This is part of project I agreed to take on after it was pointed out that so many of the resources in sidebar and wiki are ancient. The idea is, rather than revising them myself, I'd post them here once per week to gather feedback on how to improve them. They belong to all of us, everyone should have a say in what they say.
I think we've finished bringing the Beginner's Guide up to date, now we'll move on to the rest of the [Wiki/FAQ Index] (https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/wiki/index).
In it, there's a 4-year-old section called TFA Recipes. Damn, DIY has come a long way, baby. Everyone who ever told someone to read the entire sidebar with this thing in there should hang their heads in shame. Do it. Do it right now. Hang your heads in a moment of shame.
I think "TFA recipes" needs to be removed immediately, before some poor new mixer mixes up anything on that list and quits DIY forever. No, no, not just removed. Killed with fire.
For example:
Honey Cream
simple name, simple mix- but so tasty!
- Honey 5%
- Bavarian Cream 5%
- Ethyl Malto [sic] 10% in PG 1%
ARE YOU FUCKING SHITTING ME?!?!
That's part of the sidebar. That. 5% TFA Honey.
Check it out for yourself, there's many more where that came from: https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/wiki/tfa_recipes
Questions:
Which one do you think looks the grossest? Do any of these look even vapable to you?
With the availability of so many different flavoring companies though DIY resellers, is even there any reason at all to keep a list of TFA-only recipes? What are the pros and cons of having such a list?
If there is a need for it, should we try to update it? How?
How about removing the category all together and replacing it with links to recipe pages like ATF and ELR? Maybe have someone write up comprehensive help on how look for certain flavor profiles or how to do flavor searches for creating their own recipes.
Second this. Merely because I have zero clue as to what I'm doing and ELR let's you search by keyword (searching by flavor profile would be ideal) and review/star rating system. Without narrowing my search by keyword I change the review column to descending.. It's an easy read from there to pick out some stuff I'd like to try.
> What are the pros and cons of having such a list?
Pros: Everyone needs a good laugh
Cons: Someone might hurt themselves laughing too hard
How about a good replacement for this list - a list of "Beginner's Recipes"? Here's some of the qualities I think they should have . . .
-
Popular / Tasty
-
Simple - use only a few flavors (?? 5 or less ??)
-
Versatile - use flavors that can make multiple different recipes
-
Cheap - do not use any of the more expensive concentrates
-
Available - use flavors are readily available from the major DIY suppliers
The list could/should include a version of "Stones" like . . .
| Co | Flavor | % | |---|---|---| | LA | Lemonade | 6% | | FA | Lemon Sicily | 0.5% |
And include a list of additions to change/customize the "stone" to make a new flavor.
I was scrolling down to say something like this. I feel like the spirit of the original was all about being cheap and simple. Now we have lists of 1-2-3’s and other recipes that are easy. I’d started working on a “diy on a budget - how to make vapable juice as cheap as possible” post. And I started a series that never got past the first post of a “how do you make a...” that I think never got past the first or second due to lack of knowledge and time.
I would totally help with this.
What is meant by “stone” here? A quality base to build on?
It's simply a combination of flavors that are used over and over in many different recipes. Some people just use the appropriate percentage in multiple mixes and other actually mix them together beforehand to essentially make a new flavor concentrate.
You can (and usually do) mix other flavors with the "stone". Look at these recipes that use the "Lemonade Stone" listed above:
For a little more info, check out this FOTW ->Don't take this flavor of the week for granite, some of these Bases Rock: STONES
I'd just throw it out , very outdated.
We should nuke it from orbit, just to be safe.
There's a recipe there that calls for 12% TPA Juicy Peach, another one lists 15% Cheesecake Graham, and one recommends a hot water bath + 1 day steep. WTF city.
And that "Updated" percentages list at the bottom.... fuuuuuu. 15% TPA Pineapple!
​
Hey. I’m super new. So bear with me. Firstly thanks for the amazing treasure trove of knowledge that this sub is.
Secondly I’m so new that I don’t even know how ridiculous these recipes are. They look like anything else to me, so I thought you might like newbie input.
For me TFA recipes would be interesting as a newbie because it’s cheap as hell. And it doesn’t hurt as much to buy a bunch of them and just try new stuff.
