Rejuvenating an old stash of juice to best appeal to my ravaged taste buds

[vapervince]

If it`s a fruity juice a small addition of malic acid (think the trade name is sour) can perk it up.

 

[P2PLeon]

I would be curious as to how you can spruce up your juices and make it bearable, in which you will tell all about what your findings are.

I also have a recurve and flooded the deck, so don't go overboard when dripping.

 

[ChrisLikesCoffee]

Thanks and yep, I was thinking about CAP Super Sweet - one to watch out for of course and usually way too much of it or similar in commercial juices but might be what I need.

 

[ChrisLikesCoffee]

If it`s a fruity juice a small addition of malic acid (think the trade name is sour) can perk it up.

Thanks, good idea - I was going to say don't have any sour but there it is, looks like 20ml of TFA sour (all my flavours go into glass pipette bottles on arrival). I think it must have been a recent (well, recent when I was last mixing, 2 years old now) purchase, as not sure if I've used it much at all - will do !

 

[Gitchy]

I'd agree with above opinions. Whack in some of the same concentrates you used to make the juice in the first place, In proportion to the recipes of course. Leaving them that long might have degraded the flavour a bit with some (mainly fruits) but others are going to be banging by now so you might get away with not having to adjust all of them.

I wouldn't throw in salts. That might prevent them steeping as well as they could. Unless you use salts a lot these days that is. Salts do nothing to enhance flavour mate.

 

[ChrisLikesCoffee]

It's going pretty well so far; as might be expected, the heavier flavours survived better, my Coffee Cream recipe just needed a little perking up with some more FA Dark Bean, ?? Cream Fresh and CAP Super Sweet and it's great, shame i only had 60ml of it - more now steeping...

My Chocolate Cream Cake recipe that always needed a very long steep anyway is still good, again, added a bit more Tiramisu and SS (been smoking for 2 years so need the unsubtle tongue tingle of the extra SS !) and it's very good - which is a relief as I have 200ml+ of it and the same of my 'Dark Angel' recipe that's pretty similar but with a different cake flavour, looking forward to trying that one !

The non-survivors, perhaps again as expected are the lightweight recipes, some strawberries had lost it entirely, I actually ditched a few bottles rather than pour more flavour into obviously stale juice, same with the pecan and pistachio and similar subtle stuff I was experimenting with 2 years ago.

One star is Blueberry Crunch - surprising in a way as the TFA Blueberry that is the primary flavour was already a couple of years old when I mixed it 2 years ago (I still have an almost full 4oz bottle of the flavour !), mixed with what was fresh FW Cereal Crunch 2 years back and a few other tweaks and it's still very good with no additions at all.

Still many, many more to go, but no hurry...

 

[Lee James 27]

It's going pretty well so far; as might be expected, the heavier flavours survived better, my Coffee Cream recipe just needed a little perking up with some more FA Dark Bean, ?? Cream Fresh and CAP Super Sweet and it's great, shame i only had 60ml of it - more now steeping...

My Chocolate Cream Cake recipe that always needed a very long steep anyway is still good, again, added a bit more Tiramisu and SS (been smoking for 2 years so need the unsubtle tongue tingle of the extra SS !) and it's very good - which is a relief as I have 200ml+ of it and the same of my 'Dark Angel' recipe that's pretty similar but with a different cake flavour, looking forward to trying that one !

The non-survivors, perhaps again as expected are the lightweight recipes, some strawberries had lost it entirely, I actually ditched a few bottles rather than pour more flavour into obviously stale juice, same with the pecan and pistachio and similar subtle stuff I was experimenting with 2 years ago.

One star is Blueberry Crunch - surprising in a way as the TFA Blueberry that is the primary flavour was already a couple of years old when I mixed it 2 years ago (I still have an almost full 4oz bottle of the flavour !), mixed with what was fresh FW Cereal Crunch 2 years back and a few other tweaks and it's still very good with no additions at all.

Still many, many more to go, but no hurry...

