A lot of commercial development comes from finding that "right" ingredient that packs a ton of flavor, scales well, and sweetens well. Once that is found, recipes are usually built around that ingredient. Capella Super Sweet at 1-2% allows this already pretty flavorful recipe to stick on the tongue, and allows shittier RDA/RTA/Subtanks to produce respectable flavor. Citruses can help add that "pop" to fruits and candies. Steeping is also a bigger difference, as these juices normally have at least a few weeks to chill out. Don't be afraid to crank your ingredients.

And lastly, that commercial juice you like is probably stolen off ELR/ATF. I wish I was joking.

They have access to the same flavors that we do, but most of them use insane amounts of sweeteners which destroy coils and mute flavors, especially when you get used to juices without them.

What %s have you been resting at for what flavors? Most single flavors aren’t going to give absolutely amazing results either, which is why we create recipes.

Commercial Juice is so tasty? Dude, i'm not a super taster personally, but I do test THOUSANDS of commercial juices from around the world. Many hundreds each vape show and I would not say they are on average tasty. As a point of fact, they are over sweetened coil killers. As a rule, they are bland and redundant (90% rift from the same flavor ideas). As a matter of opinion they use too much flavoring so that they will "pop" in the shop but become unbearable after 50% of the bottle is gone. DIY gives you immense power to explore new stuff that is WAY tastier than most commercial juices. Just give it some time and some day in the future, you will be surprised that you made this post.

Here is a website that has a ton of features to help you make your juice and has recipes in both volume and weight so you can easily follow them, you can also put all your flavors in and it will show you which recipes you have the right flavors for, I think it might really help you get a better idea of what and how much of things to add, if you have any questions dont hesitate to ask, there really isnt any difference between what DIYers use and the big guys, its just a matter of getting your proportions right, dont get discouraged sometimes it takes some time, just relax and try and have fun and it will happen :) I wish you the best of luck and happy vaping, I am happy to make you a video if you are still having problems or feel free to check out the videos on my you tube, :D

https://e-liquid-recipes.com/

Single flavor testing is how you determine where a particular juice would fit within a recipe (is this strawberry earty? Is it sweet? Does it have a sharp top-note? Is it a real strawberry or a candy strawberry? etc.), not how commercial juice is made (they're blends of quite a few flavors usually).

It's very common for an experienced mixer looking for a good strawberry flavor to layer in 2-3 different strawberries, depending on what they're looking for. X flavor is the base, Y flavor is the sharp top note, and Z flavor is the sweetness, etc.

I suggest all DIY newbies to pick some highly rated recipes from ELR or ATF and mix those up, then decide if they want to start tweaking from there. Single flavor testing is something to get in to later, not something to start with (in my opinion).

Also, some flavors are naturally perfumey, but usually it means you're pushing that flavor to a higher percentage than you should.

What makes a good bakery's cakes taste so much better than the cakes we make at home? It's all ingredients and recipes for the most part. Everyone has that one family member that doesnt have any special equipment but has a BOMB recipe for something. It just always comes out good. The reason a commercial juice tastes so good is because thats one of their elite recipes. But we all know for ever great commercial juice there are 10 other trash ones that taste like doodoo.

Like others have said a single flavor test is made to help you figure out where it will sit within a complete juice. Raspberry by itself brings the perfume of raspberry and the hint of tart but that's it. You need other layers to make it pop. Something to bring the sweet, something for the juiciness, something to mellow out and cut through it etc. Most commercial vapes will have a ton of layers and sweetness to make it tasty. But you should check out the DIY sites, sort by top and look at their percentages and research what the flavors bring.

Like my favorite juice I mix right now is:

Papaya (TFA) 2% [Funk, INW Cactus could work as well]
Pomegranate (TFA) 1.50% [Fruity Sweetness]
Sweet Cream (CAP) 1.50% [Creamy Sweetness]
Sweet Tangerine (CAP) 2% [Citrus]
Cranberry (Flavorah) 1% [Tartness]

These all together give me a complex fruity vape that I can use all day. I like it and it doesn't destroy my coils. I dont like adding sweetness outside of what my extracts add. A good fruit sweetness is Dragonfruit. It's got a subtle flavor and lot's of sweet without being overbearing.

First. What recipes have you tried?

I think part of it is what sweetener or enhancer you use. CAP Super Sweet is basically sucralose and it will sweeten your whole recipe, but also possibly mute it.

I've been experimenting with CAP Marshmallow with fruits and TFA Marshmallow in bakeries. Wayne Walker did a video on enhancers that helped me on this path.

I’m in the same boat as you man. My favorite commercial ejuice is emojis blue razz. Been trying to get it but so far nothing I e made has been good. A lot of bland shit and then shit that just doesn’t taste like a candy anything and just natural berry flavor. Which was ok but def not the blue razz I’m going for. Using websites like all the flavors and e liquid recipes.com have def helped though.

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There were some commercial recipes released at one point that had like 10 percent sucralose sweetener in them..Prob just a mix of sweeteners or acids or additives that prob arent good for us to be smoking but who knows

Some of them have half of flavoring percentage as sweetener

my generalization is based solely off the commercial recipes Habu Vapor had made public

Sucralose.

Use less flavors, probably half your % based on the "perfume flavor".

Acids also make certain flavours pop but they're ruthless coil killers. I used to add TFA Sour in some of my fruity recipes, which definitely made them pop, but they gunked the coils really fast, and over 1% it took under a day for the coils to grow a sticky disgusting layer of burnt juice.

Sweeteners and additives used correctly. Plus adding 'unexpected' flavours into a mix to make it pop, which is pretty much down to years of experience.

Man I miss cowboy cobbler. Was the best juice I ever had.

So I'm new to mixing and I followed a recipe I liked on e-liquid recipes to the letter. Been vaping it for months and I've never been blown away by the flavor. I'm putting in 17% flavor, but it all feels muted.