Maybe it shouldn’t be TFA recipes rather cheap recipes? I don’t know. But I know the despair I felt when I realised I couldn’t even really try just maybe 3 recipes without shelling out quite a bit of cash for getting all these flavours that I know nothing about. Then along comes another one. Hey I could make that. Fuck I can’t it’s FLV cream not whatever cream. You know what I mean?
So for me TFA is good because it’s cheap as hell and I can still play. Maybe there are TFA recipes around that are not as horrendous as these around now?
The cheapest for me is Inawera recipes. They frequently use far less concentrate per recipe, and are actually among the cheapest to buy. Buying direct from Poland is about the same price as ordering TFA from quebec.which is cheaper than buying it from anywhere in Canada.
But the fact is those recipes are complete garbage and like you said you're too new to know that. So you'd end up vaping failure after failure and thinking it was your inability rather than just following bad recipes.
This is a big part of why I love Inawera, Flavorah and Flavour Art so much. I like using a smaller percentage when possible (I just think it's better for us inhalationwise). It seems as though the more expensive flavors (usually used at a lower percentage) and the less expensive flavors (usually used at a higher percentage) come out costing about the same per recipe in the end.
But I do see the appeal for newbies, being able to try as many flavors on the cheap as possible with a lower bill per flavor order. And there are definitely plenty of TFA gems.
The cheapness is a great pro!
There are good recipes that are all-TFA and recipes using other brands that can be made on the cheap. As far as I know, there’s no good list of them anywhere. There should be!
Some of the recipes on this list might actually be good, I don’t know. But most of them look pretty gnarly. I don’t want someone new like yourself to have a bad experience because the sidebar told them to mix 5% TFA Honey.
I agree with odie in that the spirit of this original was to have something accessible to new mixers. Either on the cheap or easy, not sure. I for one would like to see a community push to gather some knowledge on beginning AND intermediate mixing. I started to do that this summer when I tried to gather some fruit flavor pairings. I was surprised by how much I learned just doing it but also by how little input I got from more experienced mixers. Slightly discouraged, I instead focused on mixing up all the highly rated recipes that interested me (where I could really enjoy my research) and a “how to vape on a bare bones budget” article most of which got lifted for my submission to the TBT contest. I’ve since started rewriting it and Retabled it.
I would love to see a series of posts that addresses the topics odie mentioned all gathered in one place in the sidebar for folks to see. I’d be willing to work on it long term but I know I lack the actual knowledge to write it alone.
I loved (I think it was beernuts) a recent post talking about preferences for a custard base or something to this effect. There was some good solid input and it was easy to read (I’m admittedly wordy). Anyway, those are my thoughts.
Easy beginner stuff? It depends, really. Generally, 5% la lemonade, .25% INW lemon mix, 1% WS-23, and then appropriate percentage of pretty much any fruit is a great recipe. But if someone only like creams/custards or only likes baked goods, that recipe base is useless. (If someone only likes floral recipes,.add 1-2% INW raspberry Malina to the base and it's a floral lemonade.)
The same problem is true for pretty much everything. There's no "universal recipe".
One thing I shudda added to the qualities a recipe list for beginners should have is - DIVERSITY. Like juthinc mentions, everyone has different tastes - so any list would/should have "building blocks" for many different flavor profiles. Perhaps the FOTW could add a little focus on the concept of "flavor bases" or "stones". That would drag out the process, but eventually we'd cover many different profiles. I'd love to add some info along this line to the Flavor Facts that I've been compiling each week - unfortunately, I'm also not experienced enough to do it on my own.
That was definitely the spirit of the original. All of the info you’re talking is around here in bits and pieces but not complied for easy access. I’d love to help you with a piece on affordable mixing.
Cool. It’s been a crazy month for me and have planned some mixing downtime this weekend. I can send you what I have now (rough version). If you glance it over and give some comments/direction I can invest some time to adjust it this weekend. Along with my donation for lecherouslumberjack’s charity, mixing cronut, mixer’s club reviews, new mixer’s club tests, lesson planning, and butt scratching.
I’m guessing you didn’t need to hear all that. :)
You guys have to remember they were carto recipes.
They worked whether you like it or not.
If you go back through ECF they were probably 2010/2011 recipes. Looking at them through 2018 eyes isn't fair.
