Newbie wanting to mix

[Glytch]

Solid plan!
It's Inawera (INW)

Strawberries are dull on my palate to. Need to use TFA SRipe, CAP Sweet Strawberry and TFA Sweet Strawberry at 3% each for juice to even resemble strawberry.

INW Strawberry Shisha tastes like dirt and damp leaves. It has that hookah tobacco taste that I can't get out of my coils unless I rewick. It's way to potent for me even in a mix at 2%.

JF Sweet Strawberry sweet is apparently the last great hope for us strawberry challenged individuals. I have a mix steeping at the moment. Holding thumbs.

 

[aktorsyl]

Strawberries are dull on my palate to. Need to use TFA SRipe, CAP Sweet Strawberry and TFA Sweet Strawberry at 3% each for juice to even resemble strawberry.

INW Strawberry Shisha tastes like dirt and damp leaves. It has that hookah tobacco taste that I can't get out of my coils unless I rewick. It's way to potent for me even in a mix at 2%.

JF Sweet Strawberry sweet is apparently the last great hope for us strawberry challenged individuals. I have a mix steeping at the moment. Holding thumbs.

It's interesting how sometimes our palates make up their own minds, yes. Like I can't stand TFA VBIC. Not even a little bit. People praise it far and wide, I remove it from my concentrate cupboards with the help of clergy.

Having said that, I've never tasted dirt or dry leaves in INW Strawb

 

[Glytch]

It's interesting how sometimes our palates make up their own minds, yes. Like I can't stand TFA VBIC. Not even a little bit. People praise it far and wide, I remove it from my concentrate cupboards with the help of clergy.

Having said that, I've never tasted dirt or dry leaves in INW Strawb

I know right! Still can't find a genuine banana that I like. All too sweet and candy like.

Worst thing about the INW Strawberry is I mixed 100ml of Forest Blaster with it in because someone swore it worked in that mix. Tasted some last night and needed to rewick today because I kept tasting Hookah. Here's hoping a steep sorts it out or it's going to become "Forest Blaster Menthol and Sweetener".

 

[aktorsyl]

I know right! Still can't find a genuine banana that I like. All too sweet and candy like.

Worst thing about the INW Strawberry is I mixed 100ml of Forest Blaster with it in because someone swore it worked in that mix. Tasted some last night and needed to rewick today because I kept tasting Hookah. Here's hoping a steep sorts it out or it's going to become "Forest Blaster Menthol and Sweetener".

FA Banana doesn't have that much sweetness (for me), but it's dry as hell. I usually pair it with LA Banana Cream in tiny quantities, but yes - you do get a lot of inherent sweetness that way And creaminess, obviously.

 

[Andre]

Strawberries are dull on my palate to. Need to use TFA SRipe, CAP Sweet Strawberry and TFA Sweet Strawberry at 3% each for juice to even resemble strawberry.

INW Strawberry Shisha tastes like dirt and damp leaves. It has that hookah tobacco taste that I can't get out of my coils unless I rewick. It's way to potent for me even in a mix at 2%.

JF Sweet Strawberry sweet is apparently the last great hope for us strawberry challenged individuals. I have a mix steeping at the moment. Holding thumbs.

You could try adding some FLV Alpine Strawberry. Expensive, but a little (0.25%) goes a long way.

 

[RichJB]

Yes, I've also heard that Flv Alpine is a good bet for the strawberry non-tasters. Shisha Strawb is a polarising flavour, much like VBIC. Half love it, half can't stand it. I can taste strawberries and don't get pepper so I love them both. 3% Shisha Strawb with 4% TFA VBIC, me love you long time.

FA Banana doesn't have that much sweetness (for me), but it's dry as hell.

ID10-T will agree with you there. He is forever complaining that Pear and Blackcurrant are the only two FA fruits that aren't inexorably dry. He describes FA Strawb as "freeze-dried", heh. It doesn't bother me, sometimes you want dry for bakeries and such. But it is a thing.

