#Hot Seat Sunday
So, this is an idea for a weekly thread… Basically it's a AMA thread with a twist – the 'victim' gets to name who is next up in the rotation. It was started by u/juthinc in this thread here and it was continued by u/isuamadog in here, and continued here by u/humanpuck, and most recently continued here by /u/eyemakepizza.
There are some rules:
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try picking someone who hasn't gone yet
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it has to be someone who actively posts here
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no dead people (ie: notcharlesmanson isn't eligible)
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preferably a name that people recognize, 'regular poster' means someone who is a) alive and b) has posted in the last three months
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Complete the FAQ before posting
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if you do the hot seat, you can add up to three names to the list of people who are potential victims. Now, in the interest of saving some likely to be asked questions from coming up multiple times, I've included a FAQ below. With that said (and remembering to not repeat questions from the FAQ) fire away. Oh, and next time, it's someone's turn and you will be pm'ed regarding your participation. (possibly /u/ediblemalfunction /u/matthewkokanda /u/philosaphucker /u/vApe_Escape /u/chemicalburnvictim /u/AlfredPudding /u/Foment_Life u/modivin u/Up2MyHead u/odiedoodah u/Apexified u/mlNikon u/kindground).
Already Done: u/juthinc, u/isuamadog, u/humanpuck, u/eyemakepizza
^(I'm borrowing a few FAQs from previous AMA victims, but not as many as eyemakepizza did)
#FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
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How'd you get your handle? I made it specifically to participate in this subreddit. The only reason I needed to make a new handle was because I'd been an idiot with my previous reddit nom de plume and needed to nuke it to protect someone whose activities could have been exposed by my careless comments. So "idiot" was the first word that came to mind when I sat down to sign in. It seems like most people who've commented on seeing it written this way and pronounced "Eye-Dee-Ten-Tee" assume is from tech support, similar to pebkac (problem exists between keyboard and chair). But in my case it came from a military prank I remember seeing pulled on FNGs, telling them they need go get and fill out an ID10-T form from admin for whatever reason. Almost as much fun as sending them to supply for a fallopian tube.
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How long have you been mixing for? I spent February 2015 reading everything on this subreddit and started mixing in March 2015.
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MTL or DTL? ¿Porque no los dos? Though in a perfect world I would never have to MTL and could just blow big happy clouds anytime anywhere.
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Current flavor or profile obsession? Almost all of them? I've always got two dozen things going at once.
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Most/Least disappointing flavors that was/not as expected? Secret Weapon? TFA Mango is the one I least want to be allowed to continue existing. It sucks, and I'm afraid it's the first mango many people try and I think it might turn people off of mango flavors, which is a damned shame.
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Mixing Milestone? There have been a few. If You Like Piña Coladas was the first time, after lots of work, I felt like I'd really accomplished something that I was proud to share. My very first mix was an attempt at a piña colada that came out tasting like a pineapple lollipop dipped in battery acid and suntan oil but I kept at it until that one was done. Strap-On started something, much to the annoyance of ATF's owner, who once complained about showing his beautiful website to potential advertisers and having them go, "Is that a dick?" I've loved seeing and trying all the Strap-On variations. Mother of Dragons' Milk was a surprisingly successful attempt at a different kind of mixing that had no basis in reality. Simple Sugar Cookie spent parts of 2016 and 2017 convincing people that they could easily mix tasty juice. Strawberry Daiquiri is a recipe that needs a fresh coat of paint now that there are better limes and rums to play with, but it holds a special place, as it's development led me to the trio of strawberries that Emily likes to embarrass me by calling the Daveberry Trinity. Longing won me that DIYorDIE contest and I'd neither before nor since put so much of my heart into one recipe. Tootsie Roll won a little contest, which was unfortunately more of a popularity contest really, but I had a few people tell me they'd never been able to enjoy a strawberry juice before this one, which makes it special to me. Mango Blossom Macaron is the best tasting recipe I've ever created. I don't know if I'll ever create something that damned delicious again, but I'm going to keep trying. 