I originally got into DIY to make Grack Juice and Shurb v4 (instead of dropping $20/30mL at a local B&M) and since then, I've spent at least $600 in concentrates alone. It has only been 6 weeks...I have 1 original recipe. Literally everything I've thought I wanted to try to make on my own already exists somewhere. I've been a chef for 6 years and in the kitchen, it's not hard at all to put my own twist in a recipe and make it better. But it seems that originals and the twists have been applied to everything. Is it just lack creativity on my end or have we just reached a point where basically everything has been done or overdone (i.e. strawberry creams)?
How the hell have you managed to spend 100 dollars a week on concentrates?
But there's nothing wrong with perfecting something is there? And I'd you're looking for a challenge, why not take a favorite dessert, food, candy, or whatever and try and recreate that?
From what I see a lot of the basic recipes has been done to near perfection by now, but that don't mean that you shouldn't try out making your own basic recipes either. Good luck in your diy hopefully you find the creativity, I imagine as a chef you could come up with a few quitr nice recipes!
> How the hell have you managed to spend 100 dollars a week on concentrates?
2 bulk orders. I'm mixing for myself, wife, and quite a few friends. I also "vape it forward". So, once a week, I randomly give 1 or 2 people a Joytech Ego AIO and 30mL of 2 different kinds of juice. I figured it would be cheaper in the long run to make the juice myself than give them cheap house-mixes. Those $8 30mL were adding up fast.
> But there's nothing wrong with perfecting something is there? And I'd you're looking for a challenge, why not take a favorite dessert, food, candy, or whatever and try and recreate that?
Not at all. The DIY scene is just A LOT more mature than I originally thought, though. All of my favorite sweets have been done, redone, and redone again. My DIY noobiness may be shining here, but I find it REALLY hard to not check ATF or ELR to see if a juice I want to create has already been made. If so, I'll mix what I find and see if I like it. 99/100, it's really good! And I've learned to not try to fix what's not broken.
> From what I see a lot of the basic recipes has been done to near perfection by now, but that don't mean that you shouldn't try out making your own basic recipes either. Good luck in your diy hopefully you find the creativity, I imagine as a chef you could come up with a few quitr nice recipes!
My only original recipe is my take on Sprite Remix. I'm still tweaking it, but it tastes really good right now. I just know it can better. I think it may have something to do with concentrates. There are clear-cut "best concentrates for _____" out there. Deviating from what has proven to be tried and true seems crazy, but I feel like I'm going to have to make something like this taste good lol.
It is really awesome that you vape it forward! I plan to do the same thing at some point.
Have you considered a subscription to something like diyordie(3 dollars a month) where there is tons of information for both beginners as Eller as experienced alike?
A lot of their beginner info is already out and free on their website now though, but it is apparently worth the money to sub to it.
Edit:and that recipe seems pretty funky!
I try to do what I can. Vaping saved my life. If I can take $25 and be the catalyst to saving someone else's life, it's all worth it in the end.
Definitely gonna look into the benefits of subscribing to DIYORDIE. Thank you.
This is the recipe. It's a lot of flavors, but I think they all play a vital role. Mixed at 70/30/3. Works well as a SNV, but settles well after about 3 days.
| Brand | Flavor | % | Notes | |-------|------------------|-----|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | FW | Pink Champagne | 2 | It's a soda. It needs effervescence. Can be subbed for FA Wine Champagne at 1.25%. If you're feeling froggy, FW Pink Champagne @ 1.5 + FA Wine Champagne @1.5 will give you a "shaken soda" feel. | | CAP | Lemon Lime | 6 | Sprite is the essential flavor in the recipe. This embodies Sprite. At least on the flavoring side. | | FW | Grape Soda | 2 | A boost to the FW Champagne and also a key background note. | | INW | Grape(s) | 1 | Helps pull the grape out of the FW Grape Soda | | CAP | Sweet Strawberry | 1.5 | When I think of Sprite Remix, I think about how good those sweet strawberry notes were. Well, this stuff is literally called Sweet Strawberry. It's gotta work, right? Right? | | TFA | Strawberry Ripe | 1.5 | Bonding agent for the Sweet Strawberry. Helps round it out. When you taste strawberry, you KNOW its strawberry. | | CAP | Golden Pineapple | .75 | Remix wasn't known for the hints of pineapple, but if you ever drank one at room temp, you know that it's hidden in there somewhere. | | INW | Pineapple | .75 | Rounds out the Golden Pineapple. W/o it, the pineapple hints taste...bitter. Not in a biting way. Just kinda like you ate 95% flesh and 5% rind. | | FW | Beetle Juice | 1 | It's a mix of tropical fruits and berries. All around boost to every flavor above. | | TFA | Key Lime | .75 | OPTIONAL. I really like lime...so, I added some more. Works well w/o it. | | TFA | Koolada | .5 | You knew it was coming didn't you? It's a cold drink. Make it cold! If you take your drinks room temp, leave it out. If you like em ice cold, up Koolada to 1 or 1.25%. |
Kudos on vaping it forward. I started doing it recently by giving friends a random 30mL when they ask me to mix for them. They hate paying the steep price and diy is affordable. Figured why not. Good luck with the mixing!
