DIY - Your first time

[free3dom]

Amazing stuff @Vincent!

I've been considering various ways of doing the testing and the 100 drops sounds perfect. I generally stick to whole percentages too, as it simplifies mixing even at larger volumes - and tweaking after the fact is simple by just add a "pinch" more

I will definitely give this a go, it seems perfect for experimenting

 

[Arthster]

I love the TFA Black Cherry flavour but I've found that at high percentages it starts tasting a bit medicinal and I'm pretty sure that might be the strong taste you pick up after mixing, it does back off with a good steep but this may well be a good case of 'less is more', I'd suggest starting lower (~6%) and working your way up.

I'm not sure how useful this is but a while back I adopted the 100 drop (1 drop = 1%) test method from a user on ECF (Bill's magic vapor), basically if you wanted 50/50 PG/VG with 6% Black Cherry and 4% Dulche De Leche, you would have:

40 drops PG (50% PG minus the 10% of PG based flavouring)
50 drops VG
6 drops Black Cherry
4 drops Dulche De Leche

So as you can see that adds up to 100 drops, with my dropper I get about 33 drops per ml, so this would yield roughly 3ml's of sample liquid. I bought 100 x 10ml glass vials from moco packaging (http://www.mocopack.co.za/) a while back for ~R200.00, they look like so:

View attachment 18401

I'd typically mix up 3 or more of these with varying flavour percentages, a crude example of the drop test above would be something like:

1. 6% Black Cherry, 6% Dulche De Leche
2. 10% Black Cherry, 6% Dulche De Leche
3. 15% Black Cherry, 6% Dulche De Leche

These vials, so far, seem to have a tight seal and can be safely submerged in warm water to aid in slightly accelerated steeping.

Some random thoughts:

1. This method isn't exact and doesn't work for everyone but I've find that it provides a quick way to get a good approximation of what a mix would taste like without wasting too many base resources.
2. This method gets complicated if you want to add nic, since we don't get 100mg/ml nic base in these parts (that I know of), some more math is required to get the volumes correct for your prefered nic level, since this is supposed to be a quick test method I don't bother putting any nic in my samples.
3. This method also gets tricky if you want to add fractional parts of flavouring i.e. 0.25%, it's possible by increase the total number of drops but again this slows things down so I typically stick to whole percentages.

More random thoughts:

I haven't tried Black Cherry with Dulche De Leche but have had success with 6% Capella Vanilla Custard and 4% TFA Bavarian Cream as secondary flavours, maybe something else for you to experiment with.

And yeah, I suspect at this point I'm just rambling, so I'm going to stop here

Cool information thanks @Vincent, I only had the two flavors and wanted to play a little bit more with mixology

I really need to get more flavors, and I think this one was a little to advanced for my experience level. So will need to wait and see what happens.

I really like the idea of your test vials. I will definitely be looking at getting a couple of those going

 

[Silver]

Super post @Vincent -
Most interesting - and thanks for the tip on the little glass vials

 

[Andre]

I love the TFA Black Cherry flavour but I've found that at high percentages it starts tasting a bit medicinal and I'm pretty sure that might be the strong taste you pick up after mixing, it does back off with a good steep but this may well be a good case of 'less is more', I'd suggest starting lower (~6%) and working your way up.

I'm not sure how useful this is but a while back I adopted the 100 drop (1 drop = 1%) test method from a user on ECF (Bill's magic vapor), basically if you wanted 50/50 PG/VG with 6% Black Cherry and 4% Dulche De Leche, you would have:

40 drops PG (50% PG minus the 10% of PG based flavouring)
50 drops VG
6 drops Black Cherry
4 drops Dulche De Leche

So as you can see that adds up to 100 drops, with my dropper I get about 33 drops per ml, so this would yield roughly 3ml's of sample liquid. I bought 100 x 10ml glass vials from moco packaging (http://www.mocopack.co.za/) a while back for ~R200.00, they look like so:

View attachment 18401

I'd typically mix up 3 or more of these with varying flavour percentages, a crude example of the drop test above would be something like:

1. 6% Black Cherry, 6% Dulche De Leche
2. 10% Black Cherry, 6% Dulche De Leche
3. 15% Black Cherry, 6% Dulche De Leche

These vials, so far, seem to have a tight seal and can be safely submerged in warm water to aid in slightly accelerated steeping.

