Hi diy_ejuice communty,
The last [Throwback Thursday First Order Flavors](https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/comments/8wfwnl/throwback_thursday_first_order_flavors/) got me thinking. When I first saw the original list of recommended flavors, it was after I had found e-liquidrecipes.com and done some looking at recipes and flavors through the site and made my first purchase. I didnt buy many of those flavors at all and was subsequently unable to mix many of the even most basic 2/3 flavor recipes I found. To this day, I'm still not very savvy and back then I didnt check features like top rated flavors lists, didnt know about reddit (at all), and hadn't found alltheflavors or any of the many other sites I'm now exploring. The question to me is/was: How did you go about choosing which FIRST flavors to buy? Did you:
- Choose based on flavor name
- Choose based on flavor company
- Choose based on price/budget
- Choose based on flavor profile
- Choose based on top rated recipes (atf, elr, monthly/yearly reddit recipe threads, other sites)
- Choose based on a My First Order Recommendation List
- Other
Follow up questions:
- What would have helped you most (or do you regret) about your first foray into buying/mixing?
- What would you have done differently looking back?
Comments? Let me know your thoughts, down/upvote, give me a heads up if you think this is something you want to see continued or otherwise as I'm trying to give back some of my time/energy to the reddit that saved me hundreds of dollars with free information and support.
I chose based on the flavor profile and it was a mistake. I started with a kit that let me choose five flavors so I just picked the ones that sounded good to me: Pineapple, Coconut, Mango, Dragonfruit, Strawberry (all TFA).
The things that would have helped me the most is the advice we now very commonly give to first-time mixers: 1) Find recipes and buy what you need to mix those, don't just pick rando flavors that sound good. 2) Buy a scale, mix by weight.
Scale and mix by weight is a given these days I hope. My first intro to mixing was the new Amsterdam vape videos and it looked so easy I figured I’d give it a try. I picked most flavors based on their names and a few that were stand outs on elr.
Profiles didn’t help you meaning you picked strawberry just because it said strawberry? Some of this is clearly going to be trial and error in the end since taste is so subjective.
What helped you move into more purposeful mixing?
Right I picked strawberry because it said strawberry and had no plan for what I was going to do with it. I would have had much better things to vape if I'd just tried some recipes to begin with. It's a good thing I'm so stubborn or I might have given up. Some of it was purposeful from the start, I knew I wanted to mix pineapple and coconut together for example, but finally trying recipes by people who'd already put some work in actually developing recipes was a turning point for me.
What a lot of us did when first buying flavors and what we SHOULD have done are very different. Like we all say, you should buy your flavors based on highly rated recipes that look good to you.
I focused in on a flavor profile, namely strawberry milk and had a couple goal flavors in mind. I then favorited or found the most popular recipes in that profile and added the ingredients to my shopping list. I think this helped me understand what common flavors made up this profile and to be able to pick out the outliers that I liked and didn't like. It has helped me tweak recipes and build off of others work. I think I should have set expectations lower. The highest rated recipes are decent to very good but still not what I was looking for.
Interesting. Seems like you really knew what you were looking for! How did you decide to expand from there?
My goal is still to make something similar to my favorites I buy. Tasting mixes I made and the juices I buy I can pick up differences between and see where they're lacking. I can build upon existing recipies or even change out aspects I don't like. Kind of like legos. The trick is finding the right flavorings and which ones I like. I still need to do the single flavor testing.
So you kind of got in for the cloning? And have you been looking at recipes or pairing notes to see how people have gotten some of the results you’re looking for? And, if you have, would a sidebar list of suggestions like that help you make better purchasing choices to have a stash that would be specific to the profile/juice you’re trying to clone?
My first order was just looking through the tobaccos at Wizard Labs and picking some other random things.
First order was:
TFA 555 DK
TFA Almond Amaretto (not even sure why)
TFA Black Honey Tobacco
Seedman Commercial Tobacco
CAP French Vanilla V2
TFA Honey (y?)
