i fucking hate autocorrect. Nuka was.... part of a personal quest? It started with mixing GGV cherry ice and cola, because house juice was free. Thats TFA marachino cherry, TFA menthol, and TFA cola. Then i took over the GGv juice lab, and i need to create and grow to be happy, and well... i wanted good juice. So i started playing with nuka. the original elements I added were TFA red type, which fills out a hollowness in the tail of the flavor profile and gives it a 'dirty glass' vibe, and reducing the menthol to 0.01%, which in my mind, gives it a sensation of cooling soda , not a bottle left in the car for a while, but not so chilly that its menthol, y'know? oh, and TFA cherry cola, which gives a thin but awesome cherry and a nose fizz, and a more nuanced cola profile but not a standalone one.
That was released, very briefly... 60 bottles tops? as nuka kola.
Then ... well, people are bitches and i wanted more nuance
So I started playing with blending in TFA Cola syrup in balance. While TFA cola is more... Coke / RC? TFA cola syrup is more diet pepsi to me, and that helped take down the thump of TFA cola and round out the profile.
That was released as Nuka
Now, for 9 months straight, I was vaping nuka or variations. If i was in the room, it smelled like Cola. And i kept playing, but never changed the release version, except for one run to a single chain.
I don't... I don't remember all of it, you know? I'm bad at notes with flavors. I just try, and learn, and try again. Which i think is the true joy of DIY - I want to paint something, I know my flavors like my base colors, and I can blend as needed, and if its not right? Do it again.
So this leads us to the inawera cola family. I love them, but they are top notes, without body. Nuka needs the body of TFA cola and a tobacco, to be decent. but the additional layers add beautiful depth and nuance. And years later, I'm still playing with it now and again.
Questions and thoughts are welcome.
Be well.
In which Slumber babbles: The sequel ;)
I noticed in your last post the recipe was "something like" and "about" whatever percentages. Are you eyeballing your house juice or do you have a recipe?
There is a difference for me between DIY and what I sell.
I'll mix DIY on a not so great kitchen scale on my kitchen counter and add drops of shit after i make the initial 'guess' recipe. if i sell it, it needs to be much "cleaner" in a processes and operations sense, and replicable.
Returning to this point, my general recipe conceptualizing for DIY is generally as follows
Think of something I want
Make up a recipe
Usually love it enough to vape 300ml and not change
Tweak
Repeat.
edit: for reference, I have... hundred+ flavorings, many of them slowly acquired direct from poland. I learn the .. color of the flavor? and then can interpret that into blending those colors to paint what i want. Big things i pay attention to are the.. experience of flavor over the duration of the tasting experience, texture, and tolerability once you can no longer taste it.
My process is similar but I usually don't vape anything for much more than 30ml before I move on to something new. I just try not to be too loose with the drop of this or that because I've had a few really good results that I couldn't replicate. It's just too easy to be precise now that I've made it a habit. I'll at least note the weight of the batch and the weight of my additional drops in order to do the math later (on the rare occasion that I "need" to)
But I completely understand the tweak and repeat part. I've yet to actually call a recipe "done" and consider them all a WIP even when they're better left as is.
You added TFA Red Type to a cola profile? That's really interesting. Could you elaborate more on why? I have a 30ml bottle sitting here but I can't bring myself to use it because of the immense ashiness that I get from it.
you ain't seen shit on ashiness try some dnb
Let me see what percentage its at. Edit in a bit.
edit: The release version of nuka except for that aforementioned one batch and the batch sold as 'nuka kola'
Cola 8.00% Cola Syrup 2.00% Cherry Cola 3.50% Maraschino 0.50% Red Type 0.80% Menthol 0.10%
I think my most successful soda types have been using FA Cola alongside FA Vanilla Bourbon and FA Caramel. The vanilla and caramel on the low end in the additive range really help FA Cola get some body and depth without changing the flavor too much. The same idea works well with INW Cola, though I've not tested it as thoroughly mostly due to supply. I have a 60ml of FA Cola but only a 10ml of INW. Try adding 1% each vanilla and caramel to your soda base, I bet you'll be surprised at the difference.