What really separates a good recipe from a GREAT recipe?
I've been having a lot of success with super simple recipes, 2-4 flavorings.
I see so many recipes on here with like 6-10 flavorings, some at or less than 1%. 3 different flavorings from different manafacturers in 1 recipe
Is all this necessary? What goes into a widely accepted great eliquid recipe?
I understand taste is subjective, but Im talking about an eliquid that more than 50% of people would say they enjoy it
TFA Honey
Layering makes a good juice great.
Either way, more flavorings or less, is fine if you like the end result. You'll know when you've struck gold when it's hard to keep a 30ml for longer than a couple days. Or if you're unable to let it steep all the way on top of that.
Some flavors require low percentages. Some so low they need to be diluted. For example, tfa smooth. Couldn't imagine trying it at 5%. It's used around 1-2 drops per 10ml. Tfa taro needs to be diluted to a 10% solution.
Yes, 3 different flavors from 3 different manufacturers can be necessary. Each different manu has different takes on flavors that can alter a recipe completely. Cap Sweet strawberry, inw shisha strawberry, tfa strawberry. All very, very different.
What goes into a widely accepted recipe? Time, trial, and error. Knowing your flavorings on their own and how they interact with others at varying percentages. Having a decent enough name that people will try and review your recipes in the early stages will help, too.
> Cap Sweet strawberry, inw shisha strawberry, tfa strawberry. All very, very different.
side question but are they still interchangeable at the same %'s?
say a recipe calls for 3% of tfa strawberry + one other flavor, like a custard. could i sub in 3% cap sweet strawberry and likely get a good juice? or are they so completely differently that wouldn't work?
you would probably get a fine juice subbing TFA Strawberry for 3% Sweet Strawberry but keep in mind the second you alter the recipe in any way it is no longer what the creator intended.
you'll have to do your own research on what flavors have which characteristics. I wouldn't sub INW Shisha Strawberry at an equal percentage to TFA Strawberry. this is where knowing your flavors comes into play.
if you don't know them, though, searching through e-liquid-recipes.com's flavor list for the flavor you're subbing in will help with average percentages used in a mix.
Well balanced ingredients and a complete profile, in my opinion. What you want is a few flavors up front that you can really taste, that match or compete in an interesting way. You also want mouthfeel and some flavors you can taste on your tongue, and a plus is having some flavors linger after the exhale. A lot of work goes into checking off all those points, but it can really take a recipe to the next level.
Copious amounts of INW Cactus.
I think layering is cool but it tempts you into using too many flavors that make unwanted noise and mud the final result. Many successful recipes are built upon a single flavor or a 2-3 flavor combination that produces great results, and take that to the next level using little touches here and there. If you take a recipe you really like and mix its main notes and then differentiate on the accents you might not find it amazing, but you will definitely like it. I think 6-8 flavors is where you need to stop and re-think the star(s) of the recipe.
The secret is to never use rounded percentages.
0.85% is the key.
I chuckle at this too sometimes. A single drop can make a huge difference, but that is assuming the drop is a noteworthy increase. It gets absurd when you see 5.1% or 10.25%. I exaggerate the examples, but it's usually obvious when someone is just trying to be fancy.
lol i vape a recipe i found on here called Ginger Sauce and the 0.65% cap ny cheesecake always makes me laugh. it seems like what we call in poker Fancy Play Syndrome (FPS). maybe 0.75% is truly too much and 0.5% is truly not enough but -- ya, smells like FPS to me.
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Knowing your concentrates. When I first started, I mixed well over 400 recipes from various sites just to see how certain flavors interacted with one-another. I also single flavor tested about 40 flavors just to see if my tastes aligned with the tastes of reviewers'. All but 1-2 reviews were spot on for me, so I stopped single flavor testing stuff that already had reviews. YMMV doing it that way, though. Since taste is subjective, there are way too many variables in deciding what separates a good ejuice from a great ejuice. Quality of flavorings can easily be the deciding factor in how good the end result is. For instance, TFA VBIC is known to give peppery notes to some people while CAP VBIC provides nearly the same creaminess and taste without the added peppery notes. That small change can make a once unvapable juice a pepper taster's ADV. Or it could be something as simple as dropping or increasing a concentrate percentage to adjust where it sits when vaped. Since I can't really taste strawberries anymore, I've found that increasing my strawberry percentages a little help bring them forward in the mix so that I get them on the inhale instead of hoping to catch them on the exhale.
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Have [THIS] (https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/wiki/index/flavor_reviews) page bookmarked for when you're on the hunt for new concentrates and not sure what to get.
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Read your concentrates' MSDS. You can find some pretty interesting stuff in them and get a more profound understanding of why certain concentrates taste the way they do and react to other concentrates the way they do.
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Strong Google Fu. Come across a chemical in your MSDS that you haven't heard of? Google that shit and read up on it in depth. Have a juice you want to create but not sure where to start? Google the profile (i.e pecan waffles ejuice) and work off a recipe someone else has shared until it meets your own standard. If you can't find a recipe that has been shared, look up the ACTUAL recipe and see which concentrates you have in your arsenal that most closely mimic those ingredients.
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Use a good mix calculator that allows you to keep flavor and juice notes. I use this one.
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Time and patience. You will be doing a lot of reading and testing on the road to making a good recipe; even if that recipe is only good to you. In the end, that's all that matters, because it's helping to keep you vaping as opposed to smoking.
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Don't be afraid to ask questions! If you look in sidebar and search Google and still can't come up with an answer, ask it in the new mixer's thread or if it's worthy of its own thread, start a new thread topic! I'm sure I've asked some questions that made more experienced guys go "wtf?" but I always got a clear answer.
I've only been mixing my own juice for about 7 months now and I just ordered my 5th gallon of VG from Amazon. The majority of the first 2 gallons were used in flavor and recipe testing. Hell, I probably threw 1.5 gallons out, because for whatever reason, I'd make 10mL of EVERYTHING. I'd let all non-tobacco mixes sit for 7-10 days, drip them 3-4x on fresh wicks, take notes, and pour the rest out even if I liked it lol. I was the definition of wasteful. I was mixing anywhere from 20-30 bottles/ night on my off-days after my son was asleep and my husbandly duties were over. I obsessed over this hobby to the point where it was driving a wedge in my marriage lol. I'm not saying you have to go THAT far, but without a lot of dumb luck, you may find that a lot of your first mixes aren't what you expect them to be. And who cares if it's 4 flavors or 10? Sometimes, less is more.