Can you help a noob troubleshoot first mixes?

[sameguy]

I just got my first shipment from Nic River today. I've tried a few recipes from the recipes thread and have made 3 30ml bottles (actually the creamsickle was 25ml) of what can best be described as cardboard flavored vape with slight hints of flavor. I generally vape 6mg so that's what I started with.

I made HIC's Creamsicles recipe, the complicated version with the following measurements:

Nicotine 100 mg (100% VG)
1.89g 6%

VG dilutant
28.06g 89%

Total base
29.95g 95%

FA Custard
0.25g 1$

FA Vienna Cream
0.25g 1%

Mandarin (FA)
0.75g 3%

Also made a stand alone FA Irish cream and stand alone FA Lemon Sicily with the following measurements:
Nicotine 100 mg (100% PG)
1.86g 6%

VG dilutant
34.43g 91%

Flavourart Flavor
0.9g 3%

My Nic is 100mg VG base which arrived today as well as fresh, new VG just opened. Scale was just calibrated and tested and seems to be working good. I added ingredients shook like crazy, let sit in warm water bath and shook like crazy, probably 3-4 minuted total of shaking. I wicked my RDA each time with new rayon and soaked with juice, let sit for 10 min then started at 30 watts, working my way up to 60 which is what I usually vape at. I got some flavor but it was overwhelmingly cardboard. actually having trouble getting the taste out of my mouth.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[RonJS]

I added ingredients shook like crazy, let sit in warm water bath and shook like crazy, probably 3-4 minuted total of shaking.

It IS Important to shake your individual ingredients Before mixing them together. Especially nic.

To help troubleshoot that cardboard sensation see...
http://vapingunderground.com/threads/finding-the-problem-when-your-diy-tastes-bad.88262/

Ron
---
"So you all will know the seriousness of my warning, I shall say this in English."-O-Ren Ishii

 

[sameguy]

Thank you for the reply. I did shake my flavors well before adding to the mix but in my haste I did not ensure my nic was well mixed when I put some in a small bottle to work from. I'll put that back in the larger container and get it mixed up really good and try again tomorrow. Thank you for the link as well. I was pretty disappointed with my results and put everything away before reading that post. Next mixing session I will narrow down the cardboard culprit by process of elimination but at this point the evidence is pointing to the unmixed nic.

 

[HondaDavidson]

Put the bottles on a dark shelf.. forget about them for 1 week.. shake and vape.. if not better toss or put back on shelf to restest next week.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

 

[Train]

Also may try narrowing down the source of the offending taste.
Try vaping a little no-nic straight VG. Does the VG taste OK? (clean, slightly sweet is normal)
Now mix up some no-flavor 6 mg nic/VG (you might like it actually) - how does THAT taste? If that's good, then the Nic and VG are both OK.
You want to eliminate those as tasting like cardboard...

Finally - what did you mix IN?
Could the bottle have had any kind of contaminant that got mixed into your juice? A little soap...ick.

 

[brandon555]

Also may try narrowing down the source of the offending taste.
Try vaping a little no-nic straight VG. Does the VG taste OK? (clean, slightly sweet is normal)
Now mix up some no-flavor 6 mg nic/VG (you might like it actually) - how does THAT taste? If that's good, then the Nic and VG are both OK.
You want to eliminate those as tasting like cardboard...

Finally - what did you mix IN?
Could the bottle have had any kind of contaminant that got mixed into your juice? A little soap...ick.

I agree, process of elimination is the way to go. It could any one of the things mentioned or even just a flavor that doesn't agree with your palate. If it's flavoring, my guess is vienna cream. I'm not a fan of that one it has an off taste to me. Custards and creams generally aren't the best as a shake n' vape either. They usually benefit from a decent steep of a few days or more.

 

[Time]

As others have mentioned already, creams and custards need steep time. I just put mine away for a week or two but if you can't really wait that long you can look into some of the heat steep methods some use to speed up the steeping.

 

[nightshard]

Is it max VG on purpose? Get some PG and do a 70VG/30 mix.

 

[RonJS]

Finally - what did you mix IN?
Could the bottle have had any kind of contaminant that got mixed into your juice? A little soap...ick.

Good point!

Since a cardboard taste is one of the primary indications that a beer is oxidized; maybe there was some old beer left in the mixing vessel.

Ron
BJCP Recognized Judge #C0490
---
"Plunge Deep enough in order to see something that is hidden and glimmering."- Matsuo Basho

 

[sameguy]

So I have finally gotten around to do some testing and have found the culprit, however i'm not quite sure what to do now. I tested the VG alone and it tastes pretty neutral and my no nic flavors seem ok so I made 15ml of 6mg nic base with only VG. (1.13 grams of 100mg VG nic + 17.79 grams of VG) BLAMO.....CARDBOARD. I'm using a decent calibrated (by me) scale and my nic and VG are brand new from Nicotine River. Nic was warmed in warm water and shaken for a few minutes. Nic appears nearly clear.

Reviews of Nic Rivers Nic state that it was pretty neutral but it completely overpowers all but the strongest flavors i have mixed. Tasting it without flavor gives a rather harsh hit that kind of sticks to your tongue. Not quite peppery but dry and tastes the way cardboard smells.

Does my math above look right? I used http://e-liquid-recipes.com/create for the weights.

Could my nic be bad? Is there a better source of Nic out there that would be more neutral?

I normally vape 6mg in my RTA, dual coil at around 60 watts all day long, usually 15-20ml a day.

 

[sameguy]

Actually I will start a new thread on this subject...

 

[brandon555]

Not all nic is created equal, it might be worth trying some other stuff. I've been vaping nic from My Freedom Smokes for years and it's always been consistently good. There's other good brands out there too. Also, make sure to store it in a glass bottle, nic stored in a plastic bottle will taste pretty bad after a while.