1-2-3 Cranberry Sprite is now the reason why there so many recipes on my to-mix list. I want to eventually try every single one of these 1-2-3s that sprung up in its wake. A lot of people have a lot of very complimentary things to say about Viserion. Most of my recipes I don't mix up any more, because I'd rather try something new, so I work on something new or mix someone else's recipe. But Viserion is one of only two that I'm excited to mix up another batch of to enjoy once the weather gets a little warmer. It might be my second-"best" recipe, depending on how you want to define best. Retaliatory Tariffs convinced people not to write off every TFA with DX on the end without checking for barftastic components first (shoutout TFA's transparency!) and Impropapiety inspired others to create things with TFA Sweet Tea. So more than half of these "milestones" are because I know these things that inspired others. When it come to sharing what I've created, that's what fuels me more than anything. I'm not the best mixer, nor the most creative person, but if I can do things that inspires others' creativity it makes feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
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Recipes you admire/love? Strawberry Shortcake Bar holds a special place for me because it was the recipe that showed me what was possible in mixing. Abuela made me love tobacco again and by that same mixer, Cardinal is sublime. I have a huge soft spot for the weirdly wonderful: Grack Juice, Coop's Kiwi Bourbon, Fiestas and Fiascos, and most recently, Blue Eyes White Dragon. And for feats of mixing like 007 Cola, Leche De Coco, and Golden Oreo Pudding. And for recipes that taste like something that isn't a food or drink but a feeling or a place in time, like Cabin that catches autumn and bottles it up. And Vanilla Almond Milk by Vurve, vaping it is the closest I get to mediation, it's just so soothing.
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White whale? Legit Cookie Butter. Not just a great-tasting recipe that resembles cookie butter, I know those exist and I have enjoyed them, I'm talking about a hyper-realistic replica of that super addictive orgasmic drug butter, that tastes like a handful of sexy gingerbread people having an orgy in your mouth on a bed of uncut cocaine and cumming gooey Christmas mornings and sugar-crusted rainbows all over the place. The one were, the first time you try it, it's like getting your virginity back and then losing it again, but to Marilyn Monroe while she's singing happy birthday to you, because you're the fucking president. The one that makes you give up your atheism because it's the strongest evidence available that there is a god and he or she loves us. THAT Cookie Butter. The one that's gonna put my fat ass in a jazzy scooter someday. Also, speaking of things you can buy at Trader Joe's, those Mango! Mango! gummy candies with passionfruit and yogurt. Third, a clone of Milk of the Poppy by Blue Dot Vapor. Not because I love that juice so much, though it is good, but because it's eluded me for so long. I keep coming back to my attempts to clone it and I think I've got 4/5 or 4/6 of the ingredients nailed down but I simply cannot figure out what the hell else is in there. I'm stumped.
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How would you describe your mixing style? I'm not even sure I have one. It's more like I have mixing moods. Better yet, mixing mood swings. Mixing mood disorder?
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Advice for new mixers? Read as much as you can, don't give up, don't be afraid to task for help, test your flavors and let them speak to you.
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What's it like, doing Noted? The show itself is fun. If it wasn't, I'd quit. I get to sit and talk with my friends about my favorite thing to talk about for an hour or so a week on Monday night, which gives me something to look forward to on Mondays. Preparing for it is another story. It's mostly torture. The same number of flavors I used to test in a month has become a weekly minimum. It's a colossal time suck when I'd rather be working on recipes of my own or trying others' creations. It's cruel and unusual punishment for what sin I don't know. It's Charlie work. But people say they like it and greatly appreciate it, so as long as that is the case, I guess I'll keep doing it. I love the mixing community and if this something I can do for you - Noted watchers and people who don't watch but still benefit from it tangentially - then to quote Jamie Lannister, "The things we do for love." Except in this case I'd be pushing myself out the window and crippling myself, so it's not the most fitting quote, but it's Sunday and I've got GoT on the brain, cut me some slack.
You're such a pleasant person usually and treat people with respect no matter their status. Do you have a particular life philosophy that drives you and influences this?
I can get real unpleasant real quick. But, to answer your question, respect must be given to be returned. I don't feel deserving of it, but I know if I give it I have a chance of getting it back anyway.
