Is it me or my juice? O_o

I've been finding for a while now that after a day or so of vaping the same juice, it doesn't taste anywhere near what it did when it was freshly mixed.

For instance, I mixed up mango, coconut, fresh cream and bavarian cream just a few days ago. I made it pretty strong at about 18% flavour and the dominant
ingredient in the flavouring was mango. Straight after mixing, I dripped and filled a clearo with it. It was sweet, with what I thought was just the right amount of
mango.

Yesterday I noticed that the mango flavour seemed to be fading. Today the fruit flavour seems to have gone and to me it tastes more like pancakes with a little
maple syrup and cream than the originally intended flavour.

I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do to fix it. I guess the possible issues are:
The flavour just losing it's umm... flavour
My taste buds getting too used to it
Someone is breaking into my house and diluting my juice

Has anyone else found their mixes changing in taste and dropping flavours? Could it be the brand of concentrate that I'm using?
I've been using mostly FlavourArt concentrates that I bought recently, be.comse I wanted to try something different to the TPA/TFA's that I had left.

 

sounds like steeping is changing it

 

Orph, This is something that has had me perplexed for quite a while to the extent that I have often thought that vaping flavours is possibly not worth the time and effort. I've even played with vaping unflavoured for a week at a time and this has helped to neutralise my taste buds. I also suspect (but I really don't know) that many juice suppliers produce a flavour which is acceptable at mixing but after a steep are nothing like the newly mixed flavour.
I've read heaps about vapers tongue etc but as yet don't have a satisfactory answer so I'm interested to see the replies to your post.

 

Glad I'm not the only one!
How long did neutralizing your taste buds by vaping unflavoured help for?

 

About a week ... I was surprised by the non flavoured vape taste ..... bit peppery cuz of the nick but a bit like a weak tobacco.

 

I've been suspecting for a while now that strong flavours are unstable, not in themselves but in our subjective experience of them.

A couple of months ago I started vaping either unflavoured or very, very diluted flavour. When the flavour is very weak it seems more stable to me. The flavour is subtle but while you vape it over time it stays consistent, and your taste buds quickly adjust to the hints of flavour. At full strength the first few puffs are wow!, but as I vape it it seems to lose strength and I find I'm constantly chasing flavour or fussing over it, noticing changes to it, and just generally becoming dissatisfied with the taste experience for one reason or another.

So my advice would be to drastically reduce the amount of concentrates and you might find the flavour to be more stable and consistent, and ultimately satisfying.

I think it's be.comse vaping food flavouring messes with your brain. After 2 million years of evolution the brain doesn't quite know how to handle 'food' with no substance or texture, that titillates the tongue and nose but doesn't ever find satisfaction in a the stomach.....for the body/brain this is a bit freakish.

I just think it's unnatural to try to replicate a food experience via inhalation, we are not programmed for it. So a waft of flavour is more acceptable to the taste/brain than a full on food experience.

Clearly I've been musing on this for some time and I may be completely bonkers, so take with a grain of salt.

 

i vape my flavours very diluted as well. i found that mixed full strength, they would put my taste buds into shock or something and i'd lose and enjoyment of my juice.

 

We expect a lot of our juice flavours. We want them to be ready to vape straight away, then we want them to remain unchanged if they are nice, or magically turn into something wonderful after steeping, if they are crap. We "expect" everything to be exactly what we want, when we want it. To me, it just doesn't work that way, particularly with DIY, it takes time and learning. Its not like mixing cordial, (this is the one thing I disagree with FM about ), its a skill, and as with all skills it takes a bit of effort, trial and error, and knowledge, but most of all practice. Its not an instant process.

What I've found is that its all a bit of a gamble. Some flavours are great from the first day, and for months afterwards, some change dramatically, some don't change at all. Steeping is hit and miss, not always good, not always bad. Some fruit flavours lose their oomph after just a few days, some don't.

Keep notes and test your mix. If its a flavour you know will not be so great after a few days, just make enough to vape over a couple of days, or make a fresh batch when you want that particular flavour. If its a mix that doesn't change over time, or not much, then you can make bigger batches. If your fruit flavour is dulled after steeping, add a bit more of that particular concentrate, it may boost the flavour you want to be dominant.

Most of all, until you "know" what the juice will do over time, keep the amounts you make small. If you lose 5-10 ml, its no biggy. Test, adjust if needed, test again, etc and KEEP NOTES so you will know for next time.

 

I'm with most of the above and must admit that I've been doing the same as Jen ...... Chasing flavours and continually fussing ha ha.

It's got to the stage where I mix in small quantities so that I use the juice quickly while it's still fresh. I read somewhere on another forum while browsing that higher percentages can be just as bad as too low a percentage. Didn't read the whole thread so maybe this was what they were discussing ? Was trying to find out why so many Americans vape with percentages up around the 30% mark but came to the conclusion that a lot of them were newbies (as I was once and favored up to 26% at one stage) and needed the higher %. I usually mix at about the 20% (+/- 2).

