Need a fresh pair of DIY eyes

[beetle]

Hi all, hope everyone is well.
I've been making my own juice for a while now and it's been ok so far, bar a few hiccups, but that's par for the course. Been wondering lately if my method is flawed and just putting it out to see if anyone can spot if I'm doing something wrong or it wouldn't yield the best results. My juices taste good to me and I enjoy them, I just get a nagging feeling that I may be missing something that so obvious that I can't see it.

What I like to do is mix up 50ml of single flavours in blue jars, the wide neck ones like face cream jars, which allows me easy access to mix with the milk frother. Then when I want to make up a concoction, I take some from each jar and mix up in a squeezy bottle. So essentially, instead of mixing up a single bottle with a mix of concentrates and then waiting for it to cure, I take already mixed and aged single flavours and combine them. I don't add nic to the single flavours, only when I'm combining a mix.

My thinking is that using pre-aged single flavours is less wasteful and easier ( bar the initial cure time) than mixing up a recipe, then waiting to cure and finding out that at the end it is no good and having to start over. Or ending up with multiple tweaked bottles of the same mix.
Do you think that I should maybe put a little nic in each single flavour to condition them? Is nic much of a contributor to flavour development? I have rather a lot of single flavours mixed up, so don't really want to use up nic if I don't have to but if it would make a noticeable improvement then I would. Thing is, some single flavours don't get used for months at a time and I'm worried that adding nic would lead to a shorter lifespan due to oxidization, or if the opposite is actually true?
It might be that I'm so used to my own stuff now that I don't realise how much better it could be.

Anyway, just a ramble. If anyone feels like saying '' what a dumba**!, that's not what you should be doing!'' then feel free by all means. 

[OneDay]

Pre-combining stuff is certainly a useful way of saving time at the mixing stage.

However - mixes need to steep (cure) as a complete mix. i.e. the flavours AND nic all react with each other once the final mix is made. So even though you have pre-steeped some of the elements, the total package will still need to "cure" before vaping to give the best flavour.

[phtumshk]

A most interesting method beetle.
I have a grapefruit that I dont toot much, it seems to be more intense every time I use it.
Not sure if its the nic reacting or the flavour maturing.
I think Ive topped it up about 3 times with plain VG, probably not a lot of nic left in it now lol.

[sydsut]

If your enjoying the flavours you're getting then why not keep doing it your way. Having said that the chemical reactions that take place in steeping will differ with nic or not and different compounds form at different rates. You could try to make up a favourite flavour combo your way, and the more conventional way, say 10ml of each in the same ratios. Then sample them on mixing, after 1 week, after 2 weeks and so on and decide if you can detect a substantial difference. You could jeep us posted of the conclusions at the different stages.

[Perpetua]

If you're adding an extra ingredient, such as nicotine to your pre-mixed flavours then it will require additional steeping/blending time . . . no matter how long you've left the concentrates beetle.

Nicotine does add to flavour development and you need to give some time to the molecular action that will take place when you add it, some of my mixes are a year old before I use them - providing they're stored wisely, there's no reason for them to deteriorate.

Try adding some nicotine at the initial mixing stage, leave them to blend and see if you notice any difference, it's the only way you'll find out.

[beetle]

Great feedback, thanks all. You're right, each added component has it's part to play and getting them all to mesh in the same instance will ensure the best outcome. Yes, Perpetua and sydsut, that's a great idea to do some side-by-side comparisons. I should have done it ages ago and not been such a lazy git!

[prowler]

I mix the same way as you. After a while I stopped using nic but found that my mixes took forever to steep. I decided to add 1mg of nic back to my mixes and everything was better. I found it easier to find my own "perfect" mix for individual ingredients before using them in multi-juice recipes.