I don't know exactly what you mean by "status." But despite being an atheist/agnostic now, I was raised as a Christian and the Christian Bible still has some great stuff in there: "Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it." Substitute hospitality for respect and angels for people who are more than they appear to be or have more potential than you're aware of, and I think that it answers your question.
I miss you. Do you miss me?
Are you guys seeing this or am I hallucinating? I need to know if I'm really being haunted by the ghost of the dearly departed NotCharlesManson or whether I'm finally having that psychotic break that we all knew was coming. Who am I gonna call, exorcist or psychiatrist?
You and Wayne are probably the only reason I can mix halfway decent juice , and I appreciate all the work you do for the community.
How do you keep vaping all those flavors every week , without losing your shit?
Being an OG mixer, what would you say to new mixers that have had a few failures up front to keep them mixing?
Outside of noted how often do you mix random recipes that just look good to you?
What was the development process of the Daveberry Trinity?
What would you say are the pros and cons to collaborative mixing?
The discord server seems to be growing at a nice clip, what would you say to people that ask why they should join it?
One horse sized duck or 100 duck sized horses, which would you rather fight and why?
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It feels very odd to be described as an OG mixer. This sub has been around since 2013 and there were plenty of mixers who were here then and well before that, people I learned from like Botboy. But to answer your question, I never felt that discouraged despite my early failures, I guess I'm not speaking from experience. A better person to answer would be someone who's been there. My best guess is to stop trying to create your own things if you're doing that and failing and getting discouraged. Instead, mix some well-regarded recipes. If those aren't working for you, post about it and tell people as best you can why the aren't. People are happy to help and if you get enough suggestions and follow a few of them, something is going to work.
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I have a list of recipes I want to try when I have time (hahaha) that's currently 253 recipes long. I wish I didn't have to go to work and pay bills and do parenting and other human things so I could just mix em all up, they all look amazing. But Noted takes up too much time for me to just mix other people's recipes that just sound good to me more than once or twice a month, so the list is growing faster than it's shrinking. Often what gets me to try a recipe that doesn't have anything to do with Noted, or with trying something that I think might inform something I'm trying to do, is someone just pestering me until I give in and mix it up. Or sending it to me already mixed up, obviously.
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Single-flavor testing a bunch of strawberries so that when my recipe needed to be a little more [x] in the strawberry department, I knew which one to grab. I never meant to make a strawberry Trinity. That was Emily's doing after trying that recipe. She deserves the credit for realizing that strawberry combo was portable.
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Pro: Two or more heads/creativities/experiences are better than one. Cons: People don't always have all the same flavors in their collection so you often end up compromising overall quality for something everyone involved can mix up right away. Also, there seems to be a rush to completion with most collaborative recipes we see shared these days, though that doesn't necessarily have to be the case. I feel like this one pro and two cons balance each other out, but another Pro tips the scale: It's super fun.
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See above. It's super fun.
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One horse-sized duck would be delicious if I won. A whole deep freezer full of duck? Sign me the fuck up! And if I lost, it seems like it would be a quicker death. The idea of fighting 100 duck sized horses reminds me of the scene in one of the Jurassic Park sequels where the guy was beset by a bunch of compsognathus and overcome. That's the stuff of nightmares. And if I killed them all, I'd have to eat a bunch of stringy horsemeat.
In regards to mixing... if you could teach 5 things to the 2017 version of yourself, what would they be?
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You can stop hate-vaping every drop of your failures, you've been doing that long enough and can probably learn more by spending your time trying others' recipes now.
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Have more than one working mod so you can switch flavors without changing atomizers, you'll save time.
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Stop being a snob about not using sweeteners, a light touch of them can really finish a recipe.
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Try doing some collaborative stuff, it's fun and you can get better results than always going at it alone.
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TFA Green Tea is not your friend.
>TFA Green Tea is not your friend.
Could you elaborate on that please? I tried my luck with this flavor but no dice.
I saw one of your comments about wf sour blue raspberry candy and sour watermelon candy being good. Any recipes you can recommend for them?