Ok, so just mocking them and showing no reverence for the past probably wasn't the nicest thing to have done. But are you just pointing out that it wasn't very nice, or are you making an argument that they should continue to be in the sidebar... In case someone is still using cartos? Out of respect for our pioneering ancestors?
Not everything (or even most things) in there looks bad to me. About 20% look dangerous, 40% need half flavor % reduction, and 40% look vapable as-is, even if not my taste. I do think many of them reflect trends that were hot at that time.
Whether this is because I'm MTL or because I'm nuts, who knows. But with the exception of everything that uses Honey (which I knew not to use w/o dilution because I lurked here for a long time and also am an obsessive reader/data lover), it seems like the easiest thing would be to halve the percentages on things that seem too high.
I wouldn't get rid of a TFA recipe thread altogether (TFA is cheap and often good); maybe we could make a new one? TFA 2018?
And then leave this one in place as penalty for those who don't lurk or read in depth or breadth? I'm not saying I would do that. I'm not saying I wouldn't do that. :)
If you’re not careful you’re going o make diy ejuice ez peezy and not so challenging and before you know it this community is going to Blow Up. Bravo! What a remarkable improvement since even I came on to the scene a few years ago. Honestly, if you can’t find your way around it now days then there’s just not much hope for ya...thanks everyone!....;)
Ez peezy as in how to go about it but the flavor part fml is all I can say after I got this magazine Perfumer and Flavorist... it’s free btw if anyone is interested you can go to their website and get the magazine or get the online version or both or whatever....fascinating shit to me...;)
>Do any of these look even vapable to you?
Yes. Many of them do. Just as a for instance: Roll-up, -No Name-, Honey Pearry Clone, and Panana
> is even there any reason at all to keep a list of TFA-only recipes?
Sure. TFA is widely available, extremely cheap, and of generally decent quality.
>If there is a need for it, should we try to update it? How?
Solicit contemporary all-TFA recipes. Like this one:
- Banana Cream @ 1.5%
- Bananas Foster @ 4%
- Graham Cracker (Clear) @ 2%
- Peanut Butter @ 4%
- Ripe Banana @ 0.5%
- Vanilla Bean Ice Cream @ 3%
If you put a gun to my head and told me I had to vape one, I'd pick Panana. Grossest? So many possibilities. Can we call it a 30-way tie?
The best reason for keeping it around would be to show people how lucky they are to not be limited to just one flavor house. And maybe the percentages might be useful for pod recipes
Worst thing about it... On the off chance that someone reads it and takes it seriously, there's another bottle of TFA Cat Piss that might get sold. And maybe TFA.foot cheese. (I didn't notice if it made it into anything.)
Blacklemon
15% Blackberry 5% Lemon
TFA Blackberry. 15%. I wouldn't need to put a gun to your head I could just kill you with that.
Lmao...oh my listen u guys/gals...fml this shit gets harder all the damn time 😩😂 but it’s fun and I luv it...I digress🤦🏼♀️, Okok ok ok.. I found out that tpa honey might actually not be a mistake and here’s why and there’s no rhyme or reason to this shit and my understanding of it isn’t much but the good thing is we don’t know original characteristics of the flavor materials that went into making each flavor and the off notes might be on purpose crazy enough and key I guess is to figure out the proper amount and blah, blah but most of you already know that...but what I want to tell you is this extract they make they describe as “citrus like, tropical, fruity and slightly terpene w a hint of cat” 😩😂 I swear! Then it goes on to say for possible applications to add brightness and depth to orange, grapefruit, lychee, jackfruit, guava, peach and a few others... so, next time you don’t know what to do w your tfa honey cat piss...haaa, maybe it’ll brighten your tea after all. I just thought you’d like to know all you out there tasting cat you’ve got great tasters and for whatever reason they want it to taste like cat...idk y 🤔! ?.....;)
I recently started receiving the Perfumer & Flavorist magazine and pg 66 it’s one of the extracts of the Organoleptic Characteristics of Flavor Materials
I’ll read and study about this until I die and not learn all I’d like to. I’m telling you, look up this or any official Flavorist website and it’s sooo interesting and complicated and if you thought it was a rabbit hole now to me it’s more like a rabbit Grand Canyon...Jesus, Mary and Joseph