Seedman Virginia Fire Cured
I did zero research on any of the flavors. Obviously didn’t have a plan for what I was going to do. Just got some random shit.
A month later, I placed order number 2:
CAP Bold Tobacco
CAP True Tobacco
TFA Red Type
TFA M-Type Premium
TFA Toasted Marshmallow
LA Marshmallow
TFA Graham Cracker Clear
LA Buttered Popcorn
TFA Toasted Almond
After I already placed the order I guess I figured it was a good idea to ask if anyone has any suggestions. Damn, I shit posted.
I believe the order after that was from Vaping Zone where I spent $6 per 10 ml for some S.C. flavors. I got Honey Flue Cured and Real Cig.
So the couple of suggestions I got on my shit post, I didn’t even take in to consideration.
I don’t really think I’d do anything differently. I still mostly just buy shit without really looking in to it that much when it comes to tobaccos. I guess I just prefer to do my own thing
But I probably wouldn’t suggest others take that route. Unless they are like me and just want to because it’s more fun to venture into the unknown completely in the dark.
Other. Specifically, I went through the flavor reviews for flavors that sounded interesting to find which were worth buying. Basically picked ones that sounded like they'd work together in various combinations, but didn't plan it out well.
I really should have made better notes of which flavors I wanted... I made a few mistakes when ordering because I confused a couple flavors I hadn't wanted for others I had. And I really should've planned better on a few fronts... so I could've had much more cross-compatibility between flavors rather than clusters of flavors. But then, I did sort of span a couple profiles so that's good. And I probably shouldn't have gone down the rabbit hole after cherry. If I'd been able to find recipes that didn't include strawberry, peach (including anything that tastes like peach, so mango/nectarine/etc), vanilla, eggs, black licorice, and/or baked goods I probably would've gone the recipe route but unfortunately finding the .00223% of recipes that qualify (and aren't tobaccos, as when I started I was avoiding them) was too challenging.
So what commercial juices were you vaping when you started? And: I'm genuinely curious what you were trying for when you got your first order?
First juice I vaped was called QuadBerry... black currant blueberry raspberry blackberry. Was insanely sweet, but other than that good taste. There was a couple others u really didn't like all that much, but they were the best I could find. I bought a few more after I'd just started mixing... a couple of good ones. Mandarin Melody and Frosty's Breath (both by Evaperated) and another called Fuzion (I don't recall the brand atm) were ones I liked. Had a raspberry lemonade that was like vaping cologne (too much inw raspberry in it... wouldn't have been bad if I'd been expecting a floral vape instead of a raspberry lemonade ) And honestly, I don't even remember which flavors exactly I got on my first order. Except I remember TFA Death by Cinnamon being one. I'm pretty sure I meant to get Cinnamon Ceylon instead, but it wasn't available at the time. My first order I made the day after I started vaping. I knew I wasn't interested in paying that much for juice. Took a week or so to get supplies.
My first order was a combination of "My first order" recommendations, Top flavour lists from ALF/ELR, and then ingredients for a few recipes i picked out that sounded good. i ended up with 23 flavours. And, consequently, about a week later, i've now ordered another 17 flavours. Basically, on my first order i ended up with a lot of helper flavours, but not that much stuff that would work well as a stand alone, or shake and vape type flavours. My second order is more of a fruit order, picked out a bunch of fruit, based on recommendations from here, and couple of recipes.
I’m curious as to whether you looked at the my first order list? And, if so, was it helpful in either of your orders?
I had already bought a bunch of flavors I was trying to make mixes with by the time I got here and I was convinced that when people said something was sooooooooo good that they were lying.
Yeah, the "first order Flavours" was what i looked at first. and helped to determine my first order. That had the biggest impact on my choices.
