Yup, that's pretty much the question. I know at what percentage I like certain flavors (TFA French Vanilla, I like it at 13.5'ish % as a standalone) as standalone but, I know I won't be using those numbers when creating a new mix otherwise I'll end up with a liquid that is 35+ percent in flavor. How do I know how much flavor to add in order to create what I want, and how to fine tune it once I got it let's say "in the right neighborhood". Thank you all guys!
I'd start at 3-4% depending if there's many other things in there. You'd be surprised at how little of a flavor it takes to influence a recipe.
Thanks man, I'll take that into account for the next attempt
Up to like 5-8% if it's suppose to be the "main" flavor.
What I want it's a smokey chocolate-nutty-tobacco flavor with a hint of vanilla. I know the DK BASE it's really strong so I'll be using like 2% and around 3% of all other I have in mind to use. That sound logic doesn't it? Lol I'll have to experiment by what you mean right?
For CAP / TFA, I try to use maybe 5-8% if I want a flavor to really stand out as the main profile, 3% or so for a solid contributor, 1-2% if it just wants to be an accent flavor.
Think about your mix. What is the main flavor? Any other strong flavors? How are you accenting it? How strong do you want those accents to be?
At the end of the day you have to pull the trigger on a specific mix. If nothing else, WRITE IT DOWN. Take notes if you are so inclined. Don't be discouraged if it's not perfect, try to think critically about it. What worked? What didn't? Which flavors weren't strong enough? Which were too strong? Rebalance the original recipe and try again, this time with version 2!
You're trying to find the perfect balance / combination for you. For your tastes. It likely won't happen on the first try, but that first try is a necessary starting point from which to make smaller adjustments.
Also: Find recipes on Alltheflavors.com that share your main profile (and some accents, if possible) to see how others have utilized it. Research helped me feel more comfortable with my first few mixes, and those in turn helped me develop my own instincts for how to best use my flavors.
Those percentage number gives me a baseline from which I can work off thanks man. I guess I'm used to the commercial liquids where it's pretty much shake and vape, and I need to acknowledge that this is more a trial and error thing, rather than get it right at the first time (but if it does that will be great!!)
Could you please list the flavours? For TFA French Vanilla, and depending on the recipe, start around 2-3%. I'm guessing you vape with a subohm tank?
Dk tobacco base flavor - TFA Irish cream ii flavor - TFA Double chocolate dark - TFA Western flavor - TFA Toasted almond flavor - TFA Black honey - TFA Smooth - TFA Sweetener (sucralose) - TFA Butter pecan - CAP Dulce de leche - FW DX graham Cracker flavor - TFA Coffee flavor - TFA DX Caramel original - TFA Acetyl Pyrazine - TFA DX Bavarian Cream - TFA RY4 Double - TFA DX Sweet cream flavor - TFA French vanilla flavor - TFA DX Hazelnut flavor - TFA Vanilla swirl flavor - TFA.
In Mexico it's kind of difficult to get other brand besides: TFA, CAPELLA and FW
You can check out flavor reviews here. Also you can see average flavor %'s on AllTheFlavors (ATF).
That's awesome, thanks man! Didn't know about those websites, I'll surely dig into them. I guess and by other have posted in other pages, I should do little batches (10ml tops) and twerk the recipes from there right? Let's say that it tastes right but I want it a little more chocolate so I add 1 drop (write it down so I'll have a record of it) and taste it and so on, right?
Holy God 13.5%
You need to know what place in a mix you want them in. And at what percentage they should go in. This requires testing and experimentation on your part, in addition to research
DIY-ejuice gives mixing recommendations (both stand-alone and in a mix) for every flavor they sell. If that information isn't available to you, then I generalize that my main note will be about half the recommendation for single flavor, and my accents start at 1-2%.
That sounds legit to me, will test all this information, I guess I'll make some mistakes here and there but, oh well this is how it is right?. I guess the promise of being able to do my own e-liquid whenever I want it's what drives you all right? (Besides lowering the cost of consumption related to vaping)
Just out of curiosity, how did you find the levels you liked as single flavor? And did you test at percentages less than ten?
Well the idea came from someone around here, sadly i don’t remember his or her reddit-name but basically, this is what I did and you can do it too.
First off you’ll need a 15ml or 30ml, whichever is good enough, then I added 200 drops of pure VG, which is ~10ml (without taking into account that the SG [Specific gravity] of the VG its more than 1 gr/ml), I choose that many drops because of the possibility to add 0.5% with 1 drop, let me explain.
200 drops equal 100% right?, so if I add 1 drop of flavor and 199 drops of VG, that means that my solution have a total flavor concentration of 0.5%, then I added 14 drops to my RDA (7 into 1 coil and 7 to the other [I don’t know why but, I like the tiny little drops that come from the coils]), tasted it and WRITE DOWN all that I could ID (strength of flavor, what it tasted like, things like that), then I added 13 drops of VG and 1 more of flavor, that way my solution will now have 1% of flavor concentration and the game goes on and on.
The thing here is that you got to keep the TOTAL VOLUME of the solution constant, other way you will have to do some additional math ( C1*V1 = C2*V2 ), so if you use 40 drops of your mix, you will add 39 of VG and 1 of flavor.
Thing is, you can add as many drops of flavor as you want but take into consideration that the concentration will go higher much faster, and you can also use PG instead of VG, I just like that way.
Cheers mate!
EDIT1: yes, I went from 0.5% all the way up to like 16%, I guess I like really concentrated flavors or, my taste buds took the hit from smoking a little more than 10 years
Trying to measure volume by drops is highly inaccurate. Drop size is dependent on numerous factors..
I know, and I use an AWS LB-501 scale to measure my mixes.
But that is only optimal when you already know how much % or weight to use in a certain recipe, I believe that when we are just trying to figure out how many drops of something its good enough for me to use, then when I’ll be mixing my first test-batch I’ll be using a scale in order to know how much weight I’m using, which in turn will help me make improvements in the case that I need them