Question to all the DIY juice makers using concentrates...

So we are going to start (well, have already started) playing with DIY with concentrates, We have bought say, 10 different flavours but as usual find there is another one or two in a recipe you see that you dont have..have you been through this before .. yes?

Ok, so what I ask is, what staples would you always have in your DIY kitty (aside from the norm PG, VG and nic) Which flavours or additives always seem to come up in a recipe that you would hate to be missing or be without?

I have found a recipe for example, needs vanilla swirl but hey, I only have french vanilla..or another asks for Vanillin..again, guess what? I bought french vanilla thinking vanilla was vanilla LOL. So you get my drift? Could french vanilla be used instead of vanilla swirl?

Its a bummer having to go back and keep ordering concentrates especially when I only need one or two. I know I could look at the recipes first and then go order but look, I browse and see something else after the order was put through etc etc, so I want to hear what I should always have in my kitty!
xo

 

Lessons from insanity

First you need a rule to remind yourself that this is a hobby. If you're not setting up a vape shop i.e going professional, then constantly tell yourself that this is a hobby like cooking, and just accept that you're an ameteur mixologist. Personally, this helps me keep sane.

If you're about to enter this hobby, first you need to decide on your main ejuices say 3-5. And stick to them. Vape on as though they're the only ejuices that exist. If you don't do this, you'll be in state of constant lepricon hunting, mixing and tasting and chucking away stuff all in an attempt to discover the ultimate vape recipe. Kind of like what some people go through with hardware. Just decide on your main setup (device/cartridge/flavor). Let it become part of your life. Everything else that you come across is merely part of the hobby that may or may not become an all day vape. I keep my main device and ejuices separate from the all my ejuice mixing gear and flavourings.

canuk proprietry doublers become like songs you buy from itunes. Shared recipes become like downloadable guitar-pro tabs, ejuicemeup becomes like guitar-pro software, and your own recipes become your own songs. All four make up what is a really fun hobby. Sometimes, something you purchase, find, or make yourself moves from your being your hobby life to something you enjoy throughout the whole day. My main ejuices that I use daily include purchased canuk doublers, recipes I found online, and one recipe I made myself.

Having said that,

Some essentials for your hobby kit would be ;

1. Ethyl Maltol (10% PG)
2. Sucralose sweetner
3. Koolada
4. Menthol
5. Bitter Wizard
6. Tobacco Blend (tobacco extract)
7. Smooth or MTSWizard
8. Measuring cylinder - I much prefer this over syringe for measuring
9. ejuicemeup software
10. Patience. Let them steep. No smelling until its ready or else you'll be tempted to try an unripened ejuice. Get a little box with lock if you have to.

 

Bethydy re vanilla/french vanilla..had the same query a week or so ago when doing a home mix..Not being too much of a cook I looked up the difference ..seems one has the egg yolk in one doesn't..so I just went ahead and used what I had it is your taste buds you are mixing for..

 

I use Vanillin as a first try, as all other vanilla variants are vanillan with extras added. Then I decide whther I want to use FA classic or PA's French. So I guess you could add Vanillin to your kit essentials.

French vanilla is basically vanilla icecream flavour for me. I mainly use it in desert vapes.

 

In regards to substituting different brands of concentrate you need to keep in mind that aside from possible flavour differences, the ratio may be a bit off. For instance the recipe may call for 5% of Vanilla X, but your substitute flavour Vanilla Y may be either too strong or too weak at 5%.

Concentrates vary greatly in their strength, some only require a couple of drops and some can require 20%.

 

I love a bit of Lorann tart and sour added to virtually every fruity flavour I have. It cuts through the excessive sweetness of some juices.
Apart from that.. EM, koolada, sweetener, a cinnamon, a "sharp taste" or "flash" (I think it's made from chillis to enhance throathit), a menthol, a bottle of spirytus from Dan Murphy's
A stack of single use pippettes.. I bought 1000 from wiltronics for very small outlay along with some teeny tiny bottle brushes.
A bottle of Milton's solution for cleaning things.
An ultrasonic jewellery cleaner (Aldi often has them) for cleaning glass, plastic, and also speeding up steeping.
A test tube stand with test tubes or small glass cylinders
A labeller like a dymo letratag
A permanent marker
Several sorts of bottles, to easily identify what stage of development your flavours are at.
I use normal drip tip plastic bottles for the start, then needle nose bottles for development, and amber glass bottles for those I'm happy with.

I have found one of the best ways to get the best flavours is to keep adding flavour and tweakers until it's too much, keeping good records of what you've done, and then stepping it back one step to get an ultimately good flavour. Keep your concentrates cool and dry and dark.. but not refrigerated or frozen. Taste testing all the elements individually too will help you become more intuitive about what you need to add to make the best flavours.

Good luck.. it's loads of fun

 

There's two main types of "vanilla" that people tend to get confused:

Vanilla
As in 'extract', also called 'vanillan'. This may be further broken down into the three main characteristic vanillas: Bourbon vanilla, Tahitian vanilla, and West Indian vanilla. Mostly, what we know of as vanilla is probably Bourbon vanilla (from the Indian Ocean Islands formerly know as خle Bourbon) which is now widely cultivated in the US, Mexico, and canada. If you see Chinese manufactured "Vanilla Bourbon" they probably actually mean "Bourbon vanilla".

A typical vanilla extract (ie Bourbon vanilla) is a useful thing to have be.comse in very low concentrations it can give a smoother finish to a harsh mix without actually tasting like vanilla. Try about 1 or 2 drop per 10ml if this is what you want to achieve. If you want a true vanilla flavour be very .comtious as the concentrates can be quite strong.

