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Experiments with strawberry, from someone who can't taste strawberry + Some questions
submitted about 8 years ago by Jarkfarksnark

Hey all,

I have spent the past weeks experimenting with strawberry, but I can just not taste it. SOME times I get the slightest hint of strawberry, but it's so light that I think it might be my imagination.

I have tried:

  • TFA strawberry
  • TFA strawberry ripe
  • CAP sweet strawberry

These are the only ones I can get in my country for now.

I have tried making some max VG juices with all of them separately, ranging all the way from 1% to 15%

At 1-5% I taste nothing at all, except for a slight sweetness (with all of them)

At 5-10% I get a burnt and earthy taste from TFA strawberry, from TFA SB ripe and CAP SS, the sweetness just goes away, I'm pretty sure this is because of the ethyl maltol..

Anything more than 10% just does nothing for TFA SB ripe & CAP SS, with TFA SB the burnt, earthy taste gets really overpowering, chucked it away after a few draws..

I have also tried: adding 1% TFA dragonfruit, TFA lemon II, ... What happens when I do this is, I can ONLY taste the TFA dragonfruit or TFA lemon II, the strawberry tastes just stay hidden away, this is only at <10% of the strawberries though, at >10% I can't taste anything, even the added dragonfruit or lemon.

I have also tried mixing & matching the strawberries, trying 1% of each and adding more untill I had 5% CAP SS, 5% TFA SB & 5% TFA SB ripe. Doesn't help.

I CAN, However, and I don't know if this is the case with other people, taste the strawberries if I put a little drop of my ejuice on my finger and lick it. It tastes phenomenally great even and I get very clear strawberry flavors from it.

ONLY when I vape it, I can't taste it.

Any ideas? I tried different setups, different coils, steeping, shake & vaping, ...

What might be the cause here? I can taste everything else just fine, but strawberry if my favorite taste in the world, I'd love to vape it!

EDIT: Thank you /u/HashSlingingSlashur for your tips - looks like I just had to add more PG.. now to get rid of that bitter PG taste

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13 points
 
by HashSlingingSlashurabout 8 years ago

First, don't do max VG ... At least 30% PG will help carry flavor better and help juices homogenize a little more quickly because of the decreased viscosity. When you make a max VG blend you should really wait 1-2 weeks before judging at all.

Second, if you want to taste strawberry you're going to need bigger guns. As far as I know, these are good strawberries for the ones who have trouble tasting them.

  • Inawera shisha Strawberry 1-3%

  • real flavors super concentrate strawberry 1-2.5%

  • jungle flavors sweet strawberry 2-4%

  • Medicine flower strawberry 0.5-2%

:) Hope one of those or maybe all of those can help you.

6 points
 
by shyndoabout 8 years ago

To further touch on what Hash said, it is believed a sensitivity to the maltol in the strawberry flavors is the culprit behind not being able to taste strawberries. This is why the flavors Hash listed above are the ones most strawberry mutes find flavor from. They have the lowest or no maltol content.

5 points
 
by [deleted]about 8 years ago

You might be on to something, because ethylmaltol and/or maltol seem to mute most flavours for me too. It warps them into a slightly sweet something with a very diffuse taste that i can only categorize broadly as things like "this is probably a fruit" or "might be a cookie or a cake or vanilla ice cream dessert thingie", depending on where i put the EM in.

1 points
 
by Jarkfarksnarkabout 8 years ago

I forgot to mention, if my wife tastes my mixes, she describes fully tasting a nice strawberry flavor, so would going max VG really be the problem here? I really love max VG seeing as PG gives me too much of a throat hit, can't stand it and it distracts me a lot from the actual flavor... I usually taste more smoking max VG than 70/30 or whatever.. I will however be ordering some of those flavors you mentioned online soon, thank you!

3 points
 
by HashSlingingSlashurabout 8 years ago

could just be a non taster of strawberry , try some of what I recommended.

