Sweeteners

submitted over 6 years ago by ketziel

So I have this 3-2-1 recipe that I mix up quite often.

|Co.|Flavor|%| |:-|:-|:-| |TFA|Nectarine|3| |FA|Fuji Apple|2| |TPA|Strawberry (sweet)|1|

It's not amazing, but it's simple and I find it quite tasty.

My friend really wanted to try this juice, but he's accustomed to commercial juices so I was apprehensive, but mixed him up a bottle anyway. Unsurprisingly, he said it wasn't sweet enough. So I tried adding a couple of drops of CAP Super sweet to a 30ml bottle and this still wasn't sweet enough for him. I tried a couple more times until I got to the point of adding about .5% of super sweet but at this point, for me anyway, the flavors were so horribly muted the liquid was completely ruined (and for him it still wasn't even sweet enough!)

So my question is, how can commercial juices have so much sweetener in them without the flavors being so badly muted?

Comments

6 points

by St1llFrankover 6 years agoThis flavor... This is not my kind of flavor

From reading I got that the consensus was, commercial juice uses high flavoring percentages to combat fade. Sweetener is added of course. Another thing is the use of stuff like TFA Smooth or FW Toner, which I can imagine happening.

3 points

by Silverpathicover 6 years ago

I have never heard of them before what do they do? I use to vape nothing but custard and cheesecake type stuff, now im exploring sweeter things like strawberry shortcakes and blueberry candies.

I (since 2012) have been making my own juice and never used sweetener.

2 points

by St1llFrankover 6 years agoThis flavor... This is not my kind of flavor

They smooth out harsh edges and blend things together. FA Vape Wizard is another. Those products can work well but can also distort flavors.

2 points

by Silverpathicover 6 years ago

I was trying to get a coffee and black honey tobacco (kinda a backwoods honey cigar). This may do it. The clover honey and tobacco was to sharp. If this will muddle them in my next order ill shoot for this. Ty +1.

1 points

by diydave86over 6 years ago

Yea. I usually use .5% to 1% tfa sweetener. In pretty much every juice i make. If i dont need it i wont use it.

6 points

by wonderfulpantsuitover 6 years ago

I like a few drops of sweetener in most recipes. I haven't noticed it being much of a coil killer, but I wouldn't really care much anyway. I wrap my own simple round wire coils, so even with rewicking maybe more than necessary, we're talking about pennies.

Just a drop of two, though. One of the reasons I started DIY was because almost every juice I bought at the beginning was far too sweet.

6 points

by Foment_lifeover 6 years agoSeto Kaiba

There are a lot of commercial recipes that effectively take a sledgehammer to what we consider best practices.

Push the flavors high enough that you get weird off notes, then add sucralose until they're buried in sweetener.

Past that, a lot of commercial recipes are horribly muted or distorted by the sweetener used on top of it.

5 points

by juthincover 6 years agoI improved Grack and all I got was this lousy flair

Most commercial recipes are muted, but use enough flavor that the muting helps them. And remember many of them steep for months before they're sold, which can also be playing a role.

3 points

by Marikc1over 6 years agoMixologist

Sweetener is a sin and we all know it.

And it absolutely destroys wicks.

For about 6 years I've done DIY. I can go for 1-2 months on a coil and wick using my own juice without sweetener. Open it up and have a look. Guess what? It's as white as the cotton in the bag. No gunk. No crusty nastiness. Two days after using store bought juice with excessive and absurd amounts of sweetener? The wick is black, crusty and can barely be vaped with 10% of the vapor production of the 2 month old wick on DIY (which also requires about 5x the battery usage to get that 10% vapor due to longer hits required).

7 points

by omgcomeonidiotover 6 years ago

You talk about nastiness and here you are using the same wick for 2 months. I wouldn't use a rag for 2 months straight without washing it. Let people use sweeteners. Who cares.

3 points

by St1llFrankover 6 years agoThis flavor... This is not my kind of flavor

> I can go for 1-2 months on a coil and wick using my own juice without sweetener.

I just changed a Mesh Pro and Falcon coil that I've been using since January. They were both of the triple mesh variety and were still putting out good flavor. Inspecting them, it doesn't look like there's much build-up at all. I used Fiestas & Fiascos in one and a peach/papaya mix in the other.

