Hi everyone. For my tutorial Tuesday I thought I would tackle one of the ways to create a recipe.

Here's a link to last week's tutorial by /u/ben_gaming

How to make your first recipe playing the numbers game (an example):

So. You've been mixing for a while or maybe you just started. You've mixed some tasty recipes by other people & it's time to strike out on your own! So you mix up some of your favorite flavors, use average %s from atf or elr aaaaaand it's not good. Why? I'll give an example and hopefully show you some recipe development tips along the way.

Personally I like custards & creams. It's what I know the most so it's what my example will be. Going with flavors that most people have or are at least quite popular. This assumes you: have made a few mixes, know how to use elr and atf & have done some sft's.

So, I want to make my own vanilla custard mix, and reading things I don't want to use any extra sweetener. I've tested cap vanilla custard v1 & feel this is what I want for my custard. I know meringue & marshmallow are good sweetener flavors. But what else? Vanilla swirl sounds good. & What's a good vanilla we probably have & have tested: inw shisha vanilla. Anything else? We're backing up the vanilla, adding some sweetness, adding a little body... How about a creamy finish? More the merrier. We'll use TPA bavarian cream for that. Bring some extra body to the mix as well.

Okay so I'm pretty sure on a 5 ingredient custard recipe. Now the #s.

Cap Vanilla Custard V1 Average on both (actually 4 of these are the same, quite surprising) sites is about 3%. Remember this average includes custard mixes featuring cap vc1, custard mixes using it as an accent, being used low as an emulsifier...all kinds of things. We're using it as our main custard. I know from my sft that I personally like it a little higher as it gets a little more of that eggy custard taste (oh yeah, this was tailor made for /u/juthinc ) as well as the vanilla note. So I'd like this around 3.5-4% probably. I'll mix it at 3.5 for now. Can always add.

TPA Vanilla Swirl is a tasty flavor. Adds body, can do some masking, even goes with fruits & is quite tasty imo. Very useful flavor to have. Average is 2% & that is certainly a fine amount for most recipes including this one. Can go a bit higher for things like this if you want or lower to provide some less descript body to fruit recipes. So 2% it is.

INW Shisha Vanilla is one of my favorite vanillas. It works in many places including custards. ATF & elr say 1% Now 1% would be fine if we weren't working with VANILLA custard and VANILLA swirl. But we are. So we just want to accent & cement in that vanilla flavor we have started. Research and sft's say .5% should be plenty.

TPA Marshmallow or FA Meringue"? Either will work. Both provide sweetness and some body although quite different ends of the spectrum. Meringue a bit more fluffy & light. Marshmallow being thicker and smooths things out more. Both are great flavors and should make their way into your stash if they haven't yet. Average says: atf 1.5% elr 2% for Marshmallow & 1% for meringue. Now we just want this to sweeten & smooth everything out, maybe add to the overall mouthfeel as a bonus. Also this doesn't really taste like a Marshmallow per se. You always want to check out other recipes to see how a flavor is used as well as going off your own flavor notes. DON'T GO OFF OF RECIPES FROM 2015! Remember the tech of the time was not nearly what it is today, these recipes are usually very overflavored. So let's mix this at 1%. Can always add later. If you prefer Meringue and want a lighter fluffier sweetener 1% is also a perfect amount.

Finally TPA Bavarian Cream. Technically a bavarian cream is a European style vanilla custard. Remember all flavor companies are different. This is a heavy thick cream from tpa with many uses. Average says: about 2%. This soundsabout right, but I'm going to start it at 1.5%. because we can always add.

So we have:

Cap Vanilla Custard V1 3.5%

TPA Vanilla Swirl 2%

INW Shisha Vanilla 0.5%

TPA Marshmallow or FA Meringue 1%

TPA Bavarian Cream 1.5%

Mix up a small batch (if you have 10ml bottles make 9ml, 15ml make 14ml so you have some headroom for shaking). Label it & throw it in your steeping cabinet\drawer\ass for a week. After a week drip some to try it, with cap vc1 it's not done yet but you may want to take notes as it steeps. Back away it goes for another week, then retest.

Now @ 2 weeks if you feel you want more of something, like bavarian cream, you can add. Just make a recipe, eyeball your amount, add say TPA Bavarian Cream @ .5% & set your amount to 8ml(if you made 9, dripped a couple times this is close enough unless you know you used more). Throw it on your scale, add, shake, steep overnight (you do not need to steep as long as the 1st time) & should be good to go. Don't jump things up in huge amounts.

There. A little side project recipe that costs less than the change in your pocket & a little time & bottle cleaning. The knowledge of seeing how these different flavors interact as well as the research you (should) have done is priceless.

Don't get discouraged by mistakes, learn from them. Nobody bats 1.000. If you make something truly vile: look at your numbers (is anyone else using that flavor at that %?), smell the individual flavors (you can smell many off-notes along with many other things just by smelling your concentrates), research those flavors (do you just have a shitty peach flavor? Are you using an accent fruit like strawberry or blueberry wild as your main?) Have you done sft's? If so what are your notes?...you'll find your problem. If you can't just ask here :) Or our discord server is a fantastic place to get real-time advice.

Remember this is just one of the ways to mix. I hope this helps & please feel free to ask any questions :)