Strawberry Fails

[two2wheels]

Anybody have a clue why I can't get any combo of strawberry to taste like strawberry? I have FA Red Touch (@1-5%), TFA Strawberry Ripe(@3-8%) and CAP Sweet Strawberry(@1-4%) in my arsenal. I usually mix with creams & other fruits.
Have tried bakery recipes, Mother's Milk clones, etc etc and the Strawberry never emerges. I frequently use 2 or all 3 flavors when developing a recipe, but all but the slightest hint of strawberry eludes me. Even recipes with rave reviews fall flat.
I use a iStick pico with a melo III & a smoktech micro tank, presently vaping .5 ohms at 45 watts. Mixing mostly 60% VG/40% PG (or 70/30) @ 3mg/ml NIC. I am fairly new to vaping and have been mixing for 3 months using a scale for accuracy. Any tips would be appreciated.

 

[Foggz]

welp .. thinking strawberry is one of the most subjective and difficult flavors .. everyone seems to taste it different and many such as myself hardly at all. Have found that FA strawberry (at least for myself) needs 2 to 4 weeks steep. INW Shisha SB gives a good flavor much quicker and highly recommend you try that one. TFA SB & SB ripe both pair well with the CAP Sw SB and your %'s sound good .. a slight touch of lemon/citrus may bring the SB out for you as well as dragonfruit or watermelon. Thinking your best bet overall tho would be to add a few more to your arsenal (am sure there will be other recommends shortly ), and do some testing singly (meaning just SB and base) to determine SB's that work for you... as already mentioned, personally have to suffer through some steep to get SB .. so you could try that as well. Good luck - Welcome to VU btw!

 

[skiball]

I use fa raspberry to get strawberry to pop.

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[two2wheels]

welp .. thinking strawberry is one of the most subjective and difficult flavors .. everyone seems to taste it different and many such as myself hardly at all. Have found that FA strawberry (at least for myself) needs 2 to 4 weeks steep. INW Shisha SB gives a good flavor much quicker and highly recommend you try that one. TFA SB & SB ripe both pair well with the CAP Sw SB and your %'s sound good .. a slight touch of lemon/citrus may bring the SB out for you as well as dragonfruit or watermelon. Thinking your best bet overall tho would be to add a few more to your arsenal (am sure there will be other recommends shortly ), and do some testing singly (meaning just SB and base) to determine SB's that work for you... as already mentioned, personally have to suffer through some steep to get SB .. so you could try that as well. Good luck - Welcome to VU btw!

Thx for your suggestions & your welcome message . I haven't paired SB with lemon or watermelon, so I'll give that a go. Also am about to order more flavors (62 isn't enough, apparently), so will try INW Shisha.

 

[two2wheels]

I use fa raspberry to get strawberry to pop.

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I only have TFA Sweet Raspberry. I suppose I could experiment with that and the SBRipe. Thx for your input.

 

[Squonk]

YEP!!!! Most definitely INW Shisha Strawberry. I don't even look at my other strawberry flavors anymore.

 

[two2wheels]

YEP!!!! Most definitely INW Shisha Strawberry. I don't even look at my other strawberry flavors anymore.

OK! Good to have reinforcements. SB Shisha is on my list!

 

[Squonk]

OK! Good to have reinforcements. SB Shisha is on my list!

You won't believe your taste buds and will actually enjoy strawberry vapes.
P.S. I like your ride. My ride is my daily runner. Keep that rubber road side down.

 

[two2wheels]

You won't believe your taste buds and will actually enjoy strawberry vapes.
P.S. I like your ride. My ride is my daily runner. Keep that rubber road side down.

Thanks! It's an old pic, I've retired from riding, but miss my Sporty! Got too close to the rubber side (as well as the metal side) going down the mountainside.

 

[Heabob]

OK! Good to have reinforcements. SB Shisha is on my list!

Another vote for Shisha SB, 2% works for me in most everything I use it in.
INW Biscuit & Shisha Vanilla are other great ones to have also.

 

[AndriaD]

Yet another vote for shisha strawberry. IMO, it's the only one that actually tastes like strawberry at all. INW, and especially the shisha flavors, are a bit more costly than others, but if you find that you really like it, you can get 100ml bottles at e-aromashop.com for FAR less than ANYWHERE else, and the shipping is reasonable, considering it's coming from Poland -- cheapest option is $5-something, and takes roughly 10 days.

Andria

 

[two2wheels]

Another vote for Shisha SB, 2% works for me in most everything I use it in.
INW Biscuit & Shisha Vanilla are other great ones to have also.

Thank you so very much! I have Biscuit and have added the Shisha Vanilla to my order. Haven't pulled the trigger yet bc I am waiting for a few flavors to be restocked. Also, I think there might be Black Friday sales coming up. I don't know if ecig express runs any sales but I can wait.

 

[two2wheels]

Yet another vote for shisha strawberry. IMO, it's the only one that actually tastes like strawberry at all. INW, and especially the shisha flavors, are a bit more costly than others, but if you find that you really like it, you can get 100ml bottles at e-aromashop.com for FAR less than ANYWHERE else, and the shipping is reasonable, considering it's coming from Poland -- cheapest option is $5-something, and takes roughly 10 days.

Andria

Thanks Andria-
I'm only mixing for myself & my son at this point. It's going to take me awhile to get through the 30 ml bottles, since I already have 60 flavors with a pending order of another 35. I will make a note of e-aromashop for future reference though.
I love to vape, but I ABSOLUTELY love to develop new recipes. There's a bit of a learning curve, and I'm still figuring it out.
I have wondered if the flavors tend to lose their intensity over time, though (?)

