what do you consider essentials?

[cmoorewv]

Edit: I really meant to post this in General Discussion. Moderator, please move it if it's out of place here.

This may end up long-winded but please bear with me. I've gotten great advice here so far. What are some flavors/brands DIY'ers consider cant-do-without? By category. Like creams/dairy, fruits, custards, etc? Here's my problem - there are so many great sounding flavors and recipes to choose from, I'm having a hard time picking. Money doesn't grow on any of the many trees outside my house. LOL. I already have a variety of flavors, but I'm feeling like I'm missing those one or two things that will tie everything together. If I can make a few sweet bakery custard vapes and a few sweet fruity milkshakes I'd be happy. I was browsing BCV and had a list of stuff that totaled about $33. This in addition to the stuff I already have. I didn't order, because I'd like some thoughts. If you had to pick a dairy flavor, would you go with a cream or malted milk. Or fruit, would it be Caps sweet, FA, TFA, FW? I'm thinking strawberry mainly plus another fruit to pair it with. And vanilla types-custard, swirl, gelato? I'm looking for a list of ingredients I can mix and match for a variety of vapes. I know I'm asking alot. LOL. All I really want to know is what whomever responds here considers to be necessary to their flavor stash. Thanks a bunch. I know there are some great "cooks" here.

 

[zaroba]

Cap vanilla custard v1 or v2 are the base of many custards out there, with other stuff added to 'fine tune' the flavor.

FA Fresh Cream and Vienna Cream are good to have and used in many recipes.

FA Marshmallow is good to have imo. I use it to sweeten up a lot of liuids that I make, even if the recipe doesn't call for it.

 

[mjag]

As noted already Cap Vanilla Custard is an essential.

I guess it depends on what you like but so far these are the ingredients that make there way into a lot of my mixes:

CAP Cake Batter
CAP Sweet Strawberry
INW Shisha Strawberry
CAP NY Cheasecake
TFA Cheascake Graham Crust
TFA Bavarian Cream
TFA Sweet Cream
CAP Sweet Cream (I might like the CAP version better but am still experimenting)
FA Fresh Cream
TFA Whipped Cream
INW Cocopilada (sweet delicious coconut macroon)
CAP Sweet Watermelon (the double watermelon is not as good)
Lorann Watermelon (more like a jolly rancher type)

If you really like sweet vapes like the ones at your local vape shop then pick up some sweetener, either TFA or CAP. I don't use a lot of sweetener my-self but do when I mix for friends who still buy instead of DIY. Ethyl Maltol is also a sweetener of sorts but used in high amounts can mute flavors so it is best used at 1% or less in general.

TFA makes a new caramel, not the DX or original, which is really good but not too strong. I usually mix the new caramel with the DX version for a little extra punch. INW also makes a good caramel but it is not as sweet but very authentic. I just got some Flavor West Natural Butterscotch which may replace the FA version for me, it is pretty tasty.

TFA Strawberry and there ripe version are pretty popular and you can't go wrong with either. My favorite Strawberry is INW Shisha version which is sweet and tasty but I like to mix it with CAP Sweet Strawberry, they go together well.

INW makes a very tasty Raspberry, actually a lot of there fruit flavors are very good.

I just tried my hand at cloning a store bought juice a friend of mine has been raving about called Ichigo which is a Strawberry Milk. It is very sweet to me but it is a popular flavor here in S Cali. I made it about 2 hours ago and I think I am close but my version is not as sweet. Here is what I came up with:

Flavor West Milk 5%
INW Shisha Strawberry 5%
CAP Sweet SB 5%
INW Raspberry 0.5%
Sweetener 2%

Surprisingly it is probably not as sweet as the original Ichigo but the strawberry really comes through. The Raspberry is in there to help the SB pop more and I could taste Raspberry in Ichigo and when my friend took another vape he said yeah, now I can taste it too. I am thinking if I add maybe 2 to 4% Sweet Cream to the above recipe it might match the sweetness of the original but that is too sweet for me.

TFA Malted Milk is a favorite of mine but I wouldn't say it is an essential as it might not be right for everyone. If I used it in the above mix it would have to be cut down to around 3 to 4% so the malt doesn't dominate too much. I think I might try that for a Strawberry Malt, it worked great for a Chocolate Malt mix I made.

 

[cmoorewv]

As noted already Cap Vanilla Custard is an essential.

I guess it depends on what you like but so far these are the ingredients that make there way into a lot of my mixes:

CAP Cake Batter
CAP Sweet Strawberry
INW Shisha Strawberry
CAP NY Cheasecake
TFA Cheascake Graham Crust
TFA Bavarian Cream
TFA Sweet Cream
CAP Sweet Cream (I might like the CAP version better but am still experimenting)
FA Fresh Cream
TFA Whipped Cream
INW Cocopilada (sweet delicious coconut macroon)
CAP Sweet Watermelon (the double watermelon is not as good)
Lorann Watermelon (more like a jolly rancher type)

If you really like sweet vapes like the ones at your local vape shop then pick up some sweetener, either TFA or CAP. I don't use a lot of sweetener my-self but do when I mix for friends who still buy instead of DIY. Ethyl Maltol is also a sweetener of sorts but used in high amounts can mute flavors so it is best used at 1% or less in general.