As far as recipes go, i just started throwing recipes into a text file. Super duper strawberry by Awesomedave84 mother of dragons milk by ID10-T Bombies 'nana Cream by fizzmustard Blueberry Bliss by unknown. Coconut Cocaine by SANTA714MIXER
After i got my first order and started making one or two of these recipes, i realized that everything i wrote down needed a steep time, and i had very little to work with that would make a shake n vape. Which is why, now i'm waiting for my next order to get here on friday.
Just FYI you might find this post interesting: https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/comments/6gzlgy/whats_your_favourite_standalone_flavor/?st=JJHH8SA2&sh=e5b0a401
I enjoyed seeing which single flavors people liked and used that almost as my Single Flavor Test recipe beginner guide. Which also happened to be vapable!
Edit: and thanks for sharing!
Started with top rated recipes. Still on that tho tbh. I've only been let down a few times, but I've come to discover absolutely amazing recipes too.
I wish people would indicate throat hit too. And pls dont say "throat hit is good", because good is subjective and some like it harsher than others. I wish they'd say how harsh the throat hit is. It will really help me avoid mixes with it (I dislike throat hit in general).
Interesting. Thanks for sharing. Definitely make sure to follow steep times and, if you’re still let down, maybe give it extra time. I’ve had recipes I swear I didn’t like until near 4 month’s steep which is just insane but true. I wonder if my tastes changed or what. But I am always happy to find my own mixing a vapable endeavor!
Yea i get it. I mixed an orange vanilla sherbet and after a month, it taste good but man was extremely harsh. I left it alone as I didn't want it anymore, forgot, let maybe 1-2 more months pass, tasted it again, and the harshness was gone. I think I'll steep my stuff for like a month minimum now lol
Some recipes (anything containing multiple DX/V2 flavors) can easily require four months steep. Some tobacco blends could benefit from multiple months for anise off-notes to fade. So not shocking.
For me it was something in between choosing based on flavor name and flavor profile, for single flavor juices. It was hit-and-miss. Hits: FW Blue Ice, TFA Grape Candy. Misses: TFA Dr Pop, TFA French Vanilla. Mixed results: TFA Green Apple, FW Wild Cherry.
So, as many have said, I SHOULD HAVE read more information about flavors before my first order.
well, i read plenty but it still is very overwhelming. Mostly I was using elr and reading pages and pages of flavor notes. but I wasnt really going off a list so i was reading like four strawberries and just went with whatever seemed to be in the most number of recipes rather than in highest rated recipes.
Do you still vape any of those flavors single flavor?
I found a few recipes that sounded good, and then ordered about the top 15 off the recommended flavor list. I’ve expanded a bit since then, and have ended up with a few flavors I don’t really care for, but for the most part I’m pretty happy.
Regrets: too many recipe-specific flavors, not enough fruit variety (I’m usually not much of a fruity vaper but I’m starting to want it more and more)
Edit: also regret FA Sweet Coconut. Not the kind of coconut I want by a long shot, and I can’t make it work with any recipe I try. I know a lot of people like it but it’s just not for my taste buds. Makes an okay piña colada, but I’ve had better.
Here’s my full flavor stash (I only started like a month and a half ago) http://e-liquid-recipes.com/publicstash/179550
My first buy I did a decent amount of research beforehand, on each flavor individually and a few recipes. Picked mostly based on flavor profiles, a recipe, and what sounded good. Also, I got a little bit of advice from a co-worker who also mixes his own juice.
This sub helped me the most, honestly. Everything you need/want to know is here if you just look even slightly.
The only one I wish I hadn't bought is TFA Frosted Donut. I also wish I had bought more fruits. Cereal was the goal. That part turned out ok. Also, avoiding Realflavors at the time would have been a good idea. They were VG based and not very good. I also started with syringes and wasted a bit of cash. They've come in handy, though, given that some of my flavorings are in glass bottles with no droppers.