3 points

by Enyawreklawover 6 years agoCreator - Best Recipe of 2015: Rhodonite

Mixing for other companies, it’s not just about sweetener and high percentages. There’s a period of development I spend on just marking down the most potent and concentrated flavors that I’ll think I’ll use. It’s that, in combo with higher overall concentrations and sweetener, that make a juice really stand out well in a wide open mesh tank or Smok tank. You can try increasing percentages but you might wanna find better suited flavors as well

1 points

by kuri_sanTouover 6 years agoDiketones, Schmiketones

throw in TFA vanilla swirl for the easy fix

1 points

by juthincover 6 years agoI improved Grack and all I got was this lousy flair

You mean that in the same sense as to 'fix' a horse race (ie: ruin it) right?

2 points

by kuri_sanTouover 6 years agoDiketones, Schmiketones

you can also say OP already ruined the mix with super sweet

3 points

by Sergeant_Mover 6 years ago

Have you tried using Inawera Cactus? I find that it makes the mix sweeter but also reinforces the fruity flavors. ~2% seems to work well.

1 points

by ketzielover 6 years ago

I've not used it, but I've seen it mentioned quite a few times - does it really have as huge an impact as people say? If so, this might actually be the best way to go.

3 points

by Sergeant_Mover 6 years ago

I would say that the cactus is similar to agave nectar whilst cap super sweet is like simple syrup. They both add sweetness to the mix, but INW Cactus seems to keep the fruity flavors fruity.

2 points

by Silverpathicover 6 years ago

I was in a rush and i grabbed a swedish fish one, it was green but it was good. I didn't think i would like it, it tasted great. I have tried to duplicate it with 27 fish and sweetner (i think i put in 7 drops per 120ml) and 13-14% flavor. Mixed at 70/30 with 1.5 nic level.

It was dripping with sugar, like you could feel it on your lips. (yes after 100ml my coil was trashed but tbh depending on what killed it i sometimes boil them back out clean up the inside of the coil wire and reuse them. (don't laugh, it pisses me off when i buy a coil and one of them shorts out and fries the cotton. 😠)

I do rebuild on a vandy vape (think that's it) but it annoys me i have to drip it 24/7.

I think (squonk?) sorta solves that so i may rip apart one of the rx200's and print a case and give it a whirl.

No i dont have ADD.... Did you see that squirrel?

2 points

by 3choBlast3rover 6 years ago

Does ANYONE know what sweetener chef's vapors one shots use??

My favorite flavor is blue lush from chefs and eventhough it's very nice and sweet it doesn't gunk up my coils and leaves my cotton super fresh and new.

I once vaped that stuff on my profile RDA for a month and a half straight without a single rewick. When I finally rewicked just because it had been so long. The cotton still looked completely white with zero discoloration. And the mesh only had some slight darkening (became brand new after I dry burned at 17w and held it to hot running water

anyway its hands down my favorite sweetener. It tastes great, it's nice and sweet without over powering and it doesnt gunk up the coils or ruin the wick

1 points

by ketzielover 6 years ago

Thanks a lot for all the info guys, been really helpful!
For some reason it never crossed my mind that commercial juices would be using much higher percentages on flavors to deal with muting. I'd like to avoid that though, so I'll definitely be doing some single flavor tests on different brands for Nectarine and Fuji apple to try and find a more powerful flavor before I start increasing any percentages. Hopefully that way I can get it sweet enough for him without needing to add much (or any) sweetener!

1 points

by 3choBlast3rover 6 years ago

Super sweet gets hyped up a lot but honestly I sont really enjoy it.

I once has a bit on my finger. I wiped my finger off and licked it off and it tasted horrible. Like those coffee sweeteners or something.

I tried adding it to this one shot (big mouth flavor that smelled like capri sun) and to me it didnt add any sweetness to it strangely..

P.s. don't EVER buy big mouth one shots or liquids. They taste absolutely disgusting. Also their smell gets stuck on tanks. They are the worst ever. They also smell so much stronger than other flavors. But somehow super artificial. It kinda feels like you're vaping perfume instead of a flavor / vape juice