Recently I have been stuck in a rut, mixing here and there with lots of bland not exciting mixes. I have even tried going back to my tried and true recipes and nothing seems to pop anymore. Any tips/advice on how you stay motivated in creating new/flavorful recipes? I just ordered some new hardware in hopes to reignite the excitement and enjoyment I use to get when mixing.
Thank you, I don't typically post and mostly just read, but today I felt like maybe reaching out to the community that has helped me so much may be just what I need.
Keep vaping strong my friends!
Edit: I have been mixing for a few years now, so not really looking for "noob" responses, I'm sure even our most tenured mixers get stuck sometimes! Lol
I get this very often, as I try to mix almost every other day if I have the time and it gets demotivating after a while. However, there are few ways I found out that help me to break away from this.
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Deconstruct. Go for back to basics, I try limiting myself to the number of ingredients I have to use for a recipe, let's say cheesecake (just very plain cheesecake with no fruit or whatever) with no more than 4 ingredients and really push it. Or try just a real crisp fruit vape in 3 ingredients (like that contest DOD or whoever is running right now)
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Expand into new profiles. I've just recently (after almost 3 years of mixing, 1.5 years taking it serious) got into tobaccos, and while I still haven't developed a recipe that I'd go head over heels for, I enjoy the new way I can mix. Go for spices. Or sodas. Or anything that you haven't done before.
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Get inspired. In the same vein as previous topic, when I'm stuck, I try to look for an interesting profile and go at it in my own way. I did such with Fizzmustard's line for example. I can't really taste those juices myself as I'm in Europe and it's pretty fucking expensive, but it really makes me go along the way why he thought such and such things go well together and try to use that as my starting point. I recently re-watched the interview with Charlie Noble's Matthew Topolski and that also gave me a nice starting point (in terms of reigniting the passion) for new recipes.
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Just take a break. We are constantly pummeling our olfactory senses with these pretty fucking potent aromas and it often gets to the point when they simply can't take it anymore. Just vape plain VG/Nic for a while, or some simple recipe (Menthols come to mind) and then go look at it when you refresh, and oh boy shit tastes vivid as FUCK when you take a break.
Just to reaffirm one of Morreed's points. If you haven't played with tobaccos much, or even in a long time, try that. There is a complex subtlety that draws the line between good enough and great. It's harder to get bored with one mix because (to me at least) the flavor changes as you 'get used to it'. The radically different flavor profile helps.
I also switch between simple fruity mixes, tobaccos, and custardy profiles every month or so. That said, sometimes I just don't feel like mixing and buy something from a b&m
Cool, and very well thought out response! Another one I can add is if your recipes aren't doing it for you remember that many of the best foods consist of few ingredients but perfectly executed. When I was creating our line I would often browse through /r/dessert and /r/baking and find things I had never tried before, when I would find something interesting I would actually get the recipe and make it at home then go and replicate the flavor as close as possible.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/dessert using the top posts of the year!
#1: Made from scratch and decorated by hand! | 6 comments
#2: I brought this into work but everyone was on diet. My decadent Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake. [homemade] | 3 comments
#3: Light marshmallow foam covered in chocolate. A German favorite. | 9 comments
![I brought this into work but everyone was on diet. My decadent Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake. [homemade]](http://i.imgur.com/TquwJv8.jpg){kind=link}
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I just vape unflavored for a while. Eventually I always start craving some sort of flavor and that gives me a direction to start in at mixing again but ymmv
That's a great point. I like the idea of mixing something based on whatever flavors your tastebuds start wanting
I do 2 things.
Mix a 3-4 ingredient recipe with a solid main not and a few supporting ones. Something to build on and make complex if you will.
Take 2 flavors you don't ever see together and see how you can bring them together through use of 2-3 other ingredients.
These methods have made mixing fun for me as of late. I got overwhelmed with 7-12 ingredient recipes and decided to go back to the drawing board and build. It's rewarding in the end.
Start buying premium juice again...the price will have wanting to mix your own again in no time. Also might give you inspiration.
I've been there a few times with vaping in general. Not sure what got me out of the rut. I just kind of worked through it and made some good recipes that got me excited for it all over again. But then I started spending like $60 a week on flavors. So now I'm trying to slow that down.
I've struggled with motivation recently as I seem to have ruined my palate, I can't taste much flavour it any dessert juices and my ADV has got bland too. Slowly but surely my vaping experience is getting worse and worse.
I'm definitely hydrated, ADV is menthol with fruit and I've tried taking a week off as well, all with no luck. On the plus side the juice I make seems to go down well with everyone so that helps me keep a little motivation!
Sometimes I just personally need a break. Luckily I have a couple of go-to premixed eliquids that I can vape in my ruts. I know that doesn't help much but honestly, sometimes you just need a small break. Besides that, I'll try other people's recipes to see if that can inspire me in any way or I'll at least read through them. Or I'll look up recipes of actual food for inspirations on flavor pairings and what not.
I actually look through listings of premium juices. I usually find 1 or 2 that I would want to vape. While I'll never buy them because I don't want to vape gold dust and sucralose, they can give you good ideas. I don't remember what magazine I was reading in my local shop, but it had some parfait in it. That got me thinking along the lines of FW blueberry, maybe FLV Cranberry, some FLV Cream, and CAP GCC. A good start for something I never would have considered normally.
Still haven't started working on it. I got distracted by a honeydew apple recipe and a tart strawberry lemonade recipe I'm making for a friend.
What I did...
Using less complex recipes. I found that adding in the 0.2% of this and that is getting old. Trying to make artificial flavors mixed together to taste like some real world dish just got old and not needed to me. Or even the 1 - 2% of ten different concentrates.
The truth? I started dropping the concentrate percentages on recipes 3 - 5% and adding sweetener 1 - 2%.
I found that I enjoy not getting vapers tounge from the 10%+ recipes. Maybe its just my taste? I don't know... It is just what I enjoy now.
I found that most of the popular recipes on this scene were still too much concentrates for me. It was hard to figure that out with all the hateraid of sweeteners on this scene. I am betting that I am not the only one due to the fact of how many people I see that post about chemical taste. Also people posting about not being able to taste 8% of something. lol