As someone who is about to pull the trigger on my first DIY order I am in those first moments of overwhelment and exhilaration. I've read every single thing in the sidebar I'm almost sure. I've got my variety of beginner broad Flavorings, Scale (No auto off, .01), Bases, Nic (100mg/ml), bottles, labels, and Safety Equp. picked out. The resources listed here were instrumental in eliminating a lot of the anxiety with taking the first step. Only have a couple quick questions for you veterans out there.
-Is there a place in which I can plug in the flavor concentrates that I will have on hand and it spit out recipes that I can make?
-Is TFA sweetner concentrate a viable option for the broad term of "sweeter"? Sounds like a no brainier that it is I just want to confirm.
-Some concentrates I've seen say they are suspended in PG(might be VG?), How is this different than something that only says Ex:"Ripe Strawberry Concentrate"? --Is the only difference counting toward whatever it is suspended in for the total base(pg/vg)? --Is the flavor profile different?
Thank you for your time and replies!
Next time please post things like this to the New Mixers Thread.
Both All The Flavors and Eliquid Recipes allow you to do this. ATF is better for this in my opinion. There are a lot of garbage recipes on ELR.
TFA Sweetener is fine, but we tell beginners to skip sweeteners when they are starting out. They have a tendency to mute your flavor if used incorrectly. Plus, it's better to get to know how your flavors work first. Some flavors have enough inherent sweetness themselves.
Most flavors are suspended in PG. Unless they say otherwise, that's always the case.
I'm so sorry. I can repost real quick. I don't want to clog up the feed.
Thank you so much for all your info though. You answered everything!
u/EdibleMalfunction did you solid with his answers OP, but just some additional amplifying info on TFA Sweetener...
Not only will sweeteners "mute" flavors, they will quickly and thoroughly gunk the crap out of your coils. Did I say quickly?... What's faster than that?... Immediately perhaps?
With some experimentation and experience, you will find which flavors don't need any additional sweetener, and which ones can benefit from adding it.
Additionally, while sweetener is not often required, some mixers use a bit of Ethyl Maltol (10% EM in PG) as a sweetener. Think of it as a "less sweet" sugar. It has a slight "cotton candy" taste. It won't gunk your coils as fast as TFA Sweetener, but can still mute flavors if too much is used. (TFA sell this ingredient as well.)
Welcome to the world of DIY! Good Luck
I watched a man on DiYorDiE earlier and you sound just like him he offered the same advice. He obviously knew what the hell he was doing and seemed super knowledgeable. It looked as though that Ethyl Maltol was almost a salt or powder. Threw me off when it wasn't suspended in anything.
Great ideas. May come back to you when I get used to playing with percentages and my note book of flavor notes begins to grow and I learn more and more.
Thanks for the advice!
Here is some information i pulled from another thread regarding sweeteners. If you end up using CAP Super Sweet just bear in mind that it seems to have a couple of nasties in it that are allegedly not so good for you. There are plenty of other options out there depending on your preference. Some other popular ones are Marshmallow and Meringue.
Sweetener is 5% Sucralose & 5% Maltol (NOT Ethyl) in a PG/Water blend. CAP Super Sweet is 20% sucralose. Use half to a quarter or less of what you would normally use.
CAP's also contains citric acid & two preservatives - the preservatives you do not want to be vaping. One is a confirmed reproductive toxin in females & is suspected the same for males.
edit: Here's your MSDS for Sodium Benzoate, details in Section 3.
I have TFA sweet in my shopping cart at the moment. That's not loaded with rat poison and other nasties that will make my testes smaller than they already are is it? Let's hope not! Lots of support for the TFA crew around these parts.
Props for the educational and informative report though. Nice of you to pull that information for me!