French Vanilla
This denotes a more desert type flavour with a vanilla aroma and a creamy vanilla taste. Think vanilla custard or vanilla ice cream. "Vanilla Swirl" would suggest itself as being one of these.

A word of .comtion on buttery and creamy type flavours. One of the usual artificial concentrates used in these types of flavourings is diacetyl which has been linked to a serious health condition "when heated and inhaled". If using anything with these flavourings question the supplier to find out whether or not diacetyl is used. Here's the relevant heath warning from the Wikipedia page. If it is used and you still want to vape these kinds of flavours consider using them only occasionally. It's unclear whether or not coil temperatures put vapers into the risk category, but it's something we should be aware of.

A good coffee concentrate is also one of my staples. A few drops can add to the complexity of a tobacco flavour but it's difficult to find a good one that doesn't vape like burnt rubber however. I now make my own with a cold extraction method and it seems to be working out well for me.

 

MrsG are you just using the spirytus instead of vodka as alcohol in your mixes?

 

That's right KBM.. just a drop or so.. it's a lot purer than vodka, being 95% drinkable alcohol.. and at $50 for a 500mL bottle, it's quite reasonable. If I had vodka here, I'd drink it lol
I have myself convinced that spirytus is just for juice making... vodka is no doubt a good alternative!

 

I've been thinking about how to make my own coffee flavour. Trouble is I don't really like straight espresso. I like milk and sugar in my coffee.
You can't really leave coffee to soak for any length of time.. it just becomes more bitter.. like leaving a tea bag in for hours.. you most likely wouldn't enjoy the flavour.
So I'm think about trying an stove top espresso pot with PG instead of water, and seeing how that works.. then adding some sweet cream concentrate to it.
The only thing I'm not sure is whether the PG would actually get hot enough to make it through the ground coffee.
I guess an old electric coffee dripolator might be worth a thought too.
I haven't found a coffee or chocolate flavour I like, and I've tried 10s of different concentrates so far

 

vanilla swirl is a vanilla custard with the custard notes removed.
French vanilla is a vanilla icecream flavour and doesn't have those custard notes. French vanilla deluxe does.

These r just some of what I have to have on hand
Flavor Apprentice and lorann Bavarian cream
Flavor Apprentice vanilla swirl
Flavour Apprentice Dulce de leche
ethyl maltol
vanillin
Dihydrocoumarin

 

Oh wow, logged on to find all these lovely and helpful replies, thankyou all so much.

Looks like I have to order a bit more lol and will definetly have a look through VCs raw ingredients, I only scanned them and thought, meh, dont understand that without really reading properly thats me though!

As for using alcohol/vodka, have often thought of using it but I am not sure how it would go should I be pulled over for a breath test by the cops, as my work involves driving around from client to client (especially on Saturday nights when I usually always get hit by the booze bus) would it register? It seems like a silly question but I need to ask it can it make you drunk lol as I vape constantly in my car whilst driving

I never thought about the Diacetyl in some of the custard and buttery liquids really (Just bought some Buttery Nipple from VB). I guess I considered they would not be in them as most liquid doublers you can buy from local vendors claim not to have this added..cussing tart being one I can think of off hand.

Well, you have all helped me enormously in getting the basics to start DIY and should it fail for me (or I lose interest) will always have ingredients to at least tweak bought juices with

Thanks again everybody xox

 

The most vapable coffee I have come across is Wizards Brew from the VapeBar in WA. Its strong but with nice creamy and sweetness to it which is how I like my real coffee. I dont think I will try my hand at anymore coffee making except for maybe only as an additive xo

 

I'm actually thinking that heat in the extraction process is part of what gives these coffee concentrates the burnt rubber aroma when you exhale. (the worst ones have it on the inhale as well). I did a cold extraction, this is my method:

Materials:
60ml wide mouth specimen container or similar
400 S/S mesh for filtering
small funnel
30-40ml PG
One single mesure (espresso measure, heaped desert spoon) mild roast coffee
30ml dropper bottle

Method:
Put the coffee in the container and pour some PG until covered. stir to get air out of the coffee grounds. Repeat until there's no more air.
Top the container up to about the 60ml line. Shake and place in a warm dark place for two weeks. Give it a shake everyday but not on the last day.
After two weeks filter through the mesh in the funnel into another container, leaving most of the coffee grounds behind if you can. Discard the grounds.
If the concentrate is still cloudy it will need more filtering, or you can use the sedimentatiion method if you wish.
For the sedimentation method rinse your specimen container out and dry. Tip the coffee concentrate back into it, put the cap on, and leave undisturbed for two weeks. After this time carefully take the cap off and tip it through the 400 mesh again, however you will find that most of the sediment is stuck to the bottom of the container.

 

This is way to advanced for me hehehe xo

 

A pancake recipe is probably more complicated, except that the filtering is a basic lab technique. I was hoping it would give Mrs Gruffy some ideas.

 

Fabricator.. you could be on to something there, but I still think the coffee will "stew" if it's left that long.. but I'm prepared to try it.
Do you think that a coffee filter (paper) would be a finer filter than the mesh?

 

I wonder if it's possible to steep a coffee bean in juice? Has anyone tried it?

 

Go back to post #14 ^^^^^^^

 

Thank you Duh speedreading is the order of my day lately, and yep, missed it!


It reminded me of the time I tried a bit of a gimmick when we started getting serious about selling coffees in our milk bar. I got a nice fresh grind of our beans and put them in a deep-dish oil burner, which I put near the entrance, when the shop was configured in a way that it was possible. Stole that idea from Darrel Lea LOL
It did work, but when we rearranged, it wasn't a good idea to put a burning thing in the doorway.