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I have learned a few things in my DIY adventure and have written a lot about steeping so I thought I would address the things that I have personally found to be helpful through my own testing. everything below is my opinion and there are no real facts other than my own results. the purpose of my post is not to tell you whats right or wrong but to just get more ideas and opinions out there.
there are many ways to "steep" a juice. you can go as simple as putting your juice somewhere warm and shaking it from time to time to using ultra sonic cleaners and food dehydrators. when you steep you are waiting for the juice to mature . why we call it steeping Im not sure. to me steeping is soaking a solid in a liquid to extract a flavor. for instance tea leaves in hot water or a vanilla bean soaking in PG or VG. anyways. some flavors and certain combinations end up needing a little time to mature to its ultimate potential. normally tobacco vapes need some time, anything with custard notes or alcohol and sometimes recipes with a lot of flavors. most anything else doesnt need steeped. deciding if your juice needs steeped is mostly a matter of personal opinion. when I mix something new I vape it fresh. vape enough to make sure your wick and coil are nicely broke in and you get the flavor of the juice and not funky fresh wick. for example lets say you are mixing an apple vape and it does not taste good. steeping its going to change that unless its a flavor with alcohol in it or certain chemicals. I learned over time the mixes I used to steep were simply over flavored. once you make something you dont like you shouldnt be upset and feel like you wasted materials that will now go down the drain. think of it as free practice supplies ! take half and add some more base liquid to it to bring the % down and see if that helps. maybe its good like that but it needs a little something. now you know half the original flavoring is good and you can start adding a little more flavoring and get going on adjustments. maybe it still taste funky, at least you know that also and then you can just scrap it and steep the other half of the original recipe you have left. I exhaust all other ideas before I say maybe this needs steeped. quality of ingredients have a lot to do with your end result in a mix.
fresh mixes are full of oxygen from the open air and syringes sucking up and squirting out the ingredients and all the shaking . I think most everything benefits from sitting over night or a couple days to get that oxygen out and let it mix good but a good mix should taste good right away. your mind should not go straight to steeping rather than how can I improve what I taste right now. once you get it close enough without being to much then its time to let it sit around. vape a little and let the rest sit with the cap on for a day or 2. or like I do just fill the tank up and do what I call the vape steep. vape enough and it will have sat around long enough to be "steeped" lol. for me its hard to always just imagine whats good without vaping enough of it to have time to think about whats next.
when you steep a juice you should leave the caps on out of sunlight for long periods of time. the more you open it the more air you put into it. the aroma needs to be locked in for a proper steep. any time with the caps off is airing out not steeping. thats pretty much the just of it for natural steeping not a lot to it.
methods of speed steeping vary from month to month and "the next big thing" is right around the corner. every way of speed steeping involve 2 key components, heat and agitation. how ever you decide to combine these 2 things is totally up to you. when I first started mixing all the rage were ultra sonic cleaners. if you didnt have a U.C. set at 120 degrees you were not doing it right. I burnt out 3 machines before I started looking for other ways. I read a post buy buffaloguy about a crock pot. I figured I would try it. boom worked like a charm. pretty soon the 120 degrees went out the window and it was 150 degrees. that has already been tested and debated and I have personally gone to about 200 degrees with no ill effect on my juice and does not affect the nicotine level. I have used ultra sonic cleaners, crock pots, hot water, rice, rice socks, food dehydrator , window seal, dash board of my work truck, heating pads , and the famous body steep. they all work the work the same. your goal is to thin the vg so everything is the same viscosity long enough for the flavor molecules to bond and mend with each other and mature.
another big question always is speed steeping effective. sure, its good enough to work .Ill do it if I get a special request from a friend for a juice I steep. I mix it up, give it 4 hours in a crock pot and tell them to give it a couple days before they vape it. it will not be as good as a long natural steep but pretty darn close and does get you to a finished juice faster. speed steeping usually still needs a day or 2 to relax. so its almost why bother kind of thing for me anymore. if it really needs steeped I just let it sit and forget about it. but going through the trial and error of speed steeping when I first started mixing did give me a better understanding of how flavors work a lot faster if I had just let things sit around for months. I wouldnt spend a small fortune like I did to come to these conclusions tho as I think the idea of steeping will go away as fast as the money spent on gadgets. after you have tried enough flavors different ways you will just know in your head what its going to taste like down the road without having to even mix it.
