Picked up off-the-shelf erythritol (stevia) powder to help sweeten my blends, I've been having problems with bitterness in cola-based recipes.
Passes tests for caramelization and dissolved solids, I'm not expecting great coil life still though
Sucralose is suggested at 9% by weight to PG, I think erythritol is leaps and bounds sweeter - anyone have a go-to #?
Off the shelf stevia often contains anticaking agents that are toxic to inhale.
Presumably you've found a source without that, though. Stevia mainly provides sweetness in the form of Reb A, not Erythritol, tho. Erythritol is barely sweeter than VG (if you dissolve it in alcohol you can get quite concentrated tho.) There's also the fact that if you vape cool enough, the vaporized Erythritol will condense in your mouth, boosting the impression of sweetness. But still, point is its important to known what you're actually using.
I've already tested for silica, that was a worry too - Solution 1, there isn't enough silica PPM to warrant concern of silicosis and 2, I may be wrong here, but I'd wager the silica in stevia is going to be amorphous silica - non-toxic and the go-to for food additive
What's silicosis and how do you test for that? It sounds pretty helpful to know.. sorry for the dumb questions but I'm in amazement over your guys' sophistication and knowledge.
Well it's kinda specific knowledge to my field, I'm a goldsmith. Silicosis usually visits miners and old geezers after years and years, it's also called 'blacklung' and is caused by inextricable foreign matter. Jist of the disease, is it's currently impossible to remove many things from airways, and problematic silicas abrade any/all cells in contact as opposed to actual toxicity. Silica carbide (cubic zircon) is the big one, carbide structures can't be broken down by anything basically and are 9.5/10 the hardness of diamond.
It's just, there's more than one form of silica and most are benign. Lots occur organically, even (chlorophyll). Easiest way to test for it is simply look for conductivity vs ppm of the substrate as most other impurities are going to be conductive elements; you can also look for complete molecules, or as is my usual, feel sandpaper grit under the edge of your fingernails :)
I’m curious if you’re using Truvia, which is a combination of rebiana and erythritol or if you have something else that is actually just stevia or erythritol.
It might be worth looking into Sweetleaf Stevia over at NR as it claims to be pure stevia extract, so no worries over silica or other caking agents.
Erythritol and stevia are 2 different sugar alcohols. Not the same thing
I know - I'm actually using a combination of Ery and Reb. The ultimate goal here is to make a 'corporate sweetener'; You know how auto manufacturers have a few engines that service their whole line, part of establishing a successful juice line and having a profitable run is simply making a sweetener/flavor that's universal and unique
Edit: Have never been concerned about the Rebiana dissolving, concluded it's not part of the Ery portion's formula - Simple Ery saturated with Rebiana
I've noticed a serious case of diminished returns above 5% Erythritol in VG solutions. It stops adding sweetness and you start to pick up muting and some mild bitter/earthy notes. I've got a few blends of so far proprietary erythritol/reb/sucralose/other shit blends I've had some success with though I'm far from a production stage. I've been steering away from Reb though, because I just can't not taste it.
Oh, so they get kinda thick-tasting then even if you keep to a low % in base? That's a little disappointing, but may have an answer:
My second experiment finally finished, I found a Stevia brand Ery/reb powder mix that didn't list any fillers (I'd much rather work with dry ingredients when I can) - I mixed heavy (5-10%), and about half has dissolved since I posted this. I'm going to heat to 30*c to test whether I've hit peak saturation or it just dissolves really slow. I'll be able to abandon the surplus Ery just by transferring the liquid.
The goal here, if I've succeeded, is to use the Stevia component to fudge peak saturation downwards a bit and include Reb content within it
If your VG isn't warmish it takes 12ish hours for Erythritol to dissolve fully, and another 12-24 hours for it to somewhat homogenize after the fact, to where it's nearish it's fully bonded quality. Heating the VG doesn't seem to cause any adverse reactions and does speed the process a great deal. The reality of these types of solutions is that we're really unlikely to hit that same "sugar lips" sweet that sucralose gives without using concentrations that also cause muting and flavor distortion of some kind.
You can put stevia in that shit? Like the sugar packet stevia or ones from Starbucks?
Don't use the packets, they have tons of filler. As long as it's relatively pure or is carried in compatible substrates (ethyl alcohol, saline, distilled water etc) the rule seems to be 'any non-caloric sweetener'
The consideration is finding something that won't caramelize on/in the coils/cotton or screw with the cotton. Fun fact you can totally make an explosive with sugar and cotton, no I won't say how because as soon as Colonial America figured out there's a safer way to blow shit up they immediately forgot the recipe, I'll take their word for it
I will check it right away.i added 1 gram to 10 ml equals 10% correct? I have no tried it any higher. Thank you for input it is much appreciated.
You're aware ML's is not a measurement of weight whereas grams is, and percentage of total is different from percentage added?
So you've miscalculated, by a flat .1g percentage error (10% of 10g is 1g, but you now have 11g+ total weight), multiplied by the difference in specific gravity because you used different measurements to derive total
I have my erythritol mixed at 10% works ok but very weak. I have not done a taste test just mixed in as recommend.20% will be the next mix I try.