So after all this time of MF (Lotus) flavors being out anybody a die hard fan and using their flavorings exclusively ?
I have a few of their most popular flavorings but still not very good at coming up with anything outstanding .
I still use the old standby's like FA, TFA , Capella's etc...more than i do MF .
I've been working with MF for over 3 years. The trick to most of these is very long term steeping. Virgin Vapor's recipes that are super popular are steeped up to 6 months before dispensing into bottles to be nic'd and sold.
That being said, MF flavors are extremely delicate and contain dozens of volatile components that don't mix so well with each other. That's why Virgin's "absolute" flavor line is so limited: you just can't mix them together and assume you're going to get something palatable.
I start most single flavor mixes at 1g per 30ml of e-liquid which is quite a bit more than 1%. For multi-flavor blends, I go the opposite route and start at 0.25% per flavor and assume a very long steep time before testing.
Open Source Vapor shut down but used to have open source recipes using MF. Many of his flavors went down to 0.1% of some of them in a complicated mix. I liked a lot of his recipes and wish I had archived them better because he had a knack for using MF without the need for extensive steep times.
Someone archived them on ELR if you haven't seen it already
This isn't entirely responsive (I don't use MF exclusively, nor even close; and I haven't got the lotus labelled ones just bottles straight from MF site) but I did pick up some flavors recently.
I mixed them all at 1% for tasting and I was surprised by the excellence of the butterscotch and the banana. The banana is the least candy banana flavor I've tried, by a lot. The butterscotch was super: sweet, true to the real flavor, even vapeable standalone at 1% (or likely even less). Jasmine was also very jasmine (still trying to find something to combine that with) in a good way. Both jasmine and butterscotch flavors stuck around flavorwise even after draining my tank and refilling with other juice; their persistence was comparable to (TFA?) honeydew.
Strawberry, vanilla, caramel were unimpressive at 1% with no/minimal steep; I'd stress those qualifiers though (I need to experiment more with percentage and steep time before opining on the quality of those flavors).
Thanks for telling about your experiences with MF , mine are similar .
The Caramel is delicious and i like the Vanilla a lot as well but mixing some of these flavorings into a stellar tasting recipe has avoided me up to this point .
I mixed Vanilla & Caramel together and let it steep and it is good but something is just not there and i can never put my finger on it.
I think it's only fair to say i'm an atrocious DIY er though so thats got to have something to do with it. This subreddit has helped a lot but i have zero talent so i just steal stuff from the people who do have a clue , like a parasite if you will.
I'm in the same boat. I have a handful and struggle to mix anything outstanding with any of them.
Quick thoughts:
- Banana - good, realistic
- Blackberry - super floral, can't mix anything good (despite rave reviews)
- Caramel - best caramel I've had, but always want it a little stronger
- Dark Chocolate - great, the best chocolate, don't use it much, FW dark may compete
- Hazelnut - no
- Kiwi - really good, has place in marshmallow kiwi thing, constant rotation
- Mango - too astringent and green, haven't messed with much
- Strawberry - I like it a lot at 1.5 but only mixed with fruits, not good w cust/cream imo
- TA - fuckin thick and hard to work with, gave up
- Vanilla - I like, but only had a small sample, will reorder
- Watermelon - lots of hype, didn't live up to it for me. Very light flavor even when pushed
- White Cherry - really good in almond vanilla stuff, standalone with sweetener is good too
- Wild Raspberry - hyped, but I don't like; (Don't like the INW raspberries either though...)
I've tried and tried and tried to get something out of Strawberry. It's just not any good. I want to try some other ones though. I wrote down Banana just now. Thanks!
I just looked on the EcigXpress website and the MF Strawberry flavor is gone , i do have that flavor but need to experiment more .
You don't like it i see , oh well , at least i didn't pay $9.99 for it. I only decided to try a few because they were heavily discounted .
I rarely use them because they are not as easy to work with as the other flavors I have. It's really a matter of laziness and not wanting to put in what I feel is unnecessary extra work. I personally can't think of a flavor from them that I can't find in a different brand. They are definitely good flavors... and for someone who wants to mix PG free, they are excellent. I just don't find much use for them so far.