 

[AndriaD]

Thanks Andria-
I'm only mixing for myself & my son at this point. It's going to take me awhile to get through the 30 ml bottles, since I already have 60 flavors with a pending order of another 35. I will make a note of e-aromashop for future reference though.
I love to vape, but I ABSOLUTELY love to develop new recipes. There's a bit of a learning curve, and I'm still figuring it out.
I have wondered if the flavors tend to lose their intensity over time, though (?)

Shisha strawberry doesn't; my strawberry & cream gets stronger and sweeter, the longer it sits.

Once you figure out what your absolute favorite thing to vape is, you'll want larger bottles of flavoring, just because it's cheaper to buy it that way.

Andria

 

[Heabob]

I have wondered if the flavors tend to lose their intensity over time, though (?)

Some do, but it's usually just citrus types.
Although I've had some issues with TFA Blueberry Wild loosing potency in the bottle lately.
Never had any problems with the INW flavors though.
INW Peach & Mango are also good ones, and I even mix them together sometimes.
INW Yummy Classic Cherimoya is another very unique fruit type flavor.
Never even heard anything about Cherimoya fruit before.
I typically mix in Vanillas and/or Creams with my fruits too, or Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.

 

[two2wheels]

Some do, but it's usually just citrus types.
Although I've had some issues with TFA Blueberry Wild loosing potency in the bottle lately.
Never had any problems with the INW flavors though.
INW Peach & Mango are also good ones, and I even mix them together sometimes.
INW Yummy Classic Cherimoya is another very unique fruit type flavor.
Never even heard anything about Cherimoya fruit before.
I typically mix in Vanillas and/or Creams with my fruits too, or Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.

Good info, Heabob. I have a mix of mango & ginger that was awesome right away but lost flavor in a few days, no lie. I think it's the CAP gingerbread cookie. None of the gingers seem to have great ratings, but thinking of trying Flavorah Gingersnap.

 

[Sirkris]

Nicotineriver has started rebottling INW and sell 10ml for $2.50-.$3.50 my last order was placed at 1pm on Friday and it was at my door Tuesday.

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[Heabob]

Good info, Heabob. I have a mix of mango & ginger that was awesome right away but lost flavor in a few days, no lie. I think it's the CAP gingerbread cookie. None of the gingers seem to have great ratings, but thinking of trying Flavorah Gingersnap.

You could try each flavor stand alone to verify which one is fading more.
However certain flavors will also dominate others quite easily.
Strange as I would have thought the Ginger would be the one that overpowers most anything.
Many CAP flavors tend to need a 1 week steep, but usually it's to calm them down or dissipate chemical taste in a few of them.
You can also try increasing the flavor amounts but I suspect you've already tried that?

Although I haven't tried the CAP version mentioned, TFA Gingerbread & NF Ginger seem pretty strong to me.
(But NF Ginger seems a bit harder to find these days).

Many people have different taste perceptions between flavors and brands so we sometimes have to try several different ones to find the best.
Much the same thing goes for developing recipes and swapping out different flavors, brands, and combos.

That said, all of the "spice type" flavors seem strong to me.

BTW FLV Crunchy Cereal is good, if you like cereal types that is.

 

[AndriaD]

Nicotineriver has started rebottling INW and sell 10ml for $2.50-.$3.50 my last order was placed at 1pm on Friday and it was at my door Tuesday.

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Yeah, that rebottling shit is WHY I started buying INW from e-aromashop exclusively, so I could get the flavors in their original pkging.

Andria

 

[Heabob]

Yeah, that rebottling shit is WHY I started buying INW from e-aromashop exclusively, so I could get the flavors in their original pkging.

Andria

And most likely haven't been sitting around on the shelves for who knows how long either.

 

[Sirkris]

Yeah, that rebottling shit is WHY I started buying INW from e-aromashop exclusively, so I could get the flavors in their original pkging.

Andria

I could see how that could be a problem. I don't mix a whole lot and only for my wife and i, so I wouldn't even know I got a weak/strong batch until I reordered. It's been a great place to get cheap access to great flavors and good nic. FWIW

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[AndriaD]

I could see how that could be a problem. I don't mix a whole lot and only for my wife and i, so I wouldn't even know I got a weak/strong batch until I reordered. It's been a great place to get cheap access to great flavors and good nic. FWIW

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Originally I didn't have a problem with it; ECX and BCV both rebottle other brands, and I've never noticed any problems with it, but one time when BCV was out of shisha strawberry (which they USED TO sell in the original pkging), I ordered some from ECX, and it seemed a lot weaker than what I'd been getting in the original pkging, so when BCV started rebottling INW flavors, I looked around for another US vendor who didn't rebottle INW, and couldn't find a single one, and Inawera's own website's prices aren't nearly as good as the prices at e-aromashop, which some kind person pointed me to, over in the INW thread at ECF.

Now, if I only need one of the other INW flavors I use in some other recipe, I might go ahead and get it from BCV, but for the shisha strawberry, and/or I need to order multiple INW flavors, I stick strictly to e-aromashop. Even the price on 10ml bottles is cheaper there, but it really should be a fairly sizable order, multiple 10ml's or 100ml shisha strawberry, (100ml shisha strawberry comes in glass bottles) to make it worth the $5-ish shipping.

Andria

 

[two2wheels]

Nicotineriver has started rebottling INW and sell 10ml for $2.50-.$3.50 my last order was placed at 1pm on Friday and it was at my door Tuesday.

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Awesome, I never knew about this website. Wizard Labs has 8-10 ml for 1.49 and up, but this is great if you don't have a $60 order to place. Free shipping on 1-20 lbs. Also, WL doesn't have the INW Shisha SB
INW Pear 8ml @ 1.49 at Wizard vs 10ml @ 2.49 at Nic River
Larger sizes (30 ml & up) are at comparable prices