there are many ways to "steep" a juice. you can go as simple as putting your juice somewhere warm and shaking it from time to time to using ultra sonic cleaners and food dehydrators. when you steep you are waiting for the juice to mature . why we call it steeping Im not sure. to me steeping is soaking a solid in a liquid to extract a flavor. for instance tea leaves in hot water or a vanilla bean soaking in PG or VG. anyways. some flavors and certain combinations end up needing a little time to mature to its ultimate potential. normally tobacco vapes need some time, anything with custard notes or alcohol and sometimes recipes with a lot of flavors. most anything else doesnt need steeped. deciding if your juice needs steeped is mostly a matter of personal opinion. when I mix something new I vape it fresh. vape enough to make sure your wick and coil are nicely broke in and you get the flavor of the juice and not funky fresh wick. for example lets say you are mixing an apple vape and it does not taste good. steeping its going to change that unless its a flavor with alcohol in it or certain chemicals. I learned over time the mixes I used to steep were simply over flavored. once you make something you dont like you shouldnt be upset and feel like you wasted materials that will now go down the drain. think of it as free practice supplies ! take half and add some more base liquid to it to bring the % down and see if that helps. maybe its good like that but it needs a little something. now you know half the original flavoring is good and you can start adding a little more flavoring and get going on adjustments. maybe it still taste funky, at least you know that also and then you can just scrap it and steep the other half of the original recipe you have left. I exhaust all other ideas before I say maybe this needs steeped. quality of ingredients have a lot to do with your end result in a mix.
fresh mixes are full of oxygen from the open air and syringes sucking up and squirting out the ingredients and all the shaking . I think most everything benefits from sitting over night or a couple days to get that oxygen out and let it mix good but a good mix should taste good right away. your mind should not go straight to steeping rather than how can I improve what I taste right now. once you get it close enough without being to much then its time to let it sit around. vape a little and let the rest sit with the cap on for a day or 2. or like I do just fill the tank up and do what I call the vape steep. vape enough and it will have sat around long enough to be "steeped" lol. for me its hard to always just imagine whats good without vaping enough of it to have time to think about whats next.
when you steep a juice you should leave the caps on out of sunlight for long periods of time. the more you open it the more air you put into it. the aroma needs to be locked in for a proper steep. any time with the caps off is airing out not steeping. thats pretty much the just of it for natural steeping not a lot to it.
methods of speed steeping vary from month to month and "the next big thing" is right around the corner. every way of speed steeping involve 2 key components, heat and agitation. how ever you decide to combine these 2 things is totally up to you. when I first started mixing all the rage were ultra sonic cleaners. if you didnt have a U.C. set at 120 degrees you were not doing it right. I burnt out 3 machines before I started looking for other ways. I read a post buy buffaloguy about a crock pot. I figured I would try it. boom worked like a charm. pretty soon the 120 degrees went out the window and it was 150 degrees. that has already been tested and debated and I have personally gone to about 200 degrees with no ill effect on my juice and does not affect the nicotine level. I have used ultra sonic cleaners, crock pots, hot water, rice, rice socks, food dehydrator , window seal, dash board of my work truck, heating pads , and the famous body steep. they all work the work the same. your goal is to thin the vg so everything is the same viscosity long enough for the flavor molecules to bond and mend with each other and mature.
another big question always is speed steeping effective. sure, its good enough to work .Ill do it if I get a special request from a friend for a juice I steep. I mix it up, give it 4 hours in a crock pot and tell them to give it a couple days before they vape it. it will not be as good as a long natural steep but pretty darn close and does get you to a finished juice faster. speed steeping usually still needs a day or 2 to relax. so its almost why bother kind of thing for me anymore. if it really needs steeped I just let it sit and forget about it. but going through the trial and error of speed steeping when I first started mixing did give me a better understanding of how flavors work a lot faster if I had just let things sit around for months. I wouldnt spend a small fortune like I did to come to these conclusions tho as I think the idea of steeping will go away as fast as the money spent on gadgets. after you have tried enough flavors different ways you will just know in your head what its going to taste like down the road without having to even mix it.
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