If you're a chef (as am I) you shouldn't have an issue putting your own twists on a mix.
The way I approached it was like I was back in culinary training. I picked u/notcharlesmanson and u/ID10-T as my adhoc culinary school instructors. I also focused on reading notes from other Mixer's.
I used their recipes (I made a gigantic initial order like you) while I single flavor tested EVERYTHING. All 200+ concentrates. It was a bitch, an absolute nightmare single flavor testing them all. In hindsight, I should have bought less and not been overwhelmed by testing.
You, especially as a chef need to single flavor test all your flavors. It would be like making tom kha gai and thinking it's okay to substitute condensed lime juice for fresh kaffir leaves. You need to have that understanding of the prime ingredients.
Then adjust the recipes you enjoy to your liking while creating your own recipes.
Even if it's been done before (I'm fucking looking at you strawberry and cream mix #12899639) just do it. Who cares if the profiles been done before? We're chefs, we innovate and progress our industry.
Keep mixing!
I don't belong in the same sentence with the great /u/notcharlesmanson but I do want to second the importance of single-flavor testing EVERYTHING.
Shut your mouth before I fuck it. You absolutely do. Everything I mixed of yours has been incredible.
Yeah, neither of you deserve to be in a sentence with me. That's definitely why the guy didn't mention me. Definitely.
You, NCM, Skiddlz, and Philosaphucker are great. I've recreated a lot of you guys' mixes and most are 5/5.
Thank you. I'm a big Phucker Phan, too. I love how, instead of trying to make something taste like something like most of us usually do, he lets the flavors speak for themselves. I've got a few recipes like that but when I do it it's more like a kindergartener scribbling, not an abstract art masterpiece.
Man, that makes me so happy. I hope you learned what you needed from my mistakes and whatever lucky combination of flavors I stumbled upon haha
I finally got a chance to mix Pebbles recently! Letting it sit(which means I'm trying to forget about it). Super excited. I've mixed a bunch of stuff that I haven't been able to afford to bulk order for too, like Grack Juice, Wayne's Pistachio RY4, a lot of tobacco stuff, really.
Yeah you're right. I've been sidetracked by trying to do something completely new instead of just building on what's tried and true. I'm gonna do what I tell my understudies all the time and "just make sure I like it. No one else has to like what I'm eating."
Yessir (assuming sir) It took me a bit to find my jam in mixing too. That'll come. You gotta learn the mother sauces before you drop a Ono Wahoo Benedict with Maltaise Mousseline.
Lol I'm a sir. Ono Wahoo Benedict? I've only had it one time. It was...weird lol. I've eaten a lot of weird things in the past 10 years though. Wahoo Benedict is definitely one of the weirdest. The chef made it work, though! But I definitely get your point. I have a pretty strong palate. I've been picking flavors out of bought juices for a while now. What's your flavor-testing method for ejuice? That's killing me. In the kitchen, if there's a spice I've never tasted, a finger dip is all I need to tell what it well play nicely with. PSA. That DOES NOT work with concentrates lmao.
Whoa, whoa whoa. You mentioned Tom Kha Gai. Tell me you have an ejuice recipe for that! I love that thai dish, and have not found any equivalant in ejuice.
Personally I don't care if I'm original as I'm not that interested in showing off what I make. That said, I love variation. My favorite way of getting creative is to pair things up, try to match two flavors you don't normally see together, and once you find something that works you build a recipe around that. Say, raspberry and chocolate, pineapple and licorice, apple and almond, strawberry and saffron, nothing too crazy but not too common. Then add a third flavor, a cream, something sweet, a supporting note, a touch of mint, whatever your creativity dictates. If you really want to be original, I guarantee you there's plenty of unexplored territory.
I think this may be a case of having gotten too deep into something, too early. In order to properly develop recipes, to even know what you can do, you must know what your flavors are capable of. This is why all the experienced mixers stress single flavor testing and note taking on all mixes.
I run a kitchen. I habitually ordered my concentrates in bulk. I have 4oz of about 30 different concentrates, a crapload of 30mL bottles, and a few 10/13mL bottles. It's a bad habit of mine. I have toiletries in practically every closet in my home. I usually only ask myself these questions before I buy something:
- How much is this?
- Do I have room for this?
I always forget:
- Do I need this?
You just gotta break into them one by one, its a difficult creative process at first. Just remember, though you'll find that many people have created recipes for the ideas you come up with, they might not be perfect in your opinion and I'm sure you could find things that you might want to add or subtract. Many people will have different takes on the same flavor profiles, which is why you see so many different recipes for the same flavor profile.
I know what you mean though, it's hard to stop buying things once you get into it! I did the same thing now I'm 100+ concentrates in and buried in flavor testing!
> You just gotta break into them one by one, its a difficult creative process at first. Just remember, though you'll find that many people have created recipes for the ideas you come up with, they might not be perfect in your opinion and I'm sure you could find things that you might want to add or subtract. Many people will have different takes on the same flavor profiles, which is why you see so many different recipes for the same flavor profile.