TFA makes a new caramel, not the DX or original, which is really good but not too strong. I usually mix the new caramel with the DX version for a little extra punch. INW also makes a good caramel but it is not as sweet but very authentic. I just got some Flavor West Natural Butterscotch which may replace the FA version for me, it is pretty tasty.

TFA Strawberry and there ripe version are pretty popular and you can't go wrong with either. My favorite Strawberry is INW Shisha version which is sweet and tasty but I like to mix it with CAP Sweet Strawberry, they go together well.

INW makes a very tasty Raspberry, actually a lot of there fruit flavors are very good.

I just tried my hand at cloning a store bought juice a friend of mine has been raving about called Ichigo which is a Strawberry Milk. It is very sweet to me but it is a popular flavor here in S Cali. I made it about 2 hours ago and I think I am close but my version is not as sweet. Here is what I came up with:

Flavor West Milk 5%
INW Shisha Strawberry 5%
CAP Sweet SB 5%
INW Raspberry 0.5%
Sweetener 2%

Surprisingly it is probably not as sweet as the original Ichigo but the strawberry really comes through. The Raspberry is in there to help the SB pop more and I could taste Raspberry in Ichigo and when my friend took another vape he said yeah, now I can taste it too. I am thinking if I add maybe 2 to 4% Sweet Cream to the above recipe it might match the sweetness of the original but that is too sweet for me.

TFA Malted Milk is a favorite of mine but I wouldn't say it is an essential as it might not be right for everyone. If I used it in the above mix it would have to be cut down to around 3 to 4% so the malt doesn't dominate too much. I think I might try that for a Strawberry Malt, it worked great for a Chocolate Malt mix I made.

The Ichigo sounds really good.

 

[mjag]

If you like really sweet it is really good, lots of flavor. The INW Shisha SB is really what makes the SB pop, CAP on it's own wouldn't be strong enough.

 

[mjag]

You can probably replace FW Milk with CAP Sweet Cream and still have something delicious, it would be more of a creamier sweet strawberry. I might try that tonight and report back.

 

[cmoorewv]

If you like really sweet it is really good, lots of flavor. The INW Shisha SB is really what makes the SB pop, CAP on it's own wouldn't be strong enough.

I love sweet. One of my favorite store bought juices is Vape Daugz Dragon Tears. I'm sure I mangled the company name, but there are 2 comm. juices at least named Dragon Tears. This one tastes like sugar cookie dough. No strawberry or dragonfruit in it. The Ichigo clone is calling my name.

 

[Chrispdx]

Oh my. Already a lot of great posts. in addition, using my noob speak, two things...
1) find some recipies you really want to make, then see what you already have and buy what you need. A lot of the popular stuff is above...cap custard, fresh cream, and so on, but I always find I need more. 2) then beyond there, for me it's buying flavor pairs. Like FA strawberry and tpa strawberry....I found it help round out the "strawberry" flavor...sometimes using just one didn't give me the "yay" factor.

Lastly, depending on how much you can buy, buy something your not sure about. For me it was tobacco flavors. Initially I said, I will never vape a tobacco flavor, but I bought ry4 FA and made a recipie and now it's one of my adv's.

 

[mjag]

I tried the Ichigo clone with cap sweet cream and it is good as well. I think I might like the version with fw milk a little better but it is not a big difference, there both tasty. Gonna have to mix both again soon, almost went through all of the 15ml with fw milk and the cap sweet cream version is down to about 15ml of the 30ml I made. Both are good as a shake n vape and better the next day. I am sure both will improve with a longer steep but in 2 days most of it is already gone. Neither is as sweet as the original Ichigo, gonna try and get more from my friend to compare in the same tank.

 

[cmoorewv]

Keep me posted

 

[tony09]

I'm in the same boat!! I'm stopping at $75 though (to get free shipping) friggin' overwhelmed...been pouring over these threads for days..

 

[Chrispdx]

I'm in the same boat!! I'm stopping at $75 though (to get free shipping) friggin' overwhelmed...been pouring over these threads for days..

Overhelmed is a good term. I know I read so many posts...test shopped multiple times.! I delayed my official purchase for two weeks to have a good first order. Of course I still had to submit a 2nd order. But if I couldn't have submitted that 2nd order I would have been good to go, but I wanted more (and realized I like shoping for liquids .

Granted, I'm embarrassed of how much I spent. But I am still overall happy with the result. I also wished I had stuck to buying to more recipies vs recipies+more random based on knowledge.

 

[tony09]

Lol that $75 turned out to be a low estimate!! also ordered nic from Vapors Tek and mixing supplies off amazon. I kind of wish I read more recipes too! I stuck to mostly fruit flavors and some additives. Starting off very simple to learn the flavors. I tend to learn the hard way....

 

[Chrispdx]

Lol. Yeah, I havnt managed to check out under 100. But I've only done two orders and the second one would have been better but I ordered other essentials like batteries and coils.