I don't know if it's because I smoked for 10 years, or just born with it. But I find it very difficult to distinguish the different flavours that make up an ejuice. I know if it's nice or not, know the main flavours, but the specifics I find hard to decipher.
I know the majority of vapers are ex-smokers, and do find the mixing community a contradicition; ex smokers who cared so little about taste they smoked (not as simple as that I know) are now spending their spare time in a hobby based solely around the sense of taste. Then I thought maybe it's more of a celebration of getting that sense back after it being muted for so long.
Opinions? Thoughts? Are you all ex-smokers?
I was a regular smoker for about 6 years and then jumped up to a pack and a half / two packs a day for about 2 years (thanks sobriety!) I started caring about my palate specifically because it's terrible. I'm not someone who can pick something up, hit it twice, and tell you exactly what's going on. It's the least sexy answer ever, but it really is just practice and being thoughtful about it more than anything else. There are frustrating people out there who like, just intrinsically understand what they are tasting. I think the rest of us have to be knuckleheads and just keep practising at it.
I am disappointed albeit not surprised at your answer. I was picturing you as this super taster that could pull apart a recipe or flavor concentrate in just a few minutes. Thanks for bursting that bubble!
I may get there eventually. I can say it's getting easier after having to spend a couple hours thinking and writing about most of the flavors I test. But yeah, straight knucklehead status here. Just banging away at it until I feel comfortable saying I know what the hell I'm talking about.
I smoked for around 16-18 years (I'd have to figure out how old I was when I started). Even towards the end of my smoking (not that I knew that) I could still taste for and isolate or what it was made, so kind as I knew the ingredients.
When I started vaping, the flavors were so basic, tobacco's, vanilla or cherry tobacco. Basic 2-3 flavor liquids, though my stupid ass started vaping on Dekang Desert Ship (camel clone) and aside from trying others, it certainly took me a minute (months) to realize it tasted like dirt.
Then camel cherry limeade and I was off, LOL. I can still do the same with foods (better now) and decently with juices.
The question is, how good is your sense of smell? My aunt's husband had a very weak sense of smell and while he can certainly taste, it explains why he's up in arms over some textures.
Give it more time, maybe your sense will come back or strengthen. Maybe not, unless your smell extremes regularly (think living on a farm), your sense of smell and taste diminish over time. Tires is why the very old love candy and nuts, super sweet and super salty, the strongest they have left.
Your don't need manure and stinky animals, smelling freshly (or not) ground coffee regularly is good, is also a palette cleanser for the nose, deeply sniff in between tastes and you'll be surprised how well it can help.
Missed this 4 days ago but good response. No problems with my smell I know off, I think now it's more about exposure. Funfetti by Enya, for example, I thought was nice when I first tried it but has slowly become my favourite recipe and I notice a lot more of the flavours each time I make it. I'll def give coffee smelling a go though, heard that a few times but never tried it. Thanks.
Be wary of vaper's tongue as well. I dunno what you mix, but terribly high percentages (especially overall, 20%+) and vaping the same flavor without change can lead to it. Even watch out for flavor ranges. For example, if you live tropical fruit mixes, only vape them, even though it's 10 different juices, without variation of palletes, or can still happen. Maybe go dark berry next, then citrus heavy, or a big push over into coffee flavors, then back around. It keeps things fresh and makes them pop flavor wise. You can also try doing plain VG (with or without nic) for a day or the and that helps too.
Good luck!
How long has it been since you stopped smoking? or if you still smoke since you started vaping?
I don't recall my early vaping career that well, but I don't think I was particularly picky about whatever it was that I was vaping, but I think that's because the company I was getting my liquid from had pretty quality juice across the board, I think there was only one I didn't like and it was Earl Grey (had kind of that musty cat-pee note to it) so that makes sense.
Yeah it's strange I was the same. Just ordered whatever had good reviews. Now though I do have preferences. Your company wasn't Northland by any chance? Used to get from them aswell.
And been off the cigs for over a year now, so assume taste/smell would've come back by now but who knows. I've been DIY'ing for a few months now, so relatively new. Maybe taste is something that can be enhanced with practice/experience though.
It was Tasty Vapor, their doublers are kind of what got me in to mixing.
I'd say you can definitely hone your palate. Try a mixing game where you have SFT of a few different flavors and have the names written on the bottom and see if you can distinguish what things are by taste/smell.
Could be you still are a little dampened from smoking but they should be kicking back in.
It's also interesting seeing how low you can take certain flavors while still being able to taste them, or even seeing how low of an overall % you can get a recipe, so far my record is 2.75% total flavoring I think.
What atomizer are you using. If its based more for clouds you will get more muted flavors. In example the Recoil RDA has much more flavor then the Troll V2
You're definitely not alone. There are many people who don't quite have that brain/palate connection. Could be genetic or trauma induced. My advice would be to try to just connect the dots on everything you eat/drink/vape. Try to make a note of all the flavors you can taste, as minimal or intricate as you can. I think a lot of it comes down to just that connection. Taste, like every other sense we have, is very subjective and finding what works for you is half the battle. But it also develops your "style." Also, vapers tongue or olfactory fatigue is very real and you could just be having a strong case of it if you haven't taken a break from vaping in a while.
