Hi, I had an idea for a sour grape ejuice, I threw together a few flavors I'll list further below, but I was afraid while mixing that the grape would overpower the "sour" that I was trying to infuse into the mix. Turns out that I was exactly right: I have what I feel is a great single-flavor grape juice, but the sour is nowhere to be found.
I then researched online and came across enyawreklaw's post on DIYorDie Here regarding sour flavors from November of last year. My question mostly is whether this is still the latest and greatest info we have regarding sour additives in ejuice, or if somebody has broken the code since then and gotten a true sour without resorting to things like LA lemonade that could add undesirable flavors to their juice.
Finally, here's my recipe as it stands now, please feel free to tear it apart as needed.
RF Sour gummy 1% FA Sour wizard 1% (Attempt at sour, failed)
RF Grape SC 2% INW Grape 2% (Primary flavor, great success!)
FA Fuji .5% INW Cactus .5% (Wet mouth feel, combat vapor's tongue, so far so good.)
It's incredibly difficult and even unwise to try to reach a true sour ejuice. Sour flavor in candies are a result of incredibly low pH levels. You couldn't reach a pH that low in ejuice and have any sort of stable product.
The soda industry have mastered the arts of lowering pH and keeping a good shelf life (before flavor mutes) through careful mixes of acids and corresponding salts that increase stability. Sodas are still nowhere near sour candy pH levels
In order to get a true sour ejuice you would have to pump it full of both acids and various salts, the end product would be incredibly unstable and burn through wick and coil. One company did it, Acid Juice Co (Nasty Juice). Their stuff tastes like metallic piss and is incredibly damaging to coils and you can get a minor sour sensation at best if some juice droplets hit your tongue - at the cost of introducing a whole new category of health hazards.
The only viable way is imitating sour through tart flavor profiles.
Can you please elaborate further on your last statement? This was my thought on it as well. Still green so don't have much experience with a wide variety of flavors. Lemonade works but adds lemon flavor. Anything else out there that can add some tart but stay in the background and not add any noticeable flavor change?
I've had some success with FA Lime Tahity Cold Pressed in a grapefruit recipe I'm working on. It is absolutely a lime though, and strong, so he careful. At .5 it blends well and adds a little punch for me. I also found FA Citrus Mix and FW Lemonade to be fairly tart. I'm no master of fruit mixes, but I would look into citrus. FLV Pink Guava is another, but it is very strong grapefruit.
The best I've ever gotten with sour is getting that (in this case, very light) physical feeling in my mouth of something tart, but with no actual tartness. Which I'm ok with, after trying larger amounts of sour additive and being very unhappy with the result.
In the past, I've made juices with vinegars and small amounts of time in PG. It seemed to work in a sour apple flavor of mine. I'll bet I can find the recipe or some iteration of it in the cloud.
Anyways, I've since quit making juice as I've been using the higher nic salt juices in my breeze and suorin and I notice that flavors (mostly Mr. Salt-e) with fruit are somehow much more sour in this form, and im interested to find out why.
I'm in the same boat. I've been trying to dial down a sweet strawberry tart kiwi. Have made a bunch of different great tasting blends but still no tart kiwi. Haven't tried any sour additives yet as I read they're pretty much a joke. As you said LA lemonade works but then it's a lemonade. Tasted good with what I mixed but not what I was going for. I do remember reading here about a week ago about a new sour additive coming out.
I've had some minor degrees of success adding a sour hint with TPA Sour 1% and LA Lemonade at 0.5%.
I read the same article, but I'm a rebel at heart, I guess. This combo works really well with some of my Melon recipes, although I haven't tried it on anything else atm. The LA Lemonade adds slightly more sour hint to the exhale without 'lemonading' the recipe, while the TPA Sour catches on the tongue during the inhale, without being too excessive. This isn't going to give you a 'Warheads' style pucker, but it might just give your juice the extra little jolt a needs. Best of luck =D
Huh, I mix a juice with tpa sour anytime I want a shake n vape. Never really thought about it much but I can see what you mean. I get some “sour” flavor but not really the sensation. I’ve been satisfied with that, but I can see how anyone would find it lacking if chasing the sensation.
Here it is if you’re interested: http://e-liquid-recipes.com/recipe/2495907/Sour%20Strappleberry
I think tpa sour works better with “lighter”, more “watery” fruits like apple and strawberry here. Dragonfruit is meant to blend it for a mellower taste. Grape is definitely a flavor that’s going to overpower sour, among others.
I make a Mountain Dew Pitch Black clone for my girlfriend that she adores, and grape does work pretty well with “citrus soda” but she likes it with a ton of super sweet and I can’t stand that crap. I know it’s not what you’re going for but it has a bit of that flavor I described earlier, may be more prominent without the super sweet but I’ve never tried it. http://e-liquid-recipes.com/recipe/990018/Excision%20paradox%20clone%20%28grape%20mtn%20dew%29