About to give up DIY, save me!

[DMAN]

Have a look at Mom and Pops pre-mixed concentrates. They are all I use, after a few early mistakes. I'm a tobacco/dessert vaper, and their stuff is lovely. Go onto their US site to get a full description of their juices. A few UK sites stock them.
Using a pre-mixed concentrate isn't that much more cost than a pure diy.

 

[pava]

May I make a suggestion. Make another 10ml batch to the exact same recipe, but do not add the nicotine. When ready to vape, try it without the nicotine and see how the flavour/throat hit are. If you find it good/acceptable then add the nicotine, shake it and vape again. This should give you an idea of which elements need tweaking. I was advised to do this with all my mixes, as if the taste is unacceptable then one hasn't wasted expensive nicotine.

 

[bmkvaper]

Everything taken on board, haven't had time today nor will I have time tomorrow but I'm going to give it a crack with the advice above. Hopefully find the culprit!

 

[strongylad28]

Ok so after trying out the pink lemonade recipe on this very website (also same recipe on multiple other sites) I felt it tasted awful. Really chemical like and too much throat hit/burn (70vg:30pg). Thought maybe the flavours were a dodgy batch and I was comparing it too much to the original pink lemonade.

I ordered a whole heap of flavours to try other recipes... And was disappointed yet again.

I mixed up a few 10ml bottles of "mothers milk clone" and "sucker punch original" (exact same % of flavours, 70:30 and 80:20 of each).

Let it steep for approx a week despite many websites and forums saying it's good as a shake n vape. Steeping helped darken it quite a bit and the smell became lovely, it was white and stank like perfume now it's like a golden yellow and smells delicious.

I was excited and gave them a crack today and just have no clue wtf I'm doing wrong. I comprehend taste is subjective but I'm not a retard, I can distinguish the difference between a flavour I don't like and a flavour that just tastes off/wrong. Do I need MORE steep time on a flavour that's supposedly shake n vape ready??

Notes:
- all flavours from chefs vapour
- nic from chefs vapour 72mg 100% VG
- using 3mg nic
- VG & PG from lubrisolve
- recipe used same on multiple websites, I didn't adjust any %'s or modify it
- steeped for a week
- tried different tanks/drippers/ohms

Really getting stressed out now.

Going to try VG alone, PG alone, then the VG+PG+nic just to ensure one of these aren't ruining it, although they're all from reputable sources.

any advice or help is greatly appreciated!

I'm kind of in the same boat as you mate. To this day I've never made a "clone" recipe that I've liked. I feel like I've spent a small fortune on all of these different recipes and don't like any of them. It's a shame because the price of premium liquid is getting worse, especially for us drippers. Even some premixed ones I've got have been naff

 

[travolski]

Read up on flavour pairing and addatives, youd be suprised the right flavour or addative will make or break a juice

 

[bmkvaper]

Christmas with family and an insanely hectic work load has meant I haven't had a chance to even sit down.

I will need to get back onto this soon to try and find something decent I can make and vape. Eliquids too damn expensive, or maybe I vape too much.

 

[elliotj]

bmkvaper did you sort out your DIY nightmare?

 

[bmkvaper]

bmkvaper did you sort out your DIY nightmare?

The problem I had was a mixture of peppery nicotine & the flavourings used. The nicotine had a slight bitter taste (when vaped with VG/PG alone)

The flavourings I used were quite strange too.
The TFA Raspberry was quite "chemically tasting" if the % was above 6-7% but unfortunately anything below was too weak to taste (my opinion).

The TFA "champagne type" flavour I used was originally for giving it a bit of fizz, unfortunately it didn't. 0.5%-1% was the recipe figure but it didn't do much and anything over 1.5% left a strange starchy taste lingering in my mouth after vaping.

I did contact the vendor they told me there's nothing wrong with the flavours. I ordered different flavours from them and nicotine from elsewhere, problems solved. Made a bunch of juice and they taste good to me & others. Sent a sample to a fellow ape who wanted the recipe for one so it must have been decent. Lol

 

[elliotj]

Some flavours are strange tasting. I have a lemonade and a raspberry that taste weird. Using clone recipes with good ratings is a way of learning what's what and you normally end up with something to vape

 

[peegore]

Have a look at Mom and Pops pre-mixed concentrates. They are all I use, after a few early mistakes. I'm a tobacco/dessert vaper, and their stuff is lovely. Go onto their US site to get a full description of their juices. A few UK sites stock them.
Using a pre-mixed concentrate isn't that much more cost than a pure diy.

Was gonna say exactly this. I had a frustrating time several months ago with mixing online 'clone' recipes, and indeed still do to a degree. What got me through my months in the 'mixological wastelands' were one-shot concentrates from Mom & Pops, Master Baker (Mount Baker), Chefs Vapour's own Concentrate blends and Decadent Vapour. Best one-stop-shop for these in my opinion is Chefs Vapour.

I have now found a good selection of ready-blended concentrates that cost WAY less than buying pre-mixed stuff but taste just as good, that keep me toke-happy while I play with 'proper' mixing ( some reviewed on my blog )

As has been mentioned, taste IS subjective, and I do find a lot of the 'clone' recipes very poor indeed. There are other amateur(ish) mixologist on another popular e liquid mixing forum that do put together some very good recipes of their own devising, but the only real solution is to find concentrates YOU like the taste of and start mixing up your own stuff, either from scratch or loosely based on other recipes published.

So far, I personally found, Flavourart concentrates to be a solid range to start mixing with, as their % usage is fairly consistent across the range ( 1-4%) unlike others than can vary wildly from 1% to 15% for the same manufacturer ( TFA/PA for example )

More recently I've been enjoying Flavorah for the very same reasons. Yes, there are some TFA/PA, CAP, INW etc thet are good, some that are not, but unfortunately each person has to find his own personal preferences... and this can be costly getting there!

Oh, and if a recipe isn't to your liking once mixed, just do what a lot of manufacturers probably do... add a hefty dose of sucralose!