You found anything other than just straight quitting to help with olfactory fatigue?
I can't vape the same thing for more than a couple hours before it's tasteless to me.
The only thing that has consistently worked for me is reducing the amount of concentrate used. Keep dropping it until it starts to affect the flavor. If you haven't tried this, you might be surprised how low you can go without noticing any difference. You should see a reduction in sensory overload and less money spent buying concentrates ;)
not really, not as effective as time. Coffee beans do fuck all for me, and menthol is good for about 2 minutes of flavor, but it's almost like your nose needs to "heal" after a while. Especially us who are dealing with some hardcore aromas on a rather consistent basis, a nice break tends to help. It's not fun to do, vaping just base with nic if need be, but it does wonder.
Smoked for 25 years and didn't care at all what flavor my juice was when I switched. Over time it started to bother me that some juices were appealing and some repulsive for no obvious reason, that's when I got into DIY to get some level of control.
Experimenting, picking recipes apart, thinking about how the mix changes when you alter the percentages or concentrates used, just making yourself aware of what things smell and taste like goes a long way to increasing your understanding and intuition of what works, what doesn't, and why.
If you actually have trouble with your sense of smell in general, that's a whole other matter. Perhaps you just need a better device or to increase the PG ratio to increase the flavor. If all that is fine, all it takes is time. Blood, sweat and tears. But mostly time.
Yeah PG bump sounds interesting. Vape mostly at 70/30 but might drop to 60/40 and see if I notice much of a difference.
Go even further and try 50/50. I don't get how everything became standard 70/30 I think it has more to do with the sub ohm high wattage giant clouds bro era we are in now.
I still mix alot @ 50/50 and I def notice the flavor is alot better while 70/30 tends to be alot more muted.
If something tends to be more harsh at 50/50 I'll swap it to 60/40 and it will take away that edge, but almost never 70/30 or max VG.
I bet your palate isnt as bad as you suspect.
Quick little test, get a few brands version of a common flavour, cherry is a good one, mix them up at a range of percentages and they will taste different, the hard part is being able to describe how.
By taste difference do you mean strength wise or actual taste wise?
smoked for 22 years. my sense of smell and taste is definitely getting better with each passing month. i can now taste commercial and tell concentrates that i'm very familiar with if they're base notes but the really really subtle still escape me a bit.
Yeah it's those 8+ ingredient recipes where I have the most difficulty. How long have you quit for?
Do you floss regularly?
(Serious) lil rotting chunks of food stuck between the teeth and gums rekts the taste of my mouth if I skip it for a day
Garlic is my pet peeve, even a tiny amount like what you'll find in a bit of curry seasoning is enough to ruin my palate for a day or two. It seriously makes anything I vape taste like garbage. And I keep making the same mistake because I forget. FML.
Yesterday I wicked my rta after chopping garlic and ginger, I didn't take a hit from it until like 2 hours later. My strawberry milk was pretty awful with garlic on the exhale. I thought it would go away so I chugged half a tank, did not go away please don't try this at home.
Most vanilla/custard/dessert etc mixes all taste mostly the same to me - not great. Not for a lack of steeping either, I'll mix up something like /u/ID10-T's mother of dragons milk or god milk for example, think it's kinda meh, I just don't get it, leave it sitting in a drawer for weeks and weeks, come back to it and it's pretty much the same story. I wish I could taste creamy custardy goodness like everyone always gushes about but it simply doesn't seem to be in the cards for me. I don't know how to describe it accurately but everything in that category tastes kind of ok, slightly blech-y
I seem to have the same issue. I was mixing some vanilla flavor for someone and I was having a hell of a time testing it. I just couldn't really taste much. I ordered CAP Vanilla Custard v1, and it didn't really help much. I think flavors with a vanilla base just aren't for me. I can dig them in the background to mellow things out, but if it's the base, it's just sort of weak and eh.
I'm the same. All custard flavours barring FLV's Vanilla Custard all have this horrible taste to them. Not custard at all but more of a sharp, almost bitter/sour ammonia taste. Hard to describe.
FLV's Vanilla Custard doesn't do that, but it doesn't taste very good either.
Do you also get that plastic taste from FA Vienna Cream?
I quit amoking almost three years ago and have never gone without having vapers tongue. In fact, I recently sold all my flavours and switched to flavourless, and the only difference I taste is the nicotine.
The only times I can taste the juice is when I first switch flavour profiles, and within an hour or so of vaping we're back to nadda.
Something that might help (it did for me) is trying to write some detailed notes on your flavors. Even if it's not for a flavor review or anything. It really makes me slow down and try to taste what's going on there. I think I still struggle with it a bit because with my schedule, I really only get about 15 minutes right before bed to test my flavors and mix things. So by then I've got a full day of vaping under my belt and my tongue is a bit tired.
