# DIY Basics - Flavours



## Rude Rudi (5/2/17)

I saw this elsewhere and had to share. Some good info for newbies and seasoned DIY'ers alike:

Flavor strength depends on what type of flavor it is, and the company producing it. For example cinnamon red hot will be stronger than caramel. You might only need 1-2 percent cinnamon red hot where you might need 5-6% caramel for the same strenght in taste. Some company flavors are stronger than others. Companies like Flavor Art, Medicine flower, Flavorah and Inawera flavors run on the strong side. While Flavor West and Lorranns are not as strong. Capellas and The Flavor Apprentance Seem to run in the middle of these ranges. 
Flavorings can be mixed 
Such as Strawberry and banana or Blueberry Pomegranate and Sweet Cream.
There are excellent 1 to 2 flavor mixes and there are also mixes with 10 or 12 ingredients that are also excellent.
The only thing stopping you in flavor combinations is your imagination.
Take notes. Notes are your friend,
Make sure you write down the exact ingredients and percentages of any mix you make. I have heard many a horror story of people who made a hell of a mix but never wrote it down. The most important part of a recipe is that it is reproducible. If you make a mix you love,You can be sure you are going to want to make it the same way again.
Take notes on each flavor characteristic. How sweet is it? Is it candyish or more natural? How does it work with other flavors?
What percentage does it taste best stand alone? 

Flavor Notes 
The individual taste, aroma and overall richness of a flavor is called a note. 
The strongest taste in e-juice is called the foreground note and any secondary taste is called a background note.
For example : A nice Caramel Apple will have apple being the predominant flavor the foreground note, and a nice caramel flavor following it up, the background note. There can be multiple notes in a mix.
Too much flavoring 
1. Will produce a chemical perfumey taste. 
2. Can actually cause lack of flavor.
3. Might taste good right away but the flavor can actually mute itself after steeping.
If you have E-juice that loses flavor this can be the main culprit. 
Mix in small batches, You can always make larger when you decide you like what you made.
Don't add nicotine to testers.
Nicotine is expensive. Why waste it to simply sample a mix.

Mix for yourself
Although it is a really nice feeling to have many people enjoy the juice you make.
Don't get discouraged if you make a juice you like but others do not like it, Taste is subjective. You can't please everyone.
The main thing is that you like it.
Beginner or experinced mixer you are going to go through stages of trial and error. It's just a fact of mixing.
There is no magic number for flavors. All flavors are different and have different ranges where changes happen. Some more drastic than others, Some hardly change at all. All flavors are not equal They vary by each flavor company. A name your flavor, from one company can be radically different from the other. You may love Tfa's strawberry but hate Flavor West's
You might make a mix that is close to, but just not what you want. This can be anyting from the flavoring itself. To what you are trying to compliment the flavoring with is not quite right. 
3 examples 
1. This strawberry donut is good but tastes to candyish. I am used Cap Sweet strawberry. My next batch I think I will try TFA strawberry ripe instead. 
2. I made this cheesecake using cap ny cheescake and also used Tfa Graham cracker clear at 1% I want it to have more crustyness to it. Next Batch I am upping the Graham to 3%
3. I made this cheescake with Cap Ny cheescake but I want it to have more of that deep cheesey flavor. Next batch I am going to add 1% Tfa Cheescake. 

Combining the same type of flavor for different results. 
For example: In some mixes I use Cap sweet strawbery alone ind it works great. The thing with sweet strawberry is it has a candyish twang that I might not want in another type of mix.To dull that down and give myself a truer strawberry taste i will mix Cap sweet strawberry and TFA strawberry ripe 50/50 then add that to my mix in the percentage i see fit. Another example: Billbury added to blueberry will give a more true blueberry taste.
There is no true standard for the total ammount of flavorings used in a mix. Some say use 20% as a guide but this varies by company and the flavors themselves. I personally have mixes as low as 4% and as high as 27% Many run in the 15% range. Best rule of thumb is less is more. Start low in percentage first, you can always add flavoring you can't take it out. 
After awhile of mixing you will become seasoned and much more familiar with your flavorings.
You will start to understand how each flavor works with each other. There will come a time when you can just look at a recipe and know if you will like it or not.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Reactions: Like 5 | Winner 6


----------



## Raindance (5/2/17)

Great share @Rude Rudi . A lot of useful info in there. Thanks!

Regards


----------



## RichJB (5/2/17)

Good find, Rudi, thanks for sharing. I will add:

* Watch the podcasts. In the one where the candies in Wayne's comp were evaluated, all three judges start off proceedings with "why do we have five candy entries where everybody used TFA Sweetener, when Cap Super Sweet is far better to use in candies??" That sort of of info byte is gold, and replaces a lot of trial and error.

Reactions: Like 1


----------

