Help Reverse Engineering an eLiquid - Blackcurrant Burst

[GuyGotGuns]

Hi all - I'm new here and was hoping for some help.

I've just started on the DIY train, and it all seems pretty straight forward (obviously not including refining flavour, which obviously comes with experience).

I was hoping for help and am not even sure if there are forum rules against this so my apology if I'm breaking any in advance.

I'm quite fussy with flavour and am not hugely impressed so far with a lot of the premium eliquids I've tried, however am a huge fan of Buddha Vapes Blackcurrant Burst.

I'm trying to work out how I would go about reverse engineering this and was wondering if anyone can give me advice?

It contains blackcurrant, menthol and the vague extra 'mixed fruits'. The eliquid has a really nice and sweet berry flavour which I find hard to replicate. I'm assuming it might use stevia or some other sweetener as so far my DIY flavours are relatively dry. It's also a really nice purple colour which is probably entirely pointless, but I like the aesthetic.

Does anyone have any tips apart from just to experiment?

If it helps, I'm starting out with the same ratios - 20vg/80pg, 3 nicotine. I'm testing with Blackcurrant (the Flavour's Apprentice) and Extreme Ice (Flavour West) to start with, before I complicate things with extra notes.

 

[MrDJ]

hi
i dont mix myself but this is the best place to post in the mixology section https://www.planetofthevapes.co.uk/forums/advanced-pv-mod-making-and-diy-discussion/mixology/

 

[fyslexic ducker]

the mixed fruits is most likely the forest fruit,most flavour houses seem to do them,a bottle of that wld be a step in the right direction i would guess

 

[Michael jackson]

Sure I read somewhere that stevia helps fight the cravings for nicotine so not sure they would put it in e-liquid

 

[GuyGotGuns]

Stevia is commonly used in eliquid. My main concern is replicating the sweetness

 

[junglist]

Moved to mixology - cheers @MrDJ

 

[Mr Numpty]

Stevia is commonly used in eliquid. My main concern is replicating the sweetness

Stevia tends to be a big-time coil gunker in my experience, even in very low percentages. Sucralose is a great sweetener and is much less of a gunker. Ethyl Maltol will also provide some sweetness at low percentages and has the added benefit of bringing out the flavour of fruits in particular. Sucralose and EM can be used in conjunction with each other to good effect, anywhere from a drop or 2 per 10ml, to as much as 1-2% each if you're looking for the sugar-lips effect.

 

[bigbluenose]

If I were to start I would look at the blackcurrant offerings out there.
FA blackcurrant is very nice, think fresh black currants, as is INW blackcurrant which at higher% is quite similar to the Ribena drink.
Maybe a mixture of these 2.
There are lots of mixed berry concentrates.
My favs are Capelas Harvest Berry and FA Forest Fruits.
With this recipe I would go with Caps Harvest Berry.
For the menthol kick I would use any menthol or even Koolada to give it that cold kick without the menthol taste.
Play about with these and I reckon you'll have it cracked.
@Mr Numpty i haven't noticed that with stevia? But I have with sucralose based sweetener I higher %

 

[Mr Numpty]

@Mr Numpty i haven't noticed that with stevia? But I have with sucralose based sweetener I higher %

Hmm, how odd. I couldn't even get away with 0.5% stevia without it gunking after a tankful. Maybe it was due to the other ingredients. Sucralose I don't get much problem at 1%.

 

[bigbluenose]

Hmm, how odd. I couldn't even get away with 0.5% stevia without it gunking after a tankful. Maybe it was due to the other ingredients. Sucralose I don't get much problem at 1%.

Maybe,just maybe it could be that I tend to only use stevia with fruits and generally I like to add citric,,1 drop per 10ml, to them to help make them pop?
Maybe the citric acid helps stop this? Not sure but it could be the case?