It's strange how different people react to different tastes.
There was something on the BBC about a month ago. It was about the difference between the taste receptacles and some people have far less than others.
I'm going to go try find it.
EDIT: Supertasters. Some people do taste more.
Personally I think the vaping community is a bit up it's own arse with the recipe thing. Everyone seems to want to carve their mark and be the new vaping Escoffier, but strawberry is strawberry.
It's strange that a tobacco reduction product has transformed into a culinary pissing competition.
Note that the sense of taste isn't that relevant to vaping, flavors mostly affect our sense of smell.
Yeah, that's it.
>Note that the sense of taste isn't that relevant to vaping, flavors mostly affect our sense of smell.
And yet you read two different reviews about the same juice with very different conclusions?
Food and drink is probably as much about about smell as vaping.
I think some people enjoy taking this new exiting hobby beyond having something to vape cheaply and into an art form to see how effectively they can use the tools available to them to create something delicious. I know I do. I am always amazed at how deep you can go with it. You don't need to you can go as far as you want to.
> Then I thought maybe it's more of a celebration of getting that sense back after it being muted for so long.
Yes, at least for me. Not only I'm an ex-smoker but I was always very difficult with food, it was either tolerable or very bad.
Getting into DIY corrected my sense of taste and greatly affected how I cook. Now I wrap my home-made deluxe McMuffin in aluminum foil to let it steep: https://goo.gl/photos/2iTTkGUkQ84vz53e7
I'm with ya man. Pack a day smoker for 30 years, strictly vaping for a year and a half.
In the beginning I couldn't taste some Strawberries. Now I can taste them all. There are still quite a few flavors that I have only tasted in a few commercial juices (Banana and Mango), yet some I find overpowering in highly rated DIY juices (Honeydew, Cantaloupe, Blueberry) from respected mixers.
My palate is short circuited.
Mine is awful too. At least as far as vaping is concerned. I struggle tasting and trying to balance everything. My vape taste buds have improved but they're still shit.
I'm also a foodie, but my palate in that respect is pretty honed. I can replicate a recipe and pick out ingredients pretty well. Add to that, already knowing the science of how those ingredients play together, and I'm a pretty decent cook. But with mixing eliquid its a waiting game. You can't add a little and taste most of the time. You have to steep.
I think it's different with vaping in 2 other respects as well.
First, in vaping we're often working with multiple ingredients to take the place of a complex singular ingredient. Knowing which brand's so and so will mix with what brand's thingamajig to create the perfect apple is new to a lot of people. I think that's what makes it so challenging to me. It's like learning the mother sauces and how to use them all over again. Your world opens up to new things and you also grow your palate.
Second, we're not eating this stuff or tasting it in a traditional way. If we were, most people would think it's disgusting. Frankly it burns a little when you taste it with nicotine in it. I don't think everyone's olfactory sense is as sensitive as another's. For most people this is a whole new way of "tasting" and its a challenge to learn it.
To me, as a mixer, it's hard to walk the line between mixing delicious, big, bold flavors and over flavoring. I think a few poor souls over in r/mixersclub may agree with that. =D
I was a smoker for about 7 years and had a terrible palate. I think my palate has been developed over time from being social and pinpointing notes in different beers. Through this I have also heard what others taste in the beer and tried the beer in search of what they were tasting. Some times I find it, some times I don't.
Overall, it seems to be almost a relational thing of relating the flavors in my juice to something I have consumed before whether it is coffee, nuts, beer, fine cheeses, or just other juices. So go out there and take on an adventure with your palate!
There are many comments, and I didn't read all of them so this may have been mentioned already, but one of the things that can damage your palate is sugar substitute. If you have a couple cups of coffee a day and put a few packets of splenda or the others, you'll find that you'll need ten times as much real sugar as you used to.
I too had a hard time distinguishing some of the flavors of juice. I was complaining about this to a chef friend of my because his palate is so amazing and he told me this. So I stopped using splenda right away. It took several months, but I noticed a very different taste profile of food, similar to when I quit smoking, but also with ejuice. I'll never go back to them.
My SO has real trouble distinguishing in/exhale flavors and nuances in the juice I make.
When I say I made a strawberry dragonfruit with a sprinkle of melon with a creamy base she says it tastes like a fruit salad that someone put in a blender.
I on the other hand (most of the time) seem to have a pretty easy time just smelling concentrates and putting a rough recipe together. But have a seriously hard time with caramels, chocolates, rum and so on, basically any rounded flavors, but that's probably me who happen to suck at making them.
I dunno, vape menthol once in a while for a week or two, brush your teeth, rinse and scrape your tongue. It might help.
I haven't smoked in 7+ years. However, when I started vaping I had already quit smoking for a good length of time. Basically I tried vaping because I had the urge to pick cigs back up. My palate is not the most refined... It may be something you're born with... could depend on your diet... Who knows?