I'm planning on buying about 30 flavor concentrates, doing every recipe available in 5ml quantities and try them one by one.
I don't want to buy random flavors or look at some recipes and buy those flavors.
Isn't there a list of flavors that will make me be able to make hundreds/thousands of recipes?
You’d be better off doing the opposite of what your plan is.
Think of a couple of flavor profiles you’d like to try and then go over to alltheflavors dot com and search for those profiles, sort by most mixed, highest rating etc.
It will save you a lot of headaches.
If you aren’t part of the discord server of this sub you should check out the sidebar and join. The folks there will get you headed in the right direction.
> Isn't there a list of flavors that will make me be able to make hundreds/thousands of recipes?
No, there's not. Considering you mention the common advice "look at some recipes and buy those flavors" you must know a little bit about how this works. Here's a little bit more:
https://diyejuice.org/flavors/best-of
Unfortunately no. I can tell you that I have approximately 700 flavors added to my ATF stash, which lets me make 4026 recipes from a total of 12244 (status atm). And believe me when I say that I have a lot of staples. You won’t be able to hit those numbers with 30 flavors. But what you can do and should do is to buy flavors for recipes that interest you. You‘ll have something nice to vape and at the same time begin building a flavor stash. You‘ll have flavor concentrate left over to experiment with (buy 10 ml flavor size for starters) and you‘ll be able to experience what you like and dislike. Flavors that sound good often aren’t. They behave differently when vaped then when utilized in foods. There’s a lot of trial and error, but we have a great experienced Discord group with a bunch of helpful mixers that you‘re welcome to join. We can guide you step-by-step and answer any questions you may have. Good luck!
I agree with red, find several recipes that sound like something you’d like and start with those flavor concentrates. a few dollars wasted on some flavors isn’t a big deal but if you’re going for 30 you might end up with quite a few that you won’t ever use.
i’ve got about 15-20 and rotate about 6 recipes with those, mostly modifying existing recipes to my liking.
The Perfumer's Apprentice Bavarian Cream and Cheesecake (Graham Crust) and Marshmallow, Flavor West Cafe Cream, Capella Super Sweet, WS-23... right off the top of my head those few are very versatile. An experienced mixer will most likely have a Top 10 concentrates that pretty much everything is made from.
Try looking for a Top 10 post.
I have a pretty good selection of flavors, I’d say about 40-50, but can only make a few recipes in the “what can I make” wizard on e-liquid recipes.com. I bought a bunch I thought sounded good and I only use less than 20% of them. I’m going to have to throw a bunch out as they’re getting old. Do what others are suggesting. Find a few simple recipes with good reviews and buy the flavors you need for those. Don’t waste money like I did :)
Same with me, I have only 4 pages worth of stuff I can mix on ATF. I have probably twice as many flavors as you, too. Lots of basics like Bavarian cream, ice creams, ripe strawberry, Dragonfruit, a ton of blue razzes, etc but a bunch of weird crap from when I first started out too. One thing that opened a few more up for me was putting all the sweeteners "in stash" on ATF even though I only use Cap SS, can just sub out whatever sweetener the mixer had in their recipe. Idk if you know that trick, helped me out to find a couple more things to mix.
My favorite simple 2 flavor recipe is on eliquid recipes.com called “A Blueberry in a Marshmallow, Why Not?” Uses FW Blueberry and Purilum Marshmallow. I also love TPA double chocolate clear at 10% as a single favor vape. Tastes like tootsie rolls! Both of those are my EDV’s right now.
I kind of disagree with the rest in here. Different mixers have different tastes, buying just a few recipes, especially when you have no experience with picking them, will likely leave you stuck with a lot of stuff you don't like and can't use. I'd use the sidebar and get as much as I can of the recommended first-order flavors, along with any suggested +'s for specific mixes you want to try.