I haven't tried any recipes that use either of them yet, but just based on having tried the flavors used, I think these look great:
Dave, I cannot begin to tell you how happy I am to see my recipe in a comment of yours. 1 Blue 3 is the first recipe I've actually put out for the world to see, mostly due to the anxiety of it all. Between this, Emily saying it looks great, and the handful of people that mixed it and let me know what they thought, I don't know why I was so worried! If DIY had a Mount Rushmore, you're head is getting chiseled. Thanks for all you do!
What is your desert island setup? I.E. you get one mod, one dripper or tank, and unlimited coil material and cotton/rayon, what do you take with you?
I'm perfectly happy with my Sigelei 213 leather edition and haven't had any other mod last as long yet so I'm going with that. You didn't say anything about juice and that would make a big difference on the atomizer, but I'm going to assume I have unlimited supply of whatever juice I want. My first instinct is to take the og Recoil but then I realized I'm on a desert island so I probably have plenty of time to re-drip every minute or two. Since I don't need a juice well to speak of, I'll take the Recurve and some Cotton Bacon 2 and a lifetime supply of prebuilt kanthal alien coils.
I'm waiting on your mango macaron to steep right now. Usually I'm patient, for some reason I'm chomping at the God damn bit for this one.
No questions yet. I need more caffeine and chorizo to think.
Chorizo improves cognition? This is news I can use!
I know you’ve spoken on this before but it is an ama so...
How exactly does one go about learning to taste more accurately/better/efficiently etc?
I feel like we say taste is subjective but it can be surprisingly consistent for one person.
I can tell you what I do, but not how well it might work for others. I close my eyes and focus on what I'm tasting. I try to get away from noise. I inhale and exhale differently on purpose to see what happens. I cover up some labels, shuffle some testers up like dominoes, and try them again without the baggage that comes from the label. I turn the wattage up and down and note the difference, go outside and try to note the difference. I read about flavor language so I can try to add more words to my vocabulary to understand and describe these things to myself and others.
A lot of the folks who do flavor reviews do fantastic job of breaking down flavors, describing off notes, main notes and shit like that. However, your description game is on a whole other level. Is that something that comes naturally or was it something you developed over time?
Other folks do a better job of breaking down flavors in detail than I do. I try to emulate them as best I can and always fall short. But I also try to let my flavors tell me a story and then share that story with you, it think that's the other level you're talking about. So it might sound like creativity, but it's really just listening to what the flavors have to say. I think I've gotten better at that over time, just through lots of practice.
> So it might sound like creativity, but it's really just listening to what the flavors have to say.
Are you sure it's the flavors, and not the voices that you're listening to?
You're always willing to answer and share your knowledge. For that I just wanna say thank you. Not everyone in life sees knowledge as something to be shared, and not many people do it for free.
Most surprising flavor pairings that you never would have guessed until you tried them?
Though not quite targetted at e-juice, what setup would you recommend for someone looking to get into larger mods / rebuildables / etc.?
I've been quite content with my Vaporesso Cascade One, but having recently got into making my own juice, I'd love some advice on taking the next step and getting the most out of my flavors.
Edit: Thanks for everything you do for this community! Without advice from you and others I never would've taken the DIY leap.
I'm not the best person to ask because I spend all my money on flavors rather than trying out a bunch of different equipment. I can tell you want to avoid - Smok mods. I had great luck with my first one of them and just assumed all hate for them was a lot of bandwagoning. Wrong. A few subsequent ones malfunctioned completely - one basically fell apart - in weeks. I think it's not the design, but just a lack of quality control. I don't know if Sigelei and Geek Vape products are just better, or if I've had better luck with them.
If you have never used a rebuildable RDA... I don't know what to tell you. I think you want a single-coil RDA with great flavor that's super easy to build on, but I can't personally vouch for one having both of those qualities that I would recommend. Don't invest too much into one, in case you don't like it.
We’ve seen some growth in the community all over. Information abounds and grows by the second. What, if any, topics would you like to see covered in the Reddit? Both for personal use and for others?
I'm suffering from information overload as it is, I don't know what's missing. I would like to see more recipes getting reviewed and discussed rather than just presented and helped with. I think we could probably learn as much from what worked or didn't for others than from general advice and flavor reviews etc.
