I've been steeping two 200ml bottles of Chocolate Glazed Donuts by Loaded (two 30ml bottles of concentrated aroma) for 30 days and I'm not certain I'm getting anywhere.
Freshly mixed the smell was as good as expected but the taste was, literally, like veggie gravy, like those cubes of vegetable stock: Salty, green... I know desserts take longer than most so I just waited, shaking vigorously every week.
Second and third week the vegetable stock flavor was still there but it started developing some notes of lemon. Smell was still fine, just Chocolate Glazed Donuts by Loaded.
30 days have passed, and now, whereas the smell is still great, the lemon flavor is gaining protagonism and the stock taste, although subtle, is still there... It has started to taste somewhat sweet tho and it's definitely more pleasant and usable...
Thoughts, facts and questions:
-Luckily enough, each bottle is mixed on different bases: 80/20 base by THE ARK and 50/50 base by MIX&GO, both freshly open for that purpose, used them for several more DIY and tasted perfectly.
-Both were mixed with three 10ml 18mg nicotine bottles, should've I just waited until it was finished?
-They have been stored at room temperature (20°C) inside of a box.
-Both 200ml bottles were washed and sterilized.
-Needless to say I followed the concentration guidelines by Loaded: 15% (30ml aroma, 10*3 10ml nicotine +140ml base for 200ml of deliciousness).
-Being this bigger than usual bottles and a sweet and complex aroma, could it be taking longer than I expected and I should just wait longer?
-Should I leave the caps open for a few hours?
-Could the two concentrated aroma bottles be stale?
I hope someone can help me, thank you all and sorry for this long text.
In my experience, if it tastes like crap after mixed, no amount of steeping will help it. Always make small batches when using new ingredients, recipes, or one shots. Next time make a 10ml at different ratios ie 10%, 12%, 15%, 18%. The one shot might just be crap to begin with and you could've saved yourself 150mls of base.
Totally on board with everything you've said. Now I dont do tobacco's , which I know have at times a weird steeping process. But a couple years back I would give myself challenges to make myself a better mixer. Mainly I would pick a profile, this one being banana, which I didn't like. The goal was to make a juice that I would like using banana figuring that if even I liked it then I've inherently upped my game. Long story short. Think I got it and mix up 300 mls. Not bad off the shake. But I try again on like day 4 and it tastes like crap. I cuss myself out and tell myself I'm an idiot. But I didn't pour it out. Just a couple days later it was on point. An anomaly like that hasn't happened since or before. Moral of story is hang in there. But a month on a bakery juice is more than enough time. They're not talking about baby vomit. Sounds like it's time to abort mission. Which OP mentioned should have been a smaller bottle. Live and learn. Good job Apocalyptical.
The aromas that you have are what we refer to as "one shots" and many times the manufacturer recommended percentages are just too high, also they just might not be good flavors in the first place. There are plenty of DIY mixers,from this sub and elsewhere, that sell one shots through various retailers, try looking at chefsflavors. Also, its never recommended to mix up such a big bottle of a flavor that you've never had before. Buy a scale so you can mix in smaller quantities to avoid so much waste.
I feel like every post involving premixed concentrate is some kind of weird mess. Why go halfway? Just buy some flavorings for ULTRA CHEAP and mix your own juice using the hundreds of user-rated recipes on alltheflavors. There is no reason to use this weird middleman.
Taste the flavor directly (since it has no nic), just a small drop on your finger. If it tastes bad, it's either gone bad or your tongue doesn't agree with the flavors--often cream/bakeries can be off-putting to some. But chocolate tends to taste burnt to folks, creams and bakeries peppery. Haven't heard of some salty floral notes outside of some bad issues with fruits and herb flavors.
For the most part, steeping only brings out a bit more, calm down a bit, or helps flavors come together. If it's bad from the start, it'll be as bad or worse later on. Steeping isn't magic.