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Honestly? Very, very seldom do I add sweetener to anything aside from specifically "candy" vapes. I don't pretend to have a universally applicable palate though. I found almost every commercially available juice I tried to be over-sweet.
When I do use sweetener I almost exclusively use FW Sweetener as it is (according to their SDS sheets) naught but PG and sucralose where some other options include preservatives, maltol, or ethyl maltol in addition to the sucralose.
Same, I prefer no sweetener at all. I mean it might be good and even necessary in some recipes but I prefer simplicity. Simple fruit blends with a touch of cooling.
My tastes are all over the place. Fruits, bakeries, creams, tobaccos, teas, booze, it all has merit in the right scenario. I just never found the commercial level of sweetness palatable. VG is inherently sweet and many flavors include some incidental sucralose or other sweeteners to begin with. I'd rather taste nuance (when it's there) than have a mix mute itself after a tank through extreme sweetness.
I've CONSIDERED trying something different and I like the source I will sadly have to leave behind but I just never found, I dunno, anything but fruits and simple fruit mixes I like. The only one I did like that wasn't a fruit was their Christmas candycane. I guess since I will start mixing soon I could try something different since I can make 5ml test batches.
For sweetening some tobacco recipes what do you recommend instead of sweetener? I've followed a recipe for a guava tobacco that's my ADV more often than not. That's sweet but it's from the guava. I don't want sweetener in all my tobacco flavors but there's a few recipes I follow that call for sweetener.
I add sweetener to fruits, candies and desserts but not tobaccos (obviously).
It used to be CAP Super Sweet but there's as much citric acid as there is sucralose.
Now I use either:
FW Sweetener 1-2% (just sucralose, good all rounder)
TPA Sweetener 1-2% (less sucralose than FW plus maltol, better with candies)
WF Sweetener SC 0.5-1% (just maltol I think but I'm not sure)
Experimented with FLV Sweetness but it's weak and at higher percentages triggers my asthma so I don't use it.
Most of the flavourings we use could be described as "sugar flavourings", in that they're used to add flavour to sugar (candy) or sugary beverages etc. Most fruit flavours use the same molecules as found in actual fruit, where they're naturally paired with a lot of sugar (mostly fructose).
Without the sugar most are tasteless, and those that do have a taste don't taste right. So to me it doesn't make sense to use them without sweetener.
I'm convinced people who don't use sweetener either don't use flavours that should be sweet or they're using flavours in their mixes that contain sweeteners without realising it (like FW Yellow Cake that contains actual fructose, wouldn't want to vape that every day, cavities galore!)
Given that VG is inherent sweet there's considerable validity in opting to not use any sweetener beyond the incidental sucralose or maltol content of various flavorings. Additionally, if you give your palate a chance to "reset" from sweeteners it is not at all unheard of to find flavors more vibrant and having more depth than previous. With that said, what works for some may not work for others.
Regarding the fructose in FW yellow cake or other flavorings, it isn't often a concern regarding cavities so much as the fructose caramelizing onto the coils actively releasing carcinogenic compounds when heated, hence the nickname "cancer cake".
Something similar happens when you cut out sweet foods and drinks. I did this for a year or so and could taste even the slightest hint of sugar by the end of it. Things like ketchup became sickly sweet. Interestingly the same happened with salt, even though I wasn't trying to avoid it.
Presumably you'd also have to change your diet to develop this ability with vaping... Just a thought.
You do have a point about the sweetness of VG itself.
Hi. Mainly, I‘d say no unless it’s a very sweet profile, such as a candy bar or a chocolate milkshake. The same goes for WS-23. If I‘m vaping ice cream or a cold drink/frozen dessert, I want the perception of „cold“. But most everything I vape has no sweeteners, coolants or any other additives.
Yes. At least 0.5 to 1%. Not adding sweetner saves your cotton a bit, but when you can get 200 cotton pads for 8 dollars at the pharmacy it's not a big deal. Cotton bacon and others that are vape specific are a scam for how much they charge. If it's a flavor thing that's another story. I personally love sweet juice but I never go over 1.5% because it's too much for me personally.
What sweeteners are you using?
There's a meaningful difference in the potency and composition of something like CAP super sweet and FW sweetener or others.
My bad I forgot to mention, I use cap super sweet.
yeah. even at 1% CAP super sweet I feel the sweetness would often be overbearing. That would be roughly equal to 2% FW Sweetener in terms of potency when I very rarely eclipse .5%. Certainly there's a lot of folks that like their juice with that kind of sweetness, but my goodness that feels like a lot.
Worth noting as well, since CAP super sweet contains preservatives, it does seem to really take a hammer to more subtle flavors or notes in a recipe. It's popular for a reason, but I do think it has some pit falls that folks should be aware of when selecting a sweetener.
Sucralose triggers severe migraines for me, so I asked here a few weeks ago and someone suggested Rick’s Sugar Mama. I don’t know what ingredients are in it, but I’m told no Sucralose. I’ll be finding out soon. I have grandkids today. I had to go spend 3 weeks at my daughter’s due to a medical emergency, but I just got home early this morning so I’ll be breaking everything out tomorrow