If you could get all the brands to try making the BEST version of 5 flavors (that don't currently exist) which flavors would they be? And bonus question: Which companies would be most likely to get them right?
I'm not sure I understand this hypothetical question the way you're wanting me to. You mean like FLV would make the best mango because they'd have to do the least amount of work to their current mango and all FA would have to have the best custard is get rid of FANA?
“Flavors that don’t exist” that seems like the part you missed :P
e.g. cookie butter
You pick 5, they all try to create them for you.
Cookie Butter does exist, though. Both FW and GF have one, and INW has something that I think is supposed to be like cookie butter?
Ummm...
- Cookie Butter
- Pickle Juice
- POG
- Chocolate Cake
- Salt
CAP or WF would probably get the best cookie butter. OoO already has a head start on the Pickle, they just need to fix it. I think FLV would knock POG out of the park, it's tropical fruit, and ditto on the salt when you consider Beer Nuts and Cucumber. Chocolate Cake is a harder one to call, WF has all those great cake flavors, FLV would just have to take the coconut out of Chocolate Deutsche, LB could tinker with Lava Cake and get there.
whats your go-to food of choice?
I could eat Mexican every night.
Name 10 things that make you smile. :D
Not any particular order:
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Remembering /u/NotCharlesManson
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Figuring out how to describe a flavor
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Realizing a DIY e-juice recipe is finished and posting it
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Learning that something I did helped someone make something they love
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Puppies and other baby animals
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Getting head
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When I go to a restaurant for the first time and the chips and salsa are perfect
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Cold beer on a hot day
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Catching a keeper
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When my sons make me proud
How do you find inspiration for your recipies? Are you actively looking at stuff (i.e. bakery recipies/drink recipies) or are you more "spontaneous"? (if that makes any sense, lol). Also big thanks for being such a pillar of this community, and thanks for Viserion!
Mostly from the flavors themselves, trying them and thinking about what they seem to want to be turned into. Sometimes from a process that's more "I want this" - like Viserion - I want a blueberry cream, and I want it to be cold. Another source is memory, like when remember something that was a sensory experience and want to recreate it. I like a lot of variety in life so I don't really go out looking at new bakery recipes or drink recipes trying to find juice inspiration, I just remember them.
"I have a huge soft spot for the weirdly wonderful: Grack Juice, Coop's Kiwi Bourbon, Fiestas and Fiascos, and most recently, Blue Eyes White Dragon" - That's three of my favorite recipes and one reason to go buy FA kiwi right away. Any other tips in this category?
Tips for development or recipes to try? If you mean recipes to try:
I haven't tried these yet but they look like they might be even more in line with what you're looking for than those:
I think it's safe to say your favorite flavor is Mango.
What is your least favorite flavor?
Vomit. A lot of flavors have vomity off notes and I gag on them.
So TFA honey?
That's one of the few flavors that makes me want to vomit without actually tasting like vomit.
I think it tastes like a meth lab but not one that deserves to have “lab” in the name. More like a portable meth creation station set up in a bathroom next to a trashcan full of used maxi pads. The honey sweetness in there tastes rotten, rotting plant matter mixed with old period blood and the primary flavor is "Grandma’s Cat Pissed in her Potpourri."
All of which taken together is pretty nearly vomit-inducing, but not vomit-tasting. What I meant is flavors that actually taste like they have ralphed-up stomach acid inside them. I just tried three such flavors this week: TFA Movie Theater Popcorn, FW Buttered Popcorn, and FW Kettle Corn.
I'm dabbling in nutty type flavors since PÜDIO. Do you like them? Not just plain nuts, nutty anything flavors, well plain nuts too I guess. I'm trying out some FA Hazel right now. I know you like peanutbutter. What are some others you might like? I have FA Nut Mix on deck. Any particular recipes you can steer me to would be cool too. You're awesome BTW.
I’m going to see if we can get the community to make a recipe and name it after you. What should the flavor profile be or which ingredient(s) must it include?
Someone has already beaten to you it.
