First and foremost, this is not a post to hate on the luscious nectar of the gods.
I’d just like to know, is this normal? So far I’ve made 4 different flavors from the “best of 20xx” recipes section of the sub, including Mother of Dragons Milk (which has a most righteous flavor but just seems a little faint).
I’ve watched a handful of videos and done reading on types of sweeteners and how to use them but I’m scared to use the sweetener as I don’t want to dilute my liquid even further.
For reference on my desired sweetness I’d like to have in most of my liquids, I’m looking for anywhere between Skwezed Green Apple and Cush Man Banana Mango.
To add, I enjoy the enthusiasm of many people in the sub going sweetener-free. I’d like to be there at some point but I just can’t see myself switching so drastically.
EDIT: Wow thank you all for the help. I have been able to learn so much from everything shared here. Can’t wait to try out some new strategies!
I imagine that you have been vaping commercial ejuice, such as the ones you mentioned above? If that is the case, you‘ve probably been vaping more sweetener than you realize (approx. 5-10%). The good part about making your own ejuice is that you have options. There‘s nothing wrong with using a little sweetener sensibly. I would add 0.5% sweetener and try it, if it‘s not where you want it, bump it up to 1%. You also have options using sweeteners such CAP Super Sweet (sucralose based, gunks up coils a bit) or by using Stevia/Monk Fruit sweeteners (it‘s important not to buy just any sweetener because most are not for vaping and contain additives - if you want Stevia/Monk Fruit a safe way to go would be using Monk Fruit Extract (10%) from Nude Nicotine as well as Stevia PG (7,5%) also from Nude Nicotine).
Personally, if I use sweetener it‘s sucralose because stevia gives a bitter aftertaste. To see how recipes use stevia/monk fruit you can have a look at recipes on e-liquid-recipes by LianazVapin. If you want that commercial sweetness, CAP Super Sweet is the way to go. Over time, by using a little less sweetener, your taste will adjust.
Yeah, I just started DIY about a week ago. I had no idea vendors were doing 5-10%. That’s shocking considering how flavorful some juices can be while still being a 70/30 ratio instead of, say, 50-50.
I learned something from you, and now I will be adding CAP Super Sweet to my cart for Black Friday. I’ve seen people talk about this one but didn’t get it originally because I thought EM would be enough for me. Thank you!
>That’s shocking considering how flavorful some juices can be while still being a 70/30 ratio instead of, say, 50-50.
I don't think you understand how this works. I can take a recipe like Berry Creamy which is 5% flavor and add 10% CAP Super Sweet pushing total flavor to 15% and still get 15/85 PG/VG if I wanted to.
To further on this, most flavours come in PG so let's assume a generic recipe uses 10% flavourings that's still 90% of the liquid left to choose what to do. If you want now you can add 2-3% sweetener and it'll still be 13% PG. You add nicotine (say 10% of the whole liquid for this) and you still have 7% left to reach 30% pg. Or you can add 2% pg and vape at 75/25 vg to pg ratio. You basically get 30% of "whatever I want to do" in most nowadays recipes if sticking to 70/30. Nicotine comes in vg or pg or mixed variants as well so there's even more variety. What will mostly determine your mix will be how much VG you dump in when finishing it off.
Hey, thanks for your post! To elaborate on what I meant by the portion referenced in your post, I was mostly referring to what I learned in the starter videos about how more PG makes flavors pop out than less PG. All while having the sweetener dilute the flavor even more.
This was just surprising to me, ya learn something new every day!
EM is not sweetener, it is a additive type flacor that has some sweetness. Unfortunately its additive role is smoothinng out flavors, which it does by muting them. However, it will mute your entire mix if too much ends up in your mix. And it's also one ingredient used in a number of flavorings.
Try stevia or monk fruit extrad_ both are coil-friendly.
If you only started a week ago, you might just have to give your flavors some time to steep as well. Iirc MoDM recommends a 1 week steep before it's flavors fully come out. Not a huge deal if you've got nothing and need to vape now, just shake it REAL good at least twice a day and over time it should become more flavorful. Otherwise I'd recommend looking up some shake n vape recipes which don't require as much steeping and are more flavorful immediately without the need for coil-gunking sweetener.
Yeah, unfortunately I’m in the “I’ve got nothing and need to vape now” category due to my states ban. I’ve made the prickly victory liquid that (I think) was shake and vape and it was ok, but I just felt like I needed it to be sweetened. I’m on the steep train right now though, I’ve got three bottles hangin out that I’ve been shaking every day.
