Fleabag
Achiever
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2013
- Messages
- 3,479
It really is dead easy. The Android App above is an excellent tool, as it has options that other web calcs don't, so you can specify PG/VG ratio and save recipes etc.
One word of advice I would offer is to take no notice of the "20 drops = 1ml" nonsense that gets bandied about. It was never true when I worked with essential oils and it ain't true with concentrates. I measured mine this morning quite precisely and it's a whopping 50 drops per ml - so 20% flavouring would require 100 drops.
Mixing is a trial and error thing (and I use sniff tests in the first instance to get a balance I like). Recipes in the mixology section often won't go into detail on the PG/VG/Nic, as it's the flavour blend that's being posted, which can be added to whatever base suits you.
I quickly settled on 50/50 PG/VG, which still carry flavours fine, but cuts down on the throat hit, which can be quite harsh on the higher PG juices.
I make up bases without flavour, so I can create blends at will and just pop base in when I'm done (new flavour blends have been known to go straight into a tank and topped up with base on first trial, just to see if it's one that'll be worth making up in 10ml.
With the App, just put in what nic levels and PG/VG you want, tell it what base your nic is carried in, how much you want to make and what percentage flavouring you'll use and it'll tell you how many ml of each ingredient you need.
With blending, it's a little more creative - if I know my target is going to be 10% flavour, I'll do about 5% on guesswork, then leave room to add more of some flavours, or if it smells right, I'll just double what I put in first time - e.g.
Coffee blend
Flavours to be used: Coffee, Butterscotch, Vanilla, Cinnamon, Cream
I already know that Cinnamon and Cream are EXTRA strong, so there will be very low levels of this. Vanilla is subtle against some of the others, so though I don't want it to taste stronger than the coffee, it's likely to be one of the higher quantities.
So I'll target half of the final flavour total trying to estimate a good flavour balance - in this case 5% of the 10ml (25 drops) - so I might do:
1 drop of cream
2 drops cinnamon
10 drops vanilla
6 drops coffee
6 drops butterscotch
If it smells like a good rounded sweet coffee cream, I'll double all those quantities and add my base
If it doesn't smell coffeeish enough - I'll pop in a bit more coffee, perhaps 3-5 drops and test again (continuing to make notes of extra I put in)
Once the balance seems right, I'll share out the remaining drops in the ratios I've used so far
Then top up
I usually can't wait to start testing it, but the remainder gets to steep.
Once I've got through that bottle, I'll have decided whether the balance was right and either replicate or tweak flavours accordingly (subsequent bottles are much easier, as you're just adjusting the original recipe) - after 2 or 3 bottles, you should have perfected the blend to your taste and you have it all documented so you can duplicate it time after time.
One word of advice I would offer is to take no notice of the "20 drops = 1ml" nonsense that gets bandied about. It was never true when I worked with essential oils and it ain't true with concentrates. I measured mine this morning quite precisely and it's a whopping 50 drops per ml - so 20% flavouring would require 100 drops.
Mixing is a trial and error thing (and I use sniff tests in the first instance to get a balance I like). Recipes in the mixology section often won't go into detail on the PG/VG/Nic, as it's the flavour blend that's being posted, which can be added to whatever base suits you.
I quickly settled on 50/50 PG/VG, which still carry flavours fine, but cuts down on the throat hit, which can be quite harsh on the higher PG juices.
I make up bases without flavour, so I can create blends at will and just pop base in when I'm done (new flavour blends have been known to go straight into a tank and topped up with base on first trial, just to see if it's one that'll be worth making up in 10ml.
With the App, just put in what nic levels and PG/VG you want, tell it what base your nic is carried in, how much you want to make and what percentage flavouring you'll use and it'll tell you how many ml of each ingredient you need.
With blending, it's a little more creative - if I know my target is going to be 10% flavour, I'll do about 5% on guesswork, then leave room to add more of some flavours, or if it smells right, I'll just double what I put in first time - e.g.
Coffee blend
Flavours to be used: Coffee, Butterscotch, Vanilla, Cinnamon, Cream
I already know that Cinnamon and Cream are EXTRA strong, so there will be very low levels of this. Vanilla is subtle against some of the others, so though I don't want it to taste stronger than the coffee, it's likely to be one of the higher quantities.
So I'll target half of the final flavour total trying to estimate a good flavour balance - in this case 5% of the 10ml (25 drops) - so I might do:
1 drop of cream
2 drops cinnamon
10 drops vanilla
6 drops coffee
6 drops butterscotch
If it smells like a good rounded sweet coffee cream, I'll double all those quantities and add my base
If it doesn't smell coffeeish enough - I'll pop in a bit more coffee, perhaps 3-5 drops and test again (continuing to make notes of extra I put in)
Once the balance seems right, I'll share out the remaining drops in the ratios I've used so far
Then top up
I usually can't wait to start testing it, but the remainder gets to steep.
Once I've got through that bottle, I'll have decided whether the balance was right and either replicate or tweak flavours accordingly (subsequent bottles are much easier, as you're just adjusting the original recipe) - after 2 or 3 bottles, you should have perfected the blend to your taste and you have it all documented so you can duplicate it time after time.
It still shows up in "Whats New" and "New Posts" and google will index it immidiately (see