Might try a lower % like Jen suggested or even no% and see what happens ....... Can imagine it will be hard though.
Cheers
Sodd

 

I've found from looking at different DIY recipes from around the world, that those from the US tend to be very very sweet, compared to those from Europe, Asia, the UK and canada. The US recipes do tend to use a lot of flavourings as well, and are usually way too strong for my tastes. I think be.comse in the US they like their food very sweet, that their e juices tend to follow the same path.

Probably the strongest mix I make would be about 25% flavouring, and that is using straight concentrates, which require more to be added than the super concentrates, (I know, der!!!). Using the super concentrates, the flavouring part of the juice can be as little as 5% for a multi flavour mix, and as little as 1-2% for a single flavour mix.

I think there is a certain % where adding more is going to make no difference at all to the end flavour, and that seems to be around 25% for concentrates, and about 5% for super concentrates.

A couple of things I've learned is:

Most non-citrus fruit flavours lose strength over time, (a couple of exceptions, but in general this is the case), so are best vaped with a couple of weeks of mixing.

Tobacco flavours hold their strength well, and become smoother with steeping, and are good for months of vaping.

Custards, creams, and many bakery type flavours, change quite a lot with steeping, becoming smoother, and slightly muted, so a higher % initially is going to mean the flavour will increase a little but also change the most. Some custards are best after a month or more of steeping.

Butterscotch, caramel, and other sweet flavours, hold their strength very well, steeping can make a little difference with smoothing out the flavours, but its not a huge difference by any means.

Be careful how much sweetener you add, as they tend to get sweeter over time, for example sucralose. EM does not change much.

This is by no means a definitive list of findings, just a few things I've noticed since starting my DIY journey.

 

Yep what they all said^^^^. I do however suspect that the same plonker that is diluting your juices could infact be a pro, and is hitting a lot of places. It might even be an organised gang that is targeting vapers. I wouldn't be surprised if they are trained by the antz, government, BT and BP.

 

Just got home from work and mixing up a small flavourless batch. Thanks for the input!

I'm pretty careful with my supplies, especially as there are no b&m stores in Cairns (yet?), only mixing 2 - 5ml at a time until I'm happy with a recipe.

 

Thank you spud! That's in line with what I've been finding too, but with a few more ingredient types thrown in. Much appreciated!

 

If you find the unflavoured a bit boring add a small amount of a strong flavoured juice to offset the nick taste. I have a lime/icecream juice which is not to my liking as the lime is very dominant but a very small amount in unflavoured juice is perfect to offset the nick taste.

I agree with JenJ and Kay that our taste buds just normalise a flavour and need to be reset .... works for me after a few days.

 

This is exactly what I do. I have one PV loaded with unflavoured with a dash of a minty flavour, and another one with a dash of a caramel dessert flavour.

It's amazing how much you can taste of the flavour at such tiny dilution, and how satisfying it it.

 

I have also found that the first vapes in the morning are the most intense. My ritual is that I get out of bed .... I make a cuppa tea .... I collect my PV's (four with different flavours) and i go sit out the back under a pergola and contemplate the world.

I just love that time of day and I have noticed after the night sleep the flavours are just wonderful. However, as the day progresses the flavours appear to weaken and my satisfaction of them starts to wain.

 

Yep, exactly. The morning vape is the best of the day.

Recently I got back into vaping flavours be.comse I had to try a local vendor so I got an biggish order. After a few days I realised I was back into that frustrating cycle of chasing flavour all the time. Swapping between different ones be.comse I couldn't taste one properly. Then by the end of the day they all began to taste of nothing anyway, so I would fossick around for an even stronger flavour to try to taste something.

But most of all I vape LOT more when I'm flavour chasing. I'm going back to unflavoured now be.comse it's just too frustrating and I become too focused on vaping, ending up chain vaping all the time.

 

Well, I have that trouble as well. Except I get it within hours, not days. But it ain't my juice.

I get that "wow" period when starting a (nice) new juice with a new coil/carto. Within an hour or so it's "ho-hum". If I put it aside for a few days and come back to it, I get that "wow" again. For a little while.

I gotta run a few clearos loaded with different flavours concurrently and regularly swap 'em around, or I taste nearly nothing.

Seperately, I find the information about different flavours and how they react as offered by spud (amongst others) most informative and useful. But I know, for me, that is not the main .comse of my taste variation issues.

All that said, I'm sure there is something in what Gresh11 said (about systematic sabotage)

 

Well I am only new to this and I have been changing flavors allot and I have found the same thing after a while the taste becomes flat and then I am thinking of trying yet another flavor.
I thought it was just me but thanks to your very good information on this I now know what is happening, first vape in the mornings is clean and fresh by tea time it is quite bland and I do find I am chasing flavor allot.
When I am vaping a mild tobacco flavor this doesn't seem to happen but if it is a strong one it dose, the same goes with fruits etc.

 

I ended up mixing a few days worth of a very mild (2% TPA) juicy peach flavoured juice last night, hopefully it'll help "reset" my buds Thanks for the advice!


Sounds like an amazing way to start the day Rebel1. What are your favourite morning flavours at the moment?

I'm going to try rotating flavours, several times a day if I have to, once I get some more clearo's and attys (hopefully this week)