Hi all,
I've only recently been getting into DIY and after years of using sweet commercial juices, the recipes I've been making aren't sweet enough for my palate.
Most of the recipes I've been replicating call for around 0.5% CAP Super Sweet.
My question is, aside from increasing the amount of sweetener I use, what do most commercial brands add to their juices to make them so tasty and sweet? I have a suspicion that there's more to it than just large concentrations of sucralose.
For a bit of context I tend to go for fruit mixes over desserts and others.
Hi. They use more CAP Super Sweet. I‘ve seen several original commercial recipes using CAP SS at 2% and above. They also push flavors to and beyond their limit, using the high amount of sweetener to mask off notes.
Since you’re coming from commercial eliquid, I‘d start by using CAP SS at 1% and slowly lowering it. You‘ll get used to less fairly quick and everything will be tastier. I‘ve been DIYing for about 2 years now and I enjoy sweet vapes as well as others. I used to love the MilkMan line as well as FrenchDude/PancakeMan. Ordered some the other day and I can’t vape it anymore. It’s so sickening sweet it makes me gag. All I taste is artificial sweetener. Today I still use CAP SS, but at 0.25-0.4% and it’s candy sweet to me.
What you do is up to you of course. To me, using less was worth it, because my sense of taste has vastly improved. And also, in the sense of harm reduction, less is more. Good luck.
could try a blend of sweeteners like ricks sugar daddy or make a mix of sucralose, xylose, erythritol, maltol, some people use truvia (stevia) and citric acid
Personally have not tried I put as few ingredients in my vape as possible many flavours are sweet enough
your tastes will change over time and probably won't miss sweetener at all if you keep the % low or just stop using it
Also look into (erithotol). It gives a nice full sweetness and will boost fruit flavors. Its not as potent as cap super sweet. I use it along side s.s. and have reduced s.s. down to about 6 drops per 100mil. The best part is it does not gunk your coils like most other sweeteners. It can be hard to find but if your in the states nude nicotine makes it. If you try to make it yourself make sure to get pure erithotol with no anti caking agents. And you have to make it with v.g. it will not dilute in p.g. hope that helps.
There's a school of thought in DIY which is against sweeteners, or hostile to them at worst. I think a sorta decent metaphor would be some people enjoy a natural smoothie, with fresh fruits etc, whilst others enjoy a diabetes inducing McDonald's milkshake, full of sugar, ice-cream and all the rest.
Personally, i like a sweet vape, its something i enjoy - i enjoy a dirty McDonalds milkshake over a fresh fruit smoothie bought at the side of the road here in Asia with fruit picked that very morning. That's just me. You sound like one of those people too.
I wouldn't try to 'wean' yourself off sweetener etc because...well that's what you enjoy. The beauty is here you get to tailor what you make, for yourself. If you enjoy that sweet, saturated sort of liquid, then go for it.
I'm not great at mixing, but what i can say is that having friends who have commercial lines here in Indonesia is that they tend to use flavours at a higher percentage than typically seen in DIY, and use Cap Supersweet at around 2% - sometimes 3% (Malaysian juices)
As mentioned by someone else here before me, the sweetener sort of covers up any off notes present by pushing the flavourings to their limit. Most of them are around 15%- 20% total flavouring, most of them use TFA/Cap as they're readily available and cheaper than the other brands. There's nothing magic etc they have that we don't.
For a sweet, saturated sorta commercial juice - its just a good recipe, push the flavouring percentages as far as they go without going over the edge and then a good 2% of cap ss to cover up any mistakes.
You might find 2% is too much, you might like 1% or 0.5%..but i think 'weaning' yourself off sweeteners altogether if that's something you actually enjoy (as do i) would be counter productive.
*edit* I'd also recommend joining the discord channel in here, great group of folk who are always there to help and cast their experienced eyes over a recipe you're about to mix up.
I get you. Your used to the sweet stuff . Commercial juice throw it in for shortcuts. I was the same until I learned to bring out the real fruit flavours without all the sweetener. Marshmallow can round off fruit and bring a sweetness. Cactus is another that brings out the fruit. A sweet watermelon concentrate as a backing note to main flavour. I use sweetener as a last resort or a touch of menthol to save a juice I wouldn't normally vape