Hello All!!!
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I am a new mixer, Before I start please excuse any bad grammar or mistakes, while I am only 40...l just had 1/2 of my right lung removed 1 month ago due to cancer.... Don't ever smoke another cig guys and gals! I am typing 1 handed due to surgery. I have only found 2 juices I love... Lemn'Berry by Transistor / Misthub and Neon Green by Thick as Thieves. Outside of those two I spent over $500 in local vape shops trying to find something I liked.... no success yet. With that Lemn'Berry is described as Lemon, Sweet Berry, Pink Lemonade. While Neon Green described as Watermelon Limeade.
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I have watched tons of DIY on youtube and I think the part I am not getting is "layering" perhaps. The lemn'berry taste like a super sweet and juicy berry on inhale and a tart lemonade on exhale. The Neon green is a wonderful LIGHT lime-aid on inhale and a lemony watermelon on exhale. I have made 2, 10ml test Batches and have nailed a Kiwi-Strawberry spot on, but that's not what I was going for. I was trying to replace the "berry" part above with Kiwi-Strawberry. While it did have Kiwi-Strawberry at 4% it Also had .5 Lemon-Lime, 2% Pink-Lemonade and1% Lemon Sicily, 1% Sweetner... I taste only Kiwi-Strawberry.
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How do I layer I guess is the part I am not getting??
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Layering is not really something one can just explain like a math problem, because it’s incredibly subjective. The goal with layering is to create multiple effects within a recipe that balance each other and overall make the juice better.
Various flavors are going to hit various parts of your palette. Not that bullshit tasting diagram, but the flavor note itself just hits a certain cord in your brain when you’re vaping. Without knowing what your flavor library looks like, it’s hard to give you an example you would understand, so I’ll use soft drinks since it’s the closest thing to what we do. So here’s my example of layering:
Think of a coke. The original kind. It’s got a very dark, caramel flavor. Now when you get Cherry Coke, you get all of the same flavors of coke, plus the added cherry note on top to give it the slightest hint of tartness. When you get Vanilla Coke, it tastes the same as regular coke, but with the added vanilla flavor beneath the original. Finally, when you have cherry Vanilla Coke, you have the original coke flavor as the base, the cherry notes on top, and the vanillas supporting the bottom and the middle.
I can definitely understand why this would make your head spin as a new mixer, but I promise you that you are drastically overthinking things. There is no one particular technique or trick that’s going to drastically change your ability to make up a new recipe. The only way to truly get good is to mix lots, take copious notes, and understand what each of your flavors tastes like individually before mixing them together in a juice.
If you have any more questions, I’ll be happy to answer a PM from you, or anybody quite frankly.
I'm also very interested in this as layering is a concept I've never understood!
Edit: perhaps you should make new testers and reduce your kiwi and strawberry elements or increase your lemonade? I think the lemon Sicily is as high as it should be, though.
Also, I hear LA lemonade is the one to go for!
Good luck ever trying to replicate your watermelon adv. Jesus Christ. Watermelon doesn't stay.
If you want a good lemonade, 5% LA lemonade+ .25% INW lemon mix + .5% WS-23+ .5% FA polar blast. Add whatever to that. For a decent berry-ish taste 1% FA Blackcurrant would be good. FLV Boysenberry would also work well, or INW shisha raspberry. Might need to adjust the percentages for those two tho.
Layering is something you have to get personal experience with, subjective flavoring, knowledge of what happens to certain flavors at certain flavors at certain percentages at certain watts.
Folks can tell you all the adjectives, but you have to experiment, you have to test and you have to put in the legwork of combinations.
/u/BadVladTheMadLad had it right, sadly, it's one of those "let me teach you", it's like trying to explain what water taste like or what air looks like. Layer is just that, what do you taste first, what do you taste second, and the aftertaste and etc.
There has not been, in my experience, any formula to answer
"I want to taste this first, this second, and this third as an aftertaste, in that order".
Play around with experiments, try the percentages at opposite %s of flavors, and etc.
and above all, WELCOME TO DIY VAPING!
I'd recommend Backwoods lemonade, it sounds like exactly what you want for the sweet berry lemonade flavor. This is my slightly adjusted version of it that I use for my MTL setup. I adjusted the flavors, replaced 1% of the forest fruits with tfa sweet raspberry and added cap super sweet. The sweetener is just personal preference, the recipe is delicious without it.
Interestingly, as I was mixing a couple of days ago I realized that I was almost out of forest fruits, and ended up using mostly la watermelon instead, which tastes great and sounds like it might hit the target for your other request. I don't have a recipe link for that version but I think it ended up being 1-2% forest fruits and 3-4% la watermelon, and otherwise the same as my MTL version. You could probably do it without the forest fruits and use 5% la watermelon for a more pure watermelon flavor but I feel like they play well together.
First off, I am so sorry you had to go through cancer and lose a part of your body. That really sucks.
I can't speak much in the way of layering, but I do have a couple recipe recommendations.
Here's a watermelon lime recipe: https://alltheflavors.com/recipes/107629#watermelon_lime_by_dodgerfog33
And here's a very interesting lemonade: https://alltheflavors.com/recipes/46917#the_best_damn_madlad_lemonade_by_matthewkocanda