I was gonna go on a rant about pg, but I truly believe it carries negligible throat hit, especially at 20-40%. I've dripped 100% pg onto dual fused claptons. Nothing. Long story short, you could be sensitive to it, but its pretty rare. I've been doing blind testing of this theory. Last test I sent to someone who said they were getting 'harsh' liquid. I sent them four samples:

80% VG with 3mg nic, 70% VG with 1.5 nic, 70% VG 0 nic and 50% VG with 0 nic. Which did they say was smoothest? the 50/50 blend. VG at 50-70% will be optimal for flavor.

2 points
 
by Jarkfarksnarkabout 8 years ago

Hmm, I might get some PG then and add a bit more, too.. tbh the throat hit could be the flavorings and the higher nic I was using at the time... Thanks I'll let you know!

2 points
 
by Jarkfarksnarkabout 8 years ago

Well, would you look at that... I actually picked up some PG today, made 10ml 50/50 mix with 0 nic for testing, and could taste the TFA SB, & TFA SB ripe after just a shake & vape, and 0 throat hit even, awesome! - will do the same with cap SS too, later.

One little thing though, I do taste strawberry now, but it does give me a real, very bitter taste from the PG... Should I add sucralose or do you have any better suggestions?

Again, thank you! I never would have thought of adding PG, especially since I get a nice full taste from all my mixes at max VG.. It still puzzles me why strawberry is the only exception here (that I know of, at least)

1 points
 
by Nebuchadnezzar_zabout 8 years ago

I'm thinking of getting inw strawberry shisha.. would it then be used to replace the common strawberries altogether or in small amount to make them pop?

1 points
 
by HashSlingingSlashurabout 8 years ago

I'd use it by itself like 2-3% and see how you like it. Sometimes you can use it with one or two others, really depends on the recipe. I've seen it used @ 0.5-1% to accent other fruits/berries/strawberries but usually you want to go 2-3% as a main strawberry note and solo it's pretty yummy

2 points
 
by endless_coilabout 8 years ago

Sounds just like me. Oddly enough I find that chewing mint gum brings out flavors I don't normally taste.

1 points
 
by Nebuchadnezzar_zabout 8 years ago

Yes that works to some extent.. it promotes salivation to clean up your taste buds.

2 points
 
by tweetchi11about 8 years ago

I could barely taste strawberry myself, until i got a tongue scraper.

1 points
 
by TadnJessabout 8 years ago

You may be surprised by adding a little of TFA dragonfruit to the mix. I like the ratio used in Skiddlzninja's [God Milk] (https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/comments/5ktzwd/since_recipe_of_the_year_is_fast_approaching/) . The dragonfruit tends to make the strawberry 'pop' out of the mix.

2 points
 
by HashSlingingSlashurabout 8 years ago

I hate adding dragonfruit to strawberry mixes. I tried in varying amounts and it ruins everything for me. It's personal, don't fuck with my strawberries! =p

1 points
 
by Jarkfarksnarkabout 8 years ago

I have tried that ratio, in fact that very recipe was the very first I tried from alltheflavors, I also tried the ratio stand-alone, stand-alone it tastes just the same - earthy, burnt, very ethyl-maltol-ish. In the recipe, however, I only taste the non-strawberry concentrates

1 points
 
by Torih77about 8 years ago

I've had the same issue tried the same 3 as you and couldn't taste it at all, tried Shisha Strawberry Inawera Flavour Concentrate and that does the trick for me.

1 points
 
by Krauzberabout 8 years ago

Yay for science!

I think i have a mild version of what you've got. at 70vg though i can barely taste anything but hot sweetness. at 50/50 though (which is what i usually vape) i get mild and pleasant flavor from strawberry heavy juices. Although i get easily bored of them since they taste bland after vaping 20/30ml.

1 points
 
by JadedJuiceabout 8 years ago

Strawberry ripe needs a good week to steep. Boosts taste when mixed with cap vanilla custard V1. Need 5X more strawberry that V1! Add some more TFA creams etc you will get something yum I'm sure(:

-1 points
 
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-4 points
 
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