Yeah, you're right. Everyone's pallet is different. I know I mixed at least 5 different strawberry creams my first week. Very little variance b/w the mixes, but just enough to highlight different flavors at certain points in the draw.
> I know what you mean though, it's hard to stop buying things once you get into it! I did the same thing now I'm 100+ concentrates in and buried in flavor testing!
Flavor testing is my weakpoint. I tend to either add to much or not enough, so I can never really gather a profile for myself. I tend to hate single flavors that I love in ejuice. It's weird. The flavor review archives have been a godsend for me.
I like to think of certain flavors or desserts that I enjoy and then try to recreate them as accurately as possible with minimal online help, outside of flavor reviews. Lately I've been thinking about mixing up a simple raspberry milkshake, which are really popular in my hometown. It turns out raspberry is a bit of a difficult concentrate to use as most of them tend to have floral notes, different levels of sweetness and tartness, or interact strangely with other concentrates, which presents a good challenge.
I've been playing with raspberry a bit myself. FA Raspberry and Cap Raspberry V2 play nicely together. Or at least they did in my jolly rancher with a little bit of dragonfruit to bind them together. But I have some more INW raspberry on the way since I like it more than FA Raspberry. Not sure how well they'd work in a custard/shake. But if you're going for a malted milkshake, I'd say play with INW raspberry @ 2%, cap raspberry v2 @3%, dragonfruit @.75%, cap vanilla custard @ 2%, tfa malted milk, @ 1% and fa meringue @ 1% and go from there. TFA vanilla bean ice cream is also really good.
I like TFA Raspberry Sweet with INW Raspberry at a 3:1 ratio, they complement each other well. I don't like CAP Raspberry V2 at all. FA Raspberry is okay, but a bit too floral.
I plan on starting with a handful of popular recipies to start learning the whole process and to train my pallet to better pick out individual flavors, try to notice how flavors work together, etc. Then I will start tweaking the recipes to suit my tastes if needed. After that I will try to work on creating my own flavors.
Say I had never heard of grak juice, and i worked on a flavor for a few weeks to get it just right, only to find out it was an exact copy of grak. I'd still consider that a win and my creation(obviously I wouldn't go around taking credit for Grak Juice or try to sell it) because I worked hard on developing the flavor on my own, even if I didn't have to. I think that is one of the great things about the DiY game. There are so many people making so many good recipies you can surely find something you like without putting in much effort on the creative side of things. But at the same time, you don't have to start with a recipe. All you need is an idea. Just because something has been done already doesn't mean it can't be fun for you to do it again (and there's always adjustments that can be tried). Stay strong and mix on, friend.
This. It's good to mix popular recipes and get a feel for it, but once you branch out and start making your own originals, it's a good confirmation of your abilities as a mixer. It feels great when I mix up something on request for one of my friends and they're like "damn dude, this is some good shit."
See, I think this is what I need. I need for someone to go "hey, can you make ___________?" I think that'll get the create juices flowing for me.
Hey, can you make me a Naked 100 Amazing Mango like juice? I really like that juice but i had an idea for it. See the last time I got some, I vaped it exclusively until the bottle was empty. I think I vaped so much so quickly that by the end the sweetness was getting a little overwhelming to me. So i was thinking that if i tried to make some i would drop the sweet mango a tad and add a little more regular mango. Not much cuz, like I said, i do really like it. It only gets a bit too sweet if it's all you have to vape every day like i did.
I was also thinking of dropping the cream a bit too, but idk. I didn't dislike it by any means, but i don't think I would mind with a bit less either. Idk it just sounded like a fun project. So ya kno if you have to send me free juice to keep your passion for mixing alive, I'm willing to make that sacrifice.
Lol but all joking aside I can definitely do this myself, but if you did want to take a crack at it I would be willing to pay for the shipping. But in no way feel obligated to do so. I have all the supplies and am quite anxious to mix all the flavors! So it you're interested, go for it. If not, I'll do it and you can help someone who needs it more. Just throwing ideas out there.
There are certainly more flavours out there (for example, I doubt something like tobacco, melon and fried chicken in one has been done, probably for good reason), you just need to mix and match.
However, I think theres a lot more fun in just experimenting on your own with the concentrates you've got. I just whipped up this lovely sweet candy watermelon shake n vape (sadly didnt write any of it down) because I was out of my main batch and just needed something to vape on. Sure, better candy watermelon exists, but Im happy that I made my own without having to buy any specific concentrates.
My advice to you would be for now is just get stuck in to all your flavours and try not to take any notice of whats already been done. Find inspiration from your own flavourings and get creative. Even if you want to make a strawberry cream, do it and do it your way!
Just like anything, most things have already been done at some point. What I like to do is search for actual food recipes of desserts/etc that I like and try to replicate that. You have to think outside the box if you want something that hasn't been done to death... But as long as you're not smoking cigs and are enjoying yourself, who cares?
I think I'd have a better time if I were a pastry chef. My skill in pastries is sorely lacking in comparison to my skills over an open flame. If there were some vapable meat and veggie flavored concentrates I'd be making all kinds of juice lol. Looking up actual recipes for drinks and desserts is definitely a good idea though.