you know, i like everyone i've met on this journey. but we especially dont forget the helping hands that pulled us up. my teaching philosophy comes from the Tao Te Ching: "When the true leader leads, the people say we did it for ourselves." Yet and still, im mostly a Robert.

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And, yes, Alfred approves your message.

I keep two bottles of 15ml ready with a different fruit mix every time. That's how i keep it fresh more or less every few days. I also do mixer's club which has taught me a looooooooooot. u/ID10-T can explain more here :) I mix randomly other than that. I have a million unlabeled bottles of ideas and two notebooks with scrawled notes and some ideas. Lately, I've been mixing about twice a week minimum late night on the discord and want to go back to flavor testing and some unfinished projects so I think it will slow down to a halt soon.

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Collaboration for me is great on a few levels. I have loads to learn. When you're discording with a few people you learn all kinds of things (like when you have too small a stash of caramels for ex.). Plus it takes you out of your comfort zone and forces you to try new combos. But, best of all, I know literally no one who mixes and one guy (shout out to Frank, my barber!) who actually vapes. Collaboration is wonderful because you can get instant feedback like "Are you tasting what I'm tasting?" and "Trust this will work." I love it when my idea is one teeny small part of a community effort.

Let me start by saying i'm a complete hack. My favorite setup is on top of Mt. Snow in vermont somewhere: Therion 166 with a siren v2. Nowadays I 90% of the time use mtl RDA's. I have two im used to so I use them the most often: a replacement siren v2 at 1.2 ohms A1 and a berseker which I thought for a whole year was a mini until i looked at the box with a similar build. One's on a Kroma-A and the other on an Aegis mini.

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i test on a dual coil because that's how i vape when Im at home. I use a goon and one of the drop's but i'd have to get out the box to know which one. I got it on sale. still using SS316l avs claptons on those but no TC after therion went to the great mod in the sky. I think testing the way you vape is the best advice. Plus I am a lazy hack with a shitty palate so nuances dont work with me. Im all about, do i like this or not? is it because it's too high or low, paired with the wrong things?

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I rarely single flavor test. I prefer to dual flavor test. I dont recommend but it works for me. or I mix one test with the intent to add as I go and get ideas. I am the world's slowest mixer because of this but i sometimes find pairings that i like this way and then i'll go back and find better replacements. I say it's because im lazy but really im just unimaginitive. but this was how i made DryDrunk. I was surprised by the reception it got from mixer's club. I was like, this thing? my 'best' recipe was completely done by just messing with the flavors to make something I enjoyed vaping.

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hope that's an acceptable answer.

I'd Like to say a few things here about some mixers from atf/reddit/discord and ashamed to say some of this stuff for fear of seeming cheesy or overly personal.

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u/ID10-T - balance. everything has its place. no sudden moves. the mixes almost taste 'off' to me because they are so delicate. I learned that I just like flavor forward mixes. lucky me.

u/Philosaphucker - you can fall in love with a flavor and own it. everything will work if given love.

u/ConcreteRiver - weird can be both good and bad. sometimes abstract art pierces to your soul. sometimes it's just not for you. Always mix for yourself.

u/Foment_Life - mixing is like cooking/making music in that everything adds up to one final experience. salt alone tastes like salt but no dish will taste right without it. Know your flavors and what you're after

u/juthinc - people like what they like and they dont like what they dont like. I enjoyed gigi, apple blossom and silk road and they're all different than i ever would have made or thought of in slight ways. Being unique isnt about being flashy or weird, it's about being true to your tastes.

u/wh1skeyk1ng - gold

u/ChemicalBurnVictim - you can be an 'expert' in something and still be the most humble guy in the room, always willing to help, and always answer a ping with solid advice and no fanfare. Plus, so many good recipes.

u/Kindground - another mixer whose stuff ranges. i'm all over the place sometimes and i just give up. the man does what he does. tobacco? Dune. drinks? warm apple cider. fruits, blue razz, black razz, lemonades, he's got it. that's work in action, man.

and there's at least 20 others i'd like to try: u/mouthforwar, u/thelateoctober, u/cheebasteeba, maxsavage, the mixin vixens team, the developed team, u/Kopel, silky, fear, folkart, slashaLO, OOOwhateveryoucallitOOO and you name it. there's so many i cant even remember them all which was why i did the yearly roundup so i can have it in my own post history.

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since it's my turn to hold the mic, a special shout out to the mixers who have taken the time to both get to know me and share of themselves to where I get the daily advice encouragement and support:

u/EdibleMalfunction - who is very much the discord dad that lets us tear the house apart during the sleepover while smoking brisket for the family and always there to tell it like it is. and help. in 3 words.

u/mLnikon - who uncompromisingly knows a seemingly infinite amount of knowledge on anything not tobacco related and is always curious about what you're doing

u/Foment_Life - who I knew from ecr's late night thread. we are so lucky to have stolen him and we're not giving him back.

u/Apexified - for the weekly posts which show a sense of joy in the collective work of the community, and constant behind the scenes support here and on discord

u/OdieDooDah - for the organizational work on the FOTW threads and the secret project

the incredible noted team - insanely informative videos. i owe much (and saved lots of dough) due to your hard work

u/eyemakepizza and u/AlfredPudding - who are my favorite people to mix with in the whole wide world. Always willing to try an idea and also tell you you're crazy for it.

There's so many people additionally I interact with daily on the discord and they're all awesome too. kit, mo, mil, hetch, U2, puck, and whomever ive forgotten. it's good fun, camaraderie, good shit shooting, and lots of mixing mistakes. and loads of love. These are the people who have influenced me as a mixer.