 

[Glytch]

Is there a banana concentrate that tastes like actual Banana? Like ripe fresh banana without the sweetness?

All the banana's that I've tried taste like these:

 

[RichJB]

No, there isn't. For me, all bananas are runts to a degree. The ones I haven't tried yet and which have drawn positive reviews are Hangsen, FW which Shyndo describes as "banana baby food" and Purilum which Mysticrosell describes as:

At 3 days this is definitely an authentic fresh banana. It's balanced on the edge of ripeness, just barely past the green yet not over ripe. It almost has a creamy texture to the body, but just the creamy meatiness of a natural banana and not an added cream. Not cloying at all, and not candy.

At 4 weeks this has smoothed out and become a creamy fresh banana without any hints of green. It's ripe and has natural levels of sweetness, nothing cloying or over ripe. A very balanced flavor, beyond green and before over ripe. There are no peel or green flavors in this.

I'll give it a go but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Glytch]

I'll give it a go but I'm not holding my breath.

Please let me know! From the description seems to be what I'm after.

 

[TheV]

4x100ml amber glass bottles R60

@RichJB, just to check... the white plastic insert that comes with these bottles is not something that I should be using, right?

 

[RichJB]

White plastic insert? Is that a disk that fits into the cap? I dunno, never noticed it in my bottles.

 

[TheV]

White plastic insert? Is that a disk that fits into the cap? I dunno, never noticed it in my bottles.

Yeah. It is inside the black cap. Once you screw the cap onto the bottle it the lodges itself into the neck of the bottle.
Something like this:

 

[RichJB]

Oh no, that's a dropper mechanism. You don't need that.

 

[TheV]

Oh no, that's a dropper mechanism. You don't need that.

Thanks for the confirmation. Just wanted to make sure I'm not missing anything.

I'm already itching to buy more concentrates. Oh my, there is no telling how deep this rabbit hole goes

 

[RichJB]

A dropper like that might actually be useful if it fitted into the neck of a nic bottle. It would allow one to dispense nic from the original glass bottle without needing a pipette or syringe. But you don't use nic so not any use to you. Besides, I've found that these things drip so slowly that they're usually no bueno anyway.

Yeah, you'll want more and more concentrates as you go. As long as you have a plan for each concentrate, i.e that you're buying it for a recipe that you have and that there are other popular recipes it can be used in, you won't go far wrong. The danger is when you start buying unknown concentrates, for which you don't have recipes, on the basis of "this looks interesting". Usually, it won't be. That's where you end up with 50 bottles of junk where, after a year, you've used 1ml of the 10ml and end up ditching the rest. Stick with the known and popular concentrates and you'll get good bang for buck.

 

[aktorsyl]

A dropper like that might actually be useful if it fitted into the neck of a nic bottle. It would allow one to dispense nic from the original glass bottle without needing a pipette or syringe. But you don't use nic so not any use to you. Besides, I've found that these things drip so slowly that they're usually no bueno anyway.

Yeah, you'll want more and more concentrates as you go. As long as you have a plan for each concentrate, i.e that you're buying it for a recipe that you have and that there are other popular recipes it can be used in, you won't go far wrong. The danger is when you start buying unknown concentrates, for which you don't have recipes, on the basis of "this looks interesting". Usually, it won't be. That's where you end up with 50 bottles of junk where, after a year, you've used 1ml of the 10ml and end up ditching the rest. Stick with the known and popular concentrates and you'll get good bang for buck.

Hey, @RichJB , I have some FA Guava for you
It looked interesting....

Disclaimer: @TheV : Never ever buy that shit.

 

[TheV]

A dropper like that might actually be useful if it fitted into the neck of a nic bottle. It would allow one to dispense nic from the original glass bottle without needing a pipette or syringe. But you don't use nic so not any use to you. Besides, I've found that these things drip so slowly that they're usually no bueno anyway.