1, 2, 3, ID10-T by Deweysuds
- 1% FA Milk
- 2% FA Honeysuckle
- 3% FLV Mango
If a collaborative recipe were to pick up where that one left off and make something more complex, it would still need to have 2/3 of those ingredients, TFA Honeysuckle and FLV Mango. The flavor profile would be abstract, but should have a creamy finish of some sort. Other flavors to try work in there might include Pink Guava, Yakima Hops, some lime, or any number of various tropical fruits, such as coconuts, bananas, pineapples, papayas, custard apples, guava, passionfruit, other mangoes.
You have to run out the door but realize you’re out of juice. What’s your favorite 3 go to single flavor out the door mix(es)?
This will never happen because I have a huge box of full of half-empty juice bottles I could pluck something out of, not to mention the various things lined up waiting for me to try them at all times.
But to play the game, if that were to somehow happen, I'd for whatever reason I could only make three single-flavor mixes instead of a three-flavor recipe, I might shake up some 3% FLV Pink Guava in one bottle, 10% Holy Holy Grail RY4 in another, and 3% FLV Mango in a third.
Are you well traveled? What's the furthest east you've been? furthest west? furthest north? furthest south?
Not particularly, there are so many places I've never been: Europe, Africa, Asia, South America.
The furthest east I've been is Walpole, New Hampshire. Unless you consider the furthest west I've traveled to be so far it becomes east, in which case, that would be Melbourne, Australia. South: Wellington, NZ. North: Malone, New York.
We both share a love of mango - thought you could mix this if/when you have time. I know everyone has different tastes but this is the nicest combo I've tried.
- VT Shisha Mango 0.5%
- HS Juicy Peach 0.75%
- FLV Mango 2%
- WS-23 (I have to use 4% now - just add as much as you like)
This likes a touch of CAP Super Sweet (around 0.1%) or 0.25 INW Raspberry. Milks/creams work well too. I also sometimes add 0.5% VT Mango Juice. The shining light here for me is the HS Juicy Peach - really lovely stuff.
I would love to try that sometime in the near future but I might need to be reminded because I was stricken with something horrible yesterday that's even worse today - I don't know what it is, feels like sinus cancer - and the only think I'm mixing up today is INW Euc with Mint.
This is old so you may not answer but is the euc and mint your sinus cleanser and does it work as a palate cleanser? I have a deviated septum which I think is causing me to miss out on a lot of recipes I've tried but I also feel like I get burnt out on flavors quick. Your Viserion is delicious and it was the first 60ml bottle I mixed and is currently the only 60ml I've mixed as I'm a newb.
Yes, it's great to use as a palate cleanser. I always mix up plenty when I'm sick and after I get better I continue to use it for that. My go to used to be 2 to 3% in a sub-ohm tank for "I'm sick and can't stand to vape anything else." But I have one of those little pod systems now so I've been using that at 4% Euc with Mint + 1% FLV Cool Menthol (mixed 50/50 VG/PG 24mg salt nic). I call that "Sinus Cancer" because I made it when I felt like I was dying of sinus cancer (really just bad allergies), but again, I still use it as a palate cleanser.
How do you know when a recipe is finished?
I find myself trying to be too perfect at times and it can throw things out when I should have just left it at the previous step and been happy with it. I can be my worst critic at times which causes me to take longer than I need to say that a recipe is completed. It’s been nearly a year since I set out to make grape hubba bubba after trying a commercial juice which all of my friends loved that tasted so damn close to the actual flavour of that lovely bubblegum and I’m so close to it but never satisfied. I just want to capture nostalgia in a bottle. I’m so close to mixer insanity from this one profile.
There are too many flavors out there and too many possible configurations of percentages of flavors together to ever feel 100% certain that something is 100% perfect. You just have to ask yourself if you're getting everything you wanted out of it and nothing you didn't want. If you've come up with something you love and still tried to make it better and nothing is making it better, that probably means it was already done.
And when it gets "so close," but you still aren't sure that it's finished, it might help to think of it like writing. There's a helpful bit of advice about writing, which is that writing is never done, it's just due. Set yourself a due date or deadline at which point you're going to stop messing with this and just put it out there. If you do that, there's a chance someone might try it and suggest something you haven't thought of to make it better, so that's another motivation to go ahead and share and get feedback.