Percentages for standalone flavors?

[Axe Murderer]

Hey folks,

I was hoping to get some feedback on these flavors I've ordered. I'm a novice DIY'er. Started out with Club Aroma and a few TPA flavors and just mixed them up with varying degrees of success. I was mostly positive though.

I'm now slowly trying to get into some recipes that I found here and in other places on the net to expand my journey into DIY'ing.

So my recent order has mostly flavors that I want to use in recipes. I do however also want to try small batches of them as a standalone flavor, just to see how that vapes and to try and get to know my own taste pallet a little better.

I'm wondering what the best percentages are for these flavors though. I've searched, of course, and it seems to be kind of subjective, but I usually find single opinions with no real backup. Additionally most are TPA and I've had some bad xp with those in the past. For instance Pie Crust I mixed at 7,5% and it tasted pretty horrible.

I will vape all of them on 6mg nic on 50/50 PG/VG and in RTA's with coils ranging from 0.4 to 0.8 Ohm most likely.

I don't enjoy strong or light flavors, just really looking for that middle ground.

These are the flavors that are coming in:

Banana Cream (TPA)
Bavarian Cream (TPA)
Black Honey (TPA)
Brown Sugar (TPA) (I already tried this a 5%, seemed great which is why I ordered it again, would still love opinions on the percentage though).
Golden Pineapple (CAP)
Mandarin (FA)
Orange Dream Bar (FW)
RY4 (TPA)
Sweet Cream (TPA)
Vanilla Swirl(TPA)

Would love to hear some thoughts on this.

 

[Heabob]

Banana Cream (TPA) 3% to start
Bavarian Cream (TPA) 1-3% But needs some steep time, best used in recipes with other things
Brown Sugar (TPA) .5% to 3% Normally used to add sweetness and/or baked effect to other things
Golden Pineapple (CAP) 3% to start
Mandarin (FA) 2% to start
Orange Dream Bar (FW) 5-10% depends on how strong you like it
This combo below can be used with any fruit mixes to help round off the sharp notes and add something extra.
Sweet Cream (TPA) 1-2% added to fruits, along with Vanilla Swirl usually, not used for stand alone usually.
Vanilla Swirl(TPA) 3% used with 1-2% Sweet Cream, also not used for stand alone usually.

 

[Axe Murderer]

Thank you!

BTW; I steep everything oldschool. Two weeks for fruits, four for tobacco en three for the rest. No yoghurt machine or any of that. Just a shake and an air every two days.

 

[Kinser]

Thank you!

BTW; I steep everything oldschool. Two weeks for fruits, four for tobacco en three for the rest. No yoghurt machine or any of that. Just a shake and an air every two days.

Good fruit flavors should usually be shake and vape. Generally speaking with Fruits and Candies steeping is not required. (And this is not even getting into my argument that "steeping" isn't actually steeping but rather aging, and removing the cap from the bottle for the purposes of aging wouldn't be steeping either--but rather "breathing". /anally-retentive-chef) That said that is only a general rule and if you find you prefer your fruit and candy flavors after they have aged then by all means age them. I don't see a need to so I don't.

I've not mixed a tobacco flavor in ages (lost the taste for them). That being said, they should only take two weeks if you're using the "old fashioned" method. If it takes longer then that to get a vapable result the problem is either with the flavors or the recipe. Heavily creamed/bakery/desert flavors take the longest, but should be aged to perfection at about the 3 week point. Over all in my experience though no amount of aging will make a bad juice turn good though.

I also don't use an ultrasonic cleaner (which is what people use to speed age) to age my mixes (not that most of them actually need it--I'm more heavily into fruits and candies which are mostly shake and vape); however, for creams to speed the aging process I have been known to give the juice a good hot bath. What you do is you place your bottle into very hot water (I boil mine in the microwave--the water not the juice) and then place the bottle into that water and allow it to sit until completely cooled. If you do this a couple of times the result will be the same as if you had aged it about a day or two. It really speeds things up if you're working on a flavor project.

As for your flavors, the Banana Cream is probably good as a stand alone. I have some TFA Banana cream that I'll be working with shortly, I've only used LorAnn's before (12-14% with EM if desired) but I wanted to get away from the Yellow Dye 5. Orange Dream Bar would also work, as would the pineapple if you're looking for something that just tastes like pineapple.

The rest though are really flavors that add notes to other flavors.

Since you say you're new to mixing I will tell you this, no matter how much money you spend on gear, base, nic, or flavors the best investment you can make will be at the Dollar Store. That is a notebook and a pack of pens. You will need to take notes on every flavor you use, every recipe you try, every experiment you make. These can be as detailed as you like (some write essays about their flavors, others like me write one or two word descriptions about them), that is up to you. However, unless you want to make the same mistakes over and over again having a "Juice Journal" is vital. In time you can use it when planning a project to come up with a very good juice.