This is my first time making vape juice and I made 5 or 6 different bottles and most of them taste like shit so far. I feel like I used too much flavoring but how do I know whether it is actually shit or it just has to steep longer to develop my flavor. If they are going to be shit anyways, I’d like to dump them and reuse the bottles.
Edit: why am I getting downvoted? I just want to learn how to do it. :(
Steeping only helps develop flavor for some juices; a shit juice will still be shit after a steep.
So if it’s shit now it will be shit in the future for sure? How do I know if it just needs more time to steep?
I've read a few comments and I'll say this. Flavor percentages are high yes, but in some cases, depending on setup, high percentages come out good. It just depends on the flavors and brands. If your juice taste like garbage when you shake n vape, it may not get much better. Lemondades are hard to get right. I have made tobaccos that were horrible as a shake and wonderful after 3 weeks. But in my experience, if it's trash, it stays trash. Yogurts and tobaccos can be the exception but not the rule. High percentages usually mute flavors rather than enhance them.
TL;DR Yes and no to previous comments. Depends on many factors. Taste is subjective. Low percentages and garbage stays garbage. These are USUALLY the facts but not always
Lemonades are easy as hell.
Take:
5% LA Lemonade
.5% INW Lemon Mix
.2% INW cactus
.4% FA Polar Blast
.4% WS-23
...and the n add some random sweet juicy fruit like FA Blackcurrant or INW grape, or even just try it straight. No work.
Has LA done away with their flavors that used to have food coloring in them?
No. But they do sell clear versions. We pretty much assume you use the clear ones for juice. Definitely avoid white food coloring. Others... Make your own choice, there's no reason to believe they're dangerous, but they also aren't needed so why bother including something in your juice that doesn't need to be there?
When first starting out, I would recommend going to the website All the Flavors, searching by flavor and brand, and then using either the mode or the average % of that flavor for your first iteration. After that, raise and lower when you're fine tuning. Don't make huge changes (as in from 3% to 6%).
Also, sort highly rated recipes containing that flavor to see what percentages are being used for recipes that are similar to what you're aiming for.
Generally, I like to give fruity vapes maybe 2 days to steep, while if there is any cream, bakery, or other rich flavor involved it is usually a week minimum steep.
The sidebar contains a link to oodles of flavor reviews, and that will honestly be a gold mine when looking for and implementing new flavors to your mixes.
We were all excited to start out, but you do need to do your due diligence and research if you want to make a decent juice. I've been mixing for a number of years now and have only developed a few flavors that I consider finished. It takes research, practice, and time.
Side note: brand and flavor make a huge difference. Some flavors can take over a mix at 0.5%, while others could be a straight 5% and seem weak. You'll learn that some flavors fight for space, and no matter how you adjust one will take the other over. Some flavor combinations play well together and can all work at very low %s, and sometimes a flavor needs to be jacked up to still stand out after a long steep with creams.
There is a lot to learn, so pick a few highly rated recipes to start. It will give you a frame of reference moving forward, as well as increasing your flavor collection while vaping on some delicious juice.
Do what this guy said and youll be fine. Just do the three most upvoted recipes that fit your taste and you wont be dissapointed. If you just drop random single flavors at random percentages on your bottles, theres not a big chance you will get somethong enjoyable out of it.
How are we to know if we don't know what you made?
All 70/30 vg pg 6 mg of nicotine. These were all made on the fourth so 5 days of steeping so far.
2 bottles of strawberry lemonade. One is 4% the other is 7.
Wild frosting (this one is 80/20 ration) 8%
Fruit circles 5%
27 bears 7%
Unicorn vomit 15%
Your percentages are way too high. First one (though you still haven't told us the brands) is too high and the second one is absolutely insanity. Where did you get that recipe?
Wait wat? You are saying that 4 and 7 % of a single flavor is too high and way too high?
I have made recipes that are amazing that have 7 of a single flavor and others added to boot!
It is all what the user thinks tastes good.
As for pink lemonade that might be low for a pre made flavoring
I don't mix using %s of each flavor. I use ratios so that I can test the combos in h2o first and not waste supplies. And yes I know the ratios can be turned into % however when I 1st started diy 10yrs ago I had trouble with %s so someone helped me to learn ratios instead. It's what works FOR ME
You couldn't use a juice calculator like everyone does?
That's NOT what I mean. I had no idea where to start as to what % of each flavor AND I was on a budget and couldn't afford to mix several test batches that would possibly be shit. Therefore someone with MORE experience than I did then taught me how to test run with ratios as to not waste supplies
Cathy. Reading this thread, I'd love for you share how you do your ratio method. And pre testing in h2o is brilliant. I'm just learning and reading. Trying to pick a few favorites to get this down.
Instead of mixing %s of flavors do it by ratio. To test a recipe of say apple&caramel: fill a 30ml medicine cup(most pharmacies have free) with water. Take an eye dropper and try X drops apple and Y drops caramel. Mix&sip. Repeat if it doesn't taste how you want it. Once you nail a good ratio, say 4apple:3caramel then it's just math after that. Take the total amount of Apple divided by 4 then multiply by 3. That equals total mls of caramel to mix with your apple. Pick a total flavor % you want to try, say 20%, then take total mls apple plus mls caramel then multiply by 100 and divide by 80. This gives amount of VG. Add VG+total mls flavorings for total juice made. Then use a calculator app, like POTV, plug in total mls juice, mg of base nic, desired end mg nic and 20% in the flavor section. That will calculate mls nic to add. I know it seems like a lot of math to start but once you nail a recipe you can calculate everything once and use 8t dir future reference. Another trick for fruit&cream recipes, add 2drops lemon flavor for every 10mls of juice, it makes the fruit pop. Here's how the 4:3 apple:caramel would calculate if using 4oz(118mls) apple: CARAMEL APPLE 118ML apple(tfa) 88ml caramel candy (tfa) 10.3ml nic 815ml vg
There are two different things to note here:
- A horrible recipe probably will remain horrible after steep.
- A good recipe most probably will taste good after steep.
What's in-between is that sometimes horrible recipes become less horrible after a good steep, other times not.
Also sometimes good recipes turn out a little better or aworse after steep.
That covers everything with very few surprising exceptions :)
In short: The good advice is to let'm steep well.