That’s great news and I’m really pleased for you. The non survivors like the pistachio and pecan recipes can always be used as a base in similar recipes like you’d use plain VG/PG i (that’s so long as they haven’t turned funky) I’m also surprised with the TPA Blueberry Crunch surviving the long steep. As for the age of your concentrates I have found that so long as they are kept in a cool dark place they can last for years after their expiry date and the only thing that might change is that they lose some of their potency. I keep mine in a dedicated refrigerator that is just kept on a low setting so not extremely cold and some of them go back to 2017 with no issues at all.

 

[ChrisLikesCoffee]

That’s great news and I’m really pleased for you. The non survivors like the pistachio and pecan recipes can always be used as a base in similar recipes like you’d use plain VG/PG i (that’s so long as they haven’t turned funky) I’m also surprised with the TPA Blueberry Crunch surviving the long steep. As for the age of your concentrates I have found that so long as they are kept in a cool dark place they can last for years after their expiry date and the only thing that might change is that they lose some of their potency. I keep mine in a dedicated refrigerator that is just kept on a low setting so not extremely cold and some of them go back to 2017 with no issues at all.

Cheers, and yeah, a spare fridge would be a good idea. I live in the tropics so especially so. My flavours live in the one room that's air-conditioned to 26C-ish for most of the day (my office/lurk room/man cave), but that's hardly chilly so it does concern me.

Having spotted I'm out of RY4, brown sugar and juicy lemon I put an order in, also added 10ml of flavours I still have in stock - the wonderful CAP vanilla bean ice cream, TFA vanilla custard and strawbs&cream; so I can do a comparison.

Yep, good old TFA Blueberry Extra (and FW Crunch Cereal) hanging in there nicely - and bloody good job too, I have loads of both the flavour and the mixed recipe. I added some nic (I generally mix and steep without) to a 30ml bottle and that's immediately back on ADV status.

I did think about re-purposing the ones that didn't turn out great but things are complicated enough already, I have really stupid amounts of mixed juice to go through so might as well be choosy, plus no shortage of flavours and base to make more of the good stuff so what the hell; with those I'm freeing up the bottles and making the loo smell funky !

 

[Lee James 27]

Cheers, and yeah, a spare fridge would be a good idea. I live in the tropics so especially so. My flavours live in the one room that's air-conditioned to 26C-ish for most of the day (my office/lurk room/man cave), but that's hardly chilly so it does concern me.

Having spotted I'm out of RY4, brown sugar and juicy lemon I put an order in, also added 10ml of flavours I still have in stock - the wonderful CAP vanilla bean ice cream, TFA vanilla custard and strawbs&cream; so I can do a comparison.

Yep, good old TFA Blueberry Extra (and FW Crunch Cereal) hanging in there nicely - and bloody good job too, I have loads of both the flavour and the mixed recipe. I added some nic (I generally mix and steep without) to a 30ml bottle and that's immediately back on ADV status.

I did think about re-purposing the ones that didn't turn out great but things are complicated enough already, I have really stupid amounts of mixed juice to go through so might as well be choosy, plus no shortage of flavours and base to make more of the good stuff so what the hell; with those I'm freeing up the bottles and making the loo smell funky !

For some reason I thought you lived in the U.K. but being in the tropics changes quite a lot when it comes to the longevity of flavour concentrates and even the bases. I would be interested to hear more about how your new flavours compare to the old ones that you already have.

 

[ChrisLikesCoffee]

I would be interested to hear more about how your new flavours compare to the old ones that you already have.

Me too ! - will report back.

CAP VBIC is one flavour that really doesn't seem to age well; sadly so, as it's a favurite of mine.

I bought a big stash of 100+ flavours from a British guy in Sumatra a couple of years, maybe 3 years back now. He used to make juice commercially here, on a cottage industry scale, but had to return to Blighty - so I bought dozens of 4oz and smaller bottles off him unseen/untasted and he shipped them over in 2 heavy (and highly fragrant !) plastic crates.

Most were perfectly fresh and most of the rest were somewhere between good and great, so... result ! - but I was gutted to find a nearly full 100ml bottle of VBIC was basically stale !

Fair enough, I got a shitload of flavours for a great price and the majority were absolutely fine, can't complain about a few casualties, but I'm looking forward to getting some fresh VBIC in !