I’d love to find a nice simple shake and vape recipe for my Forest Mix flavor cuz that stuff smells AWESOME. But every recipe I’ve read for it (even just single flavor recipes) call for a wide range of flavor and I don’t know which is correct. Guess I’ll just have to mess around with it.
Your gonna want ethyl maltol, and a sucralose based sweetener. I'd recommend exploring fruits, specifically candy fruits and not fresh. Commercial brands tend to have candied flavors because they have a much much longer shelf life, they are for candy afterall. Strawberry ripe for example tastes it's best its first 4 weeks or so. It's still good afterwards but it looses quite alot of it's bite unless you pair it with another candied or syrupy strawberry base.
What type of hardware are you using? This will affect flavor greatly. Edit: Punctuation
Smok TFV16 with dual coils currently, used at 120w (recommended). Also have a Cleito 120, Smok TFV8 and the original Herakles but I haven’t tried any of the latter since I went DIY
Tell me I'm crazy but SMOK coils seem way too expensive to burn out with sweeteners. I mean if I'm using DIY coils I don't feel so bad about needing to replace them every other day from sucralose gunk-up, but with manufactured coils I tend to be a lot more picky with the juice I use in them. Maybe I'm just being a penny-pincher...
Edit: or did you mean you're using the RBA deck in the TFV16? Sorry if i misinterpreted that.
Unfortunately I’m not using an RBA. With going liquid DIY I’ll be saving about ~$25/week which makes me feel a little less bad about buying manufactured coils. I tried to set up my RBA before but I couldn’t figure it out. I plan to take it to a local shop and have someone teach me how to set it up.
Man, looking back to what the cost of vaping was before I started doing this myself is nuts. This ban in my state may be the best thing that has happened to my bank account by forcing me to go DIY.
I use Capella Super Sweet and TBV Sugar Daddy aldepending on how sweet I want a particular mix. In my experience if it's commercially sweet you want then Super Sweet is the best and 1 drop per 10ml is normally enough. If want something that won't make your teeth rattle on every pull Sugar Daddy is probably better.
If you are using ELR go to the wrench and turn the total percentage of the recipe up 1% or 2% and then add in 0.5% to 2% sweetener. Personally I prefer PUR Super Sweet over CAP's because it's not as dry and because it isn't so dry it seems a bit sweeter. For sugar lips with PUR's 0.75% is all I need in most average DIY recipes. To avoid too much muting you can turn the flavoring up and when you add sweetener the muting won't be noticeable because you will have turned the flavoring up some. Many commercial juices purposefully use higher percentages of flavorings and then purposefully mute it out with sweetener. Some commercial liquids can have up to 5% CAP super sweet in it and they've pushed their couple of flavorings up to a total of 20% or 25% just to mute it out with the super sweet.
Ok now this is something I had not considered. I’ve been terrified to turn up flavorings due to fear of them being muted, but to have sweetener counteract that makes LOADS OF SENSE! I feel like a light bulb just switched on in my head.
I’m going to give this a shot. Thanks a ton!
Ricks Sugardaddy Sweetener from The Broke Vaper
"From our very own Rick Laporte, a PimpDaddy Original….SUGAR DADDY!
A new strong sweetener with the true taste of sugar. No chemical aftertaste and significantly less coil gunkage. Don’t be forced to decide between your sweet tooth and your coils anymore"
How long are you waiting before you taste your mixes?
If your mix is a fruity mix, give it at least an overnight steep. If it's a creamy dessert like mother of dragons, leave it alone a week at a bare minimum. If it's a custard... Some mixes will be meh within the first month. Others, may need 1.5-2 months to reach their full potential.
But, vape them too soon, and you will see. It's like tasting a drink after the ice melts. All watered down.
In terms of what everyone else said about the sweetener content in commercial juices you've been accustomed too, back in October an ex commercial juice manufacturer posted a link to their recipes.
Here's an example of how high the sweetener content of any commercial juice might be.
http://imgur.com/gallery/gxTtFjZ
13%?! I haven’t even seen a mention of someone using that much. I haven’t tried the juice, but I am curious to see how it compares to what I’m used to.
Im not familiar with the flavor enhancer used in the recipe. Is that a sweetener as well?
Yeah, 13%. Highest I've used in a recipe is 5% super sweet. Makes it insanely delicious. Typically though my stuff is at .5-1% super sweet.
Flavor toner/enhancer is a way to smooth out harsh mixes.