vapors). I'm not sure taste for bakeries develops over time, just more ability to taste in general. Maybe look on ELR and just sort by ranking, skipping a few pages past the complex stuff.
strawberry frost:
flavor | pct ---|--- TFA Strawberry | 6% FW Spearmint | 5% TFA Cotton Candy | 2% TFA Koolada | 1%
sub your/their preferred strawberry
fresh pear - one of my favorites. sells pretty often
flavor | pct ---|--- INW Cactus | 1 TFA Pear | 4 TFA Cotton Candy | 2
TFA swedish gummy is also really good at 10-12% solo. i usually add 1-2% of strawberry
Maybe a bit more complex than you're looking for, but this was one of my favorites for a long while, it works well on a simple tank (I always used it on a subtank with a half ohm coil).
% | Brand | Flavor ---------|----------|---------- 4.25 | TPA | Raspberry (Sweet) 5 | TPA | Strawberry (Ripe) 4 | TPA | Strawberry 0.5 | FA | Coconut 1 | TPA | Koolada 0.5 | FW | Menthol 0.5 | TPA | Sour 0.2 | TPA | Smooth
Long list of flavors, but it yields a simple juice that worked the way I imagined it should. I add 1 drop of TPA Smooth per 10mls (0.2%) because my menthol is a bit harsher than I prefer, and it blends the strawberry and raspberry slightly. I add 0.5% FA Coconut to it just as a little surprise on the exhale, but that's really not required in there.
It's fairly potent flavor-wise, but it always seemed to be a hit among the middle-aged smokers at my local bar who don't vape. The menthol + fruit pairing is something appealing to fresh vapers, as OrionsArmpit mentioned. There's just something alluring about that cloud of strawberry lofting around- like moths to a lamp.
I'm way late to this, sorry man. I still wanted to chime in though, because what you're doing is way awesome!
The first juice I ever mixed was a clone for Sucker Punch by Suicide Bunny. It's 14 % Dragonfruit (TPA), 4 % Vanilla Swirl (TPA), and 2 % Bavarian Cream (TPA). I loved it when I first tried it, but now that I'm a bit more experienced (and know what steeping means), it's opened a whole new world. If you have these flavors and can afford to do it, it would be pretty great of you to mix your friends a bottle of this too and set aside for when they've run through their first 100 % fruit juice. By that time this one will have steeped a bit and maybe they'll appreciate some more complex flavors. If not, the Dragonfruit is definitely the overtone and still makes this a fruity juice, so I'm sure they'd still appreciate this! And also, thank you for doing this for your friends! It's really great that you've gotten so many people off smokes! Kudos to you, my good fellow!
I'll add mine but percentages are highly variable as I'm a bit of a hack and certainly not very precise. It's a lemon-lime tobacco that is my main ADV and you really can't mess it, and it's shake and vape.
Tidewater Tobacco (feel free to substitute with any tobacco flavor you have or like) is the main flavor - roughly 10%.
The 3-5% for both lemon and lime. I mainly used Lemon Sicily and Cold Presses Lime but again substitute as desired.
Thanks man. It's sort of fun to share the passion. Plus being obsessed with mixing it kinda gets me to try so many new things. It's a bit more difficult when everyone loves different flavours, specially since I don't have 20 drippers for them to try em. But DIY is so cheap and fun and it adds a little challenge. No better feeling then hitting the right flavour and blow someone's mind. It blows me away how few people know about DIY, and the sometimes negative perception of it.
Hi. Was looking for some fruit recipes when I came across this thread. I'm curious about your comment "I've read that to most people, taste will normally develop over time to prefer bakeries". Where can I find info on that? I've been vaping 19 months and aside from the first three months when I vaped Unicorn Milk exclusively I've never really liked fruits. As a new DIYer I'm going to take a fresh look at fruits. Have been with custards and desserts pretty much since I got the cigs out of my system.