Yeah, you'll want more and more concentrates as you go. As long as you have a plan for each concentrate, i.e that you're buying it for a recipe that you have and that there are other popular recipes it can be used in, you won't go far wrong. The danger is when you start buying unknown concentrates, for which you don't have recipes, on the basis of "this looks interesting". Usually, it won't be. That's where you end up with 50 bottles of junk where, after a year, you've used 1ml of the 10ml and end up ditching the rest. Stick with the known and popular concentrates and you'll get good bang for buck.

Most definitely. I'm going to stick to popular recipes and concentrates initially for sure.
I now have a wonderful starter kit that allows me to get going and get my toes wet.
While that is happening I can look for recipes to figure out what the next batch of concentrates is that I should be getting.
I definitely don't want to end up with a bunch of useless items but I also understand that there will obviously just be same concentrates and recipes that I just don't like. All part of the process.

 

[TheV]

Hey, @RichJB , I have some FA Guava for you
It looked interesting....

Disclaimer: @TheV : Never ever buy that shit.

I've read about your disappointment regarding that concentrate.
Maybe we should do: Dry Hits & Kak Mix instead?

 

[aktorsyl]

Maybe we should do: Dry Hits & Kak Mix instead?

Sold!

 

[RichJB]

You will end up with some duds, it is inevitable. The trick is to limit the damage. This again is where the ATF flavour search is invaluable. To use the FA Guava example that @aktorsyl quotes, the typical new DIYer will reason "well, it's FA which HIC says are excellent flavours, so it'll probably be pretty good". That's when you do your double-checking, enter "guava" in the ATF search and it informs you that the various guava flavours have been used in the following number of recipes:
Cap Sweet Guava 401
Flv Pink Guava 237
FW Guava 20
FA Guava 18
TFA Guava 14

That gives you a pretty good idea of which guavas work and which don't. DIY is not a democracy, majority rule doesn't mean that you'll love flavours that the majority love and hate flavours that the majority hate. But it's a good starting point to help you decide.

 

[TheV]

You will end up with some duds, it is inevitable. The trick is to limit the damage. This again is where the ATF flavour search is invaluable. To use the FA Guava example that @aktorsyl quotes, the typical new DIYer will reason "well, it's FA which HIC says are excellent flavours, so it'll probably be pretty good". That's when you do your double-checking, enter "guava" in the ATF search and it informs you that the various guava flavours have been used in the following number of recipes:
Cap Sweet Guava 401
Flv Pink Guava 237
FW Guava 20
FA Guava 18
TFA Guava 14

That gives you a pretty good idea of which guavas work and which don't. DIY is not a democracy, majority rule doesn't mean that you'll love flavours that the majority love and hate flavours that the majority hate. But it's a good starting point to help you decide.

Pro-tip right there! I will definitely keep that in mind when getting my list together.
I'll pop my list in here before I'm ready to order, perhaps someone can just tell me which items I should definitely remove from there

 

[RenaldoRheeder]

So - I took the plunge - equipment and stock ordered. Now wait for my trip to SA in September to collect (together with some other vapemail) - did I mention that it is only 44 more days before I start the trip to SA So when I return to Nigeria in October, I will quietly start mixing. You will either hear back from me or not


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[TheV]

So - I took the plunge - equipment and stock ordered. Now wait for my trip to SA in September to collect (together with some other vapemail) - did I mention that it is only 44 more days before I start the trip to SA So when I return to Nigeria in October, I will quietly start mixing. You will either hear back from me or not


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This is great news Renaldo. Mind me asking what you ended up ordering?

 

[RenaldoRheeder]

This is great news Renaldo. Mind me asking what you ended up ordering?

Let's see ...

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[TheV]

@RenaldoRheeder, that looks like a great list to start with. Please keep us posted on the mixes that you make with this (eventually, that is).