Some random thoughts:

1. This method isn't exact and doesn't work for everyone but I've find that it provides a quick way to get a good approximation of what a mix would taste like without wasting too many base resources.
2. This method gets complicated if you want to add nic, since we don't get 100mg/ml nic base in these parts (that I know of), some more math is required to get the volumes correct for your prefered nic level, since this is supposed to be a quick test method I don't bother putting any nic in my samples.
3. This method also gets tricky if you want to add fractional parts of flavouring i.e. 0.25%, it's possible by increase the total number of drops but again this slows things down so I typically stick to whole percentages.

More random thoughts:

I haven't tried Black Cherry with Dulche De Leche but have had success with 6% Capella Vanilla Custard and 4% TFA Bavarian Cream as secondary flavours, maybe something else for you to experiment with.

And yeah, I suspect at this point I'm just rambling, so I'm going to stop here

Thank you for sharing this wonderful practical information.

 

[Waheed]

Hi guys. I have been enjoying vaping the following mixes:
7% passion fruit and 3% cream.
10% passion fruit.
7% strawberry and 3% cream.
7% energy drink.
I use a 70/30 VG/PG mix but want to try a 60/40

 

[Derick]

Hi guys. I have been enjoying vaping the following mixes:
7% passion fruit and 3% cream.
10% passion fruit.
7% strawberry and 3% cream.
7% energy drink.
I use a 70/30 VG/PG mix but want to try a 60/40

Sounds awesome

 

[Waheed]

Sounds awesome

Thanks @Derick. I have been DIYing for the past 6 months and my ADV is passion fruit. Have started combining flavours only recently but will keep testing and reporting back on this thread to keep the vape community informed. Need to get more flavours to mix first though

 

[Derick]

Thanks @Derick. I have been DIYing for the past 6 months and my ADV is passion fruit. Have started combining flavours only recently but will keep testing and reporting back on this thread to keep the vape community informed. Need to get more flavours to mix first though

The passion fruit is nice, you would probably like dragonfruit then too, not really a fruit that is readily available in SA (although you can find it) - so people don't really know it, but it certainly makes a nice vape for the fruit lovers

You can also try to add a little bit of vanilla to your mixes as a third flavour - it is a good one to start off with for complex mixes because vanilla is pretty forgiving and improves the taste 99% of the time

 

[Waheed]

The passion fruit is nice, you would probably like dragonfruit then too, not really a fruit that is readily available in SA (although you can find it) - so people don't really know it, but it certainly makes a nice vape for the fruit lovers

You can also try to add a little bit of vanilla to your mixes as a third flavour - it is a good one to start off with for complex mixes because vanilla is pretty forgiving and improves the taste 99% of the time

Funny you should mention those two, already added them to my shopping cart. Yes I plan on adding the vanilla to see what it does. But also want to try adding it to my caramel tobacco mix ( haven't yet vaped it @ 7% as it's still steeping)

 

[Derick]

Funny you should mention those two, already added them to my shopping cart. Yes I plan on adding the vanilla to see what it does. But also want to try adding it to my caramel tobacco mix ( haven't yet vaped it @ 7% as it's still steeping)

Heh, awesome - Yep vanilla works well with tobacco mixes, even if it is just a tiny amount for some background

 

[free3dom]

I definitely need some more fruit flavours
Passion fruit does sound nice...might have to give that a go.

BTW @Derick ...the TFA Pineapple is a confirmed tank cracker. I did read that on the TFA site, but as time went by I forgot, loaded in my Taifun and......crack
It is definitely a glass tank only flavour, so anyone using it take note

 

[StingRay999]

My starter kit form SkyBlue is arriving today. I cant wait to start with the chemistry. Thanks for this great thread @Derick It really got me exited and confident to start.