1 x Vanilla Custard V1 (Cap)
1 x Bavarian Cream (TPA)
1 x Cheesecake (Graham Crust) (TPA)
1 x Peanut Butter (TPA)
1 x Strawberry (Ripe) (TPA)
1 x Strawberry (TPA)
1 x Vanilla Swirl (TPA)
1 x Fruit Rings (FW)
1 x Cream Fresh (FA)
1 x Joy (FA)
1 x Berry Crunch (TPA)
1 x Berry Crunch (TPA)
1 x Bubblegum (Juicy Style) (TPA)
1 x Cotton Candy (TPA)
1 x Fruit Circles (TPA)
1 x Smooth (TPA)
1 x Bubblegum (TPA)
1 x Koolada (TPA)
1 x Captain Crunch (FW)
1 x Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (TPA)
1 x Rainbow Line Gum (FW)
1 x Frosted Donut (TPA)
1 x Fruity Flakes (FW)
1 x Kiwi (FA)
1 x Acetyl Pyrazine 5% PG (TPA)
1 x Blue Raz (RF)
1 x Cookies n Cream (RF)
1 x Cereal27 (Cap)
1 x Swedish Gummy (TPA)
1 x Yellow Cake (Cap)
1 x Biscuit (INW)
Nothing exciting here. Started DIYing at the beginning of this year and wasn't too sure where to start so I did a couple of things. First, I looked for tried and true recipes for juices and profiles I knew I liked and had spent the past couple of years vaping on (clones and the like). Then, I looked through the "First Flavors Order" and figured out what the top flavors were while also looking for suggestions on other flavors on here. From that, I only chose the flavors I was interested in (figured experimentation would come later). I researched the hell out of it because I didn't want to waste money on flavors I wouldn't end up liking and, even then, I still ended up with flavors that I barely use.
Not liking stuff seems to be a consensus. I find there’s a weird balancing act between the fun/hobby side of diy and the practical never-spend-$30-for-juice again side. But that learning curve though can be steep.
Seems like you were even more purposeful and informed than most. Makes me think there’s three levels of vapers: (1) hobbyist rabbit hole (2) expand my horizons a little and (3) KISS plain and simple.
It’s hard to call a flavor ‘essential’ when taste is so subjective. Maybe ‘versatile’ is a more useful category of description.
Mine definitely came from a practical standpoint. I was tired of spending $40-50/month on juices, some of which I would learn that even with great reviews were not my thing. I would power through juices I didn't like just because I didn't want to waste it. So going DIY made a lot of sense.
For me, I look at it a lot like how I look at cooking. I've been cooking as a hobby for years, and DIY is pretty much the same process. I find a recipe for something that I think I would like, I follow the directions, and then I improve upon it through experimentation. "Let's try this spice out." "I think next time I'll go with X rather than Y." The same thing is happening now that I'm 6 months into DIY. I'm beginning to substitute flavors in recipes I like for different types of profiles to see what happens. So, for me, it began as a practical thing and now I've moved onto experimentation. I'm not certain I'll get into the full hobby of it (I've recently began smoking meats as a hobby so that's consuming my free time), but I'm enjoying the process.
I think you’re way more organized than I was so you’re at a place I’m just getting to. I was like 30/70 diy/buy for about 5 months before I had just had enough. But I never really followed a recipe. I just kept subbing my flavors for what the recipe required. I never really got why it wasn’t that great like people said. Plus I’d just leave out something or put whatever cream I had if the thing said something ‘cream’. Not the best way to go.
Great analogy on cooking. I’m finding myself mixing up a small 15ml each morning of something new to try for the day. That goes into my regular rotation with some standards and it’s a fun counterpoint to my regular staples. I guess that’s been my version of a midday treat. Could go either way... but usually breaks up the monotony.
I also decided to invest the last couple of months the $40-50 I’d have spent on juice into flavors so I could encourage myself to stick with it more. When something isn’t working quite right, I can just try something new and feel all excited all over again.