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that's my laundry list of love and respect.

i have three runner ups:

1. Lobby because i love to talk mess and greet new people. I'm usually the first one there with u/Kittybit8 at 4:30am and in and out until beddybye.
2. Off-topic because i've gotten loads of personal interaction on a deeper level there and tons of support.
3. new mixers because i love to see folks taking ownership and growing.

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top channel by far is the mixing-lab.

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i love just going in and talking about what im doing and folks will pop in and add ideas or jump in and participate. or when we all get it together and mix at the same time. that's just fun as all. Working with only what everyone has in their stash, making adjustments, various versions of the same thing, helping someone work out an idea. it's like a live mixer's club. it's fun to lurk when people are jamming. it's really like being a part of a Developed Episode that's open to everyone and anyone. I'm all about the inclusivity where diy feels so intimidating and exclusive and individual when you start, this is exactly the opposite. but, yes, if you dont have some flavors, be prepared to want to buy at least 10 flavors.

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and then to wrap it all up and post on the diy_discord atf channel where no one takes credit makes me, very very happy and warm inside. all i ever want is to share what was given to me and then some.

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I try to avoid this question. Truthfully, the answer is "never enough". which completely embarasses me still. but it's about 500 according to atf. mostly i buy them for other people's recipes, because u/AlfredPudding told me to, because i felt like it, because i wanted to have a large group of one category to work with, or because I like to try what other people suggest. I dont have any other vices and this is my last frontier.

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how many have i actually sft'ed? so so so so few.

It bothers me for sure. There's no way to stop or control that if we want to continue to share as a community so I just have to let that go. I think I am lucky enough that no one will want to steal my recipes as they are mostly mediocre. That said, the other option would be a closed community, and how would anyone ever find it? Or not sharing, and then how would we help up the new guy? So, it's like what can you do, but lose sleep over it? I'll just keep trying to get better and making stuff I enjoy and it's a miracle when I make something someone else enjoys. The guys with more time and expertise? Im afraid they're out of luck. There is some dude mixing in a dorm room somewhere selling to his colleagues making just enough to get more flavors and textbooks. And probably companies stealing stuff. Probably best to always use flavors companies wont find cost effective? Or do like grandma and post the recipe but leave out one ingredient?

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defnitely sucks and i can't see a way around it without killing the community.

this will be a short reply best: nothing really. Improve: try more versions

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i get burnt out while testing and just settle for good enough.

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to me a recipe is just an experience. but nothing can be reexperienced. it's a recording. that first time you try a flavor, there's nothing better. I recently went back and fixed up the 'mistakes' in my first published recipe. I can see why some choices weren't as good as they could have been. In some ways, the whole thing could be fixed by scrapping the idea of working with plum at all. It's not the 'best' flavor out there. But i really liked it, and still do.

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almost anything i have ever put together could be improved by dropping half of the flavors or working with flavors closer to the final product or the best would be to really try several variations first instead of 'getting close'. nothing really beats trying every possibility. Now, with so many people knowing flavors, i can just pop in the discord and ask for opinions. but it's made me lazy too. i have to balance having a kid with work and the pursuit of happiness, being lazy and also tasting them for my fucking self. nothing beats tasting them for your goddamned self.

I tried to class this up u/ID10-T.

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I'd rather not fight anyone or anything.

truthfully? this video was the first thing i found that made me think i could do it. then i found elr and bought some stuff. those were lousy days. then i found reddit and i didn't believe you guys that your stuff tasted good. i also never had any of the flavors that you used, so i tried some recipes subbing practically everything. what a joke. i had bought 50 lousy flavors before i actually took any advice and mixed someone's recipe and upped my flavor collection.

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well, that and i was like, fuck this shit after trying several shitty juices. especially this mod milk orange creamsicle. fucking gross

also, i did order of hash back in the day. it was a good mix. but i was like this is some dude. i can do this.

honestly, i dont regret any of them. I've learned from all of them on the path. I tried again last night to make a tabacco with strawberries and cream for mixer's club using organic strawberry, wild strawberry and shisha strawberry. now THAT was regrettable. it's all about what you do with them, even the shitty ones that i am 100% certain I cant make work. organic SB has that green stemmy flavor, and wild sb has some high floral top notes to me. but i didnt try it solo first (or even ask myself why i would want to). just droppped it in a tester ontop of some ry4 base i've been working with. there are no shortcuts here.

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what's most regrettable is having any expectations at all. no matter what i think the flavor will be, it only exists as an experience. and that is the best part of the hobby aspect here. just trying flavors.

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edit: I should say, i do not think there are good and bad flavors, just all on a spectrum of forgiving and unforgiving or ease of use. I bet someone could put all the effort to make even the most notorious of flavors 'work'. unless you wanted to take on the challenge for challenge's sake, it just wont be worth it (or much fun) for most people.

my kid hates the fact that i vape. that said, the only thing i ever puffed that she said, that smells nice, was FLV milk and honey sft at 1.5%. im going with that.

This plays so hard to my vanity. How would I identify? As a particular flavor? As something I’m currently into? As an alchie? I don’t know that’s almost overwhelming. That’s too much for my im/modest brain.

I’ll say this. I like tobaccos because they’re not too sweet. Not too dry. I don’t tire of them. But they’re also so outside of the range of what’s ‘real’. So I’ve been deserting them up a little and fruiting them too. I’ve never been a balanced mixer. I like one flavor and then I play off supporting it and hope for surprises. I’m also paralyzed by indecision which is why I tend to over flavor and muddle. I avoid that by trying to feature one flavor.

That said, a 4-5 flavor mix that has one obscure flavor (or it’s not a signature recipe), one flavor that is prominent, has one hidden flavor that does something in the background, and maybe one accent that is optional. There you have it. I’m a total prima donna.

But my truly modest side would love for you to remix dry drunk and MGGA (make gin great again). Actually, this. That would be fucking cool as shit.