 

[Waheed]

And always keep notes of your recipes if you inventing new combinations. It's so easy to vape on something after a week and think "this is awsome " only to then have the thought "my god I can't remember the percentages"

 

[Derick]

My starter kit form SkyBlue is arriving today. I cant wait to start with the chemistry. Thanks for this great thread @Derick It really got me exited and confident to start.

My pleasure, hope you enjoy it and feel free to post questions/comments, I'm by no means all-knowing when it comes to DIY, so if I can't answer, I'm sure there will be forumites that can

 

[Derick]

I definitely need some more fruit flavours
Passion fruit does sound nice...might have to give that a go.

BTW @Derick ...the TFA Pineapple is a confirmed tank cracker. I did read that on the TFA site, but as time went by I forgot, loaded in my Taifun and......crack
It is definitely a glass tank only flavour, so anyone using it take note

Yikes, ok, have added a warning in the description

 

[Waheed]

Yikes, ok, have added a warning in the description

@Derick I have found that the passion fruit also doesn't agree with the polycarbonate tanks. After vaping a few mls I find it creates a white film on the inside of the tank. Doesn't do this in glass tanks though

 

[StingRay999]

Thank you very much, I will definitely be asking a lot of questions. My first try is going to be with the TFA Fudge Brownie. I am also going to try and improve 3 bottles of VK4 I have that tastes bad. I wonder what the chances are that @Melinda included a random freebie in my package

 

[Waheed]

Funny you should mention those two, already added them to my shopping cart. Yes I plan on adding the vanilla to see what it does. But also want to try adding it to my caramel tobacco mix ( haven't yet vaped it @ 7% as it's still steeping)

Finally tried the caramel tobacco @7%. It tastes more like honey tobacco in all honesty.

 

[Melinda]

Thank you very much, I will definitely be asking a lot of questions. My first try is going to be with the TFA Fudge Brownie. I am also going to try and improve 3 bottles of VK4 I have that tastes bad. I wonder what the chances are that @Melinda included a random freebie in my package

I'm sorry I didn't unless you get the wrong parcel then the whole package will be a surprise

 

[free3dom]

Yikes, ok, have added a warning in the description

Nice, better to be safe

@Derick I have found that the passion fruit also doesn't agree with the polycarbonate tanks. After vaping a few mls I find it creates a white film on the inside of the tank. Doesn't do this in glass tanks though

Good to know, thanks


Luckily this is becoming less of a problem as just about every tank released now is made of glass

 

[rogue zombie]

I have my first batch steeping.

Kept is easy - one Bavarian, and a strawberry creme de menthe. 8% flavour and 60vg/40pg...

Holding thumbs that I was paying attention in class, and got it right

 

[StingRay999]

I'm sorry I didn't unless you get the wrong parcel then the whole package will be a surprise

That is fine I will most likely be placing another order within the next couple of days......

 

[free3dom]

I have my first batch steeping.

Kept is easy - one Bavarian, and a strawberry creme de menthe. 8% flavour and 60vg/40pg...

Holding thumbs that I was paying attention in class, and got it right

If class was anything like this I would have aced everything

Steeping is torture though
I've personally been steeping some Strawberry/minty mixes for a week now...they are starting to smell (and look) really nice
Soon.....

 

[rogue zombie]

If class was anything like this I would have aced everything

Steeping is torture though
I've personally been steeping some Strawberry/minty mixes for a week now...they are starting to smell (and look) really nice
Soon.....

With the look of it "looking ready", do you mean the liquid gets darker in colour?
Or is there any other visual distinction that suggests its ready?

 

[free3dom]

With the look of it "looking ready", do you mean the liquid gets darker in colour?
Or is there any other visual distinction that suggests its ready?

Well from experience with the other SkyBlue strawberry juices they all seem to be bright yellow when well steeped.

When I mixed them up they were transparent - I vaped a bit and it was "bleh"...
So I started the long steep and after about 2 days they were getting a bit yellowish. Now after a week they are a nice yellow - not quite as yellow as I'm used to, but very close.

So I'll leave it a few more days and see what it does