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Please note: Grizwald compiled this excellent guide in 2011, whilst much still holds true, the improved equipment we have now in 2015 make some parts of the advice not strictly necessary. If in doubt, please ask.

The following is a series of posts to help those interested in mixing their own Juices. There are 7 sections as follows :

MY JOURNEY INTO THE WORLD OF MIXING

USING PG AND VG IN JUICES

FLAVOURINGS

FLAVOURINGS AND PERCENTAGES

MEASURING OUT LIQUIDS USING DROPS

STEEPING JUICES

GRIZWALD's RECIPE COLLECTION

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MY JOURNEY INTO THE WORLD OF MIXING
(An introduction).

Hi and welcome. I just thought that I would share my story with you as to how and why I got into the weird and wonderful world of mixing. And also tell you of my mistakes, realisations and methods I used to overcome the problems I came across while learning to mix my own juices.

When I first started vaping I bought pre-made juices, some I liked, some I did'nt. The main problem was the inconsistency of most of them. I'd find one I liked and upon ordering again found that they were either weaker, or tasted different. I do'nt think I ever ordered a juice that tasted the same consistently. I also found pre-made juices to be a little on the weak side for my tastes, probably due to being a 46 year ex heavy smoker. So I decided to start mixing my own.

Now I'm not the kind of person that rushes headlong into things, especially when it comes to buying stuff. So I spent a lot of time on various forums checking out any info I could find to do with mixology. I took in the advice given by others and copied down every recipe that I could find.

Now you've heard the term "taste is subjective". Well I found this to be quite true as a lot of the recipes posted did'nt taste like the title suggested. So I decided to use them for reference and ideas for my own recipes in the future.

I can tell you now that I wasted a hell of a lot of juice trying to find the right balance between flavourings and of course sorting the naf from the good. But patience and perserverence led me to create my first few recipes.

One of the first recipes I made was my own version of BANOFEE. Now as I'd heard rave reviews on both Fart (Flavourart) and LORANN's flavourings I decided to purchase Fart Banana and LorAnn's English Toffee, along with various other flavourings, as I was also creating a couple of other recipes at the same time. These being COCONUT MINT CHOC CHIP (Fart Coconut and LorAnn's MintChoc Chip) and my own version of a coconut caramel (both Fart flavourings) I named COCOMEL.

My first problem arose when trying to use the various recipe calculators. These ask you to input you're Nic base strength, strength required, amount you want to make, etc... Problem is they also assume that you know what the flavour % is going to be of the flavouring that you're going to use, which is fine if if you do. But what if it's a flavouring you've never used before? It's all very well going off what others suggest as to %'s. But in my experience I've seldom come across two people that agree. Anyway, the finished product is for your satisfaction, not theirs, as you're the one who is going to vape the stuff.

My second problem was with this "20 drops = 1ml" rule that everyone seemed to follow. I soon found that this "IS" or, "IS NOT" the case. You see my early info came from forums such as ECF and TW. And I soon realised that at that time people in the US were using glass dropers. So yes 20 drops approx does = 1ml. But not when using plastic 5ml, 10ml and 30ml droper bottles. Upon filling several of each size bottles, using a pharmaceutical grade pipette, with 1 ml of various liquids, i.e. PG, VG (Cut with Vodka), water and nic juice, I found that I was getting between 27-30 drops equalling 1ml. So I decided on using 30 drops to equal 1ml. Painstakingly I found a 10ml droper bottle did, on average, hold 300 drops and that a 5ml held approx.150 drops.

So armed with what I now knew, thougt I had it sorted. Then I hit another problem. You see all of the recipies I had copied down, from the various forums, stated their flavour %'s as part of the recipe mix. So lets say, for example, a recipe is for 10ml of finished juice, and 20% of that is flavouring, then 8ml would be the base and 2ml would be flavouring. Seemed straightforward.... But hang on a moment.... I was trying to modify their recipes to suit my own taste, so even if I was successful I was'nt going to end up with 10ml as I might Use more or less of the flavourings, or might add other flavourings as well. Which meant that I might end up with say 323 drops in total. A bit of a faff to to start working out %'s.

By the way I never actually made 10ml as a trial, that would have been silly, and wasteful.

I needed a much simpler method that anyone could follow. And this is the way I do it. Lets go back to my Banofee recipe to use as an example. If you remember I used Fart Banana and LorAnn's English Toffee. Now both Fart and LorAnn flavourings are, in most cases, highly concentrated, so In the begining I would add 2-3 drops of each flavouring to 90 drops (3ml) of base (35 nic/55 VG or PG). Just to note I was using 60mg nic juice and was looking for 20mg strength. So dividing 60 by 3 gives 20. But allowing for flavouring I added extra nic, hence 35 nic/55 VG.

After adding my flavourings I'd shake well and put it somewhere dark for 24 hours. The reason for this is to allow the flavouring time to infuse with the base evenly. I find this an important part of the mixing process, as over time, all juices change and mature.The next day, as I was now driping, I'd drip3 drops into my atty and vape. If it was weak I'd add more flavouring and again, after a good shake, leave for another 24 hours. I'd repeat this process until I got the desired taste.

The recipe ended up as follows:

BANOFEE @ 20mg

90 drops - Base (35 nic/55 VG)
8 drops - Banana (Fart)
8 drops - English Toffee (LorAnn)
(remember extra nic to account for flavouring)

The above recipe, although correct for flavouring amounts, turned out to have a slightly harsh aftertaste for my liking which I found to be due to the Banana flavouring. Funny thing was though, my friend loved the above recipe, and still uses it. So I had to hunt round for another Banana flavouring. Later on, thanks to Lisa at C9V, I found just what I was looking for called Banana Cream. Very yummy.

For those of you new to mixing, or thinking about it, you work out you nic quantity as follows:

Total drops in the above recipe = 132 drops. If you use 60mg nic juice then divide by 3 = 44 (approx). If you use 50 mg, or 52mg then divide total drops by 2.5 = 53 (approx). These figures are based on 20mg strength, so you will have to adjust them to suit your own juice strength.

So success at last, both my friend and I had a good Banofee recipe each. Taste really is subjective. And as for the other 2 recipes, my Coconut Mint Choc Chip and Cocomel, well they hav'nt changed at all over time.

I now had 3 successful recipes and thought I was on a roll.... Yeah Right.... I was about to hit my next problem. Around this time I had run out of my 3 favourite pre-made tobacco juices, which were STATE EXPRESS, HILTON and CIGAR from TW's red label range. As TW at that time did'nt do tobacco flavourings I ordered various Fart ones from LF. These were BURLEY, VIRGINIA, CUBAN SUPREME, DARK VAPURE, PERIQUE BLACK, ULTIMATE MAXBRO AND ULTIMATE CAMTEL. Heard the Perique Black was a good strong taste so decided on that one. could I get it right.... no way.... that is until a few days later, while on the ECF forum, I spotted a link to a video by an Australian guy called Luke (Light47). He was demonstrating how to go about mixing Fart tobacco flavourings. In his video he was mixing Perique Black which, according to him, was the most concentrated of all Fart tobacco flavourings, and which incidently happened to be the one I was failing with. Thanks to him I learned my next valuable lesson which was to reduce the flavouring to a more manageable concentration. This lesson was to serve me well later when I started back on future recipes of my own.

Basically what he did was make 5ml of 10% reduced, or diluted if you like, Perique Black flavouring. Formula as follows:

HOW TO MAKE 5ml OF 10% PERIQUE BLACK TOBACCO CONCENTRATE.
(using a pipette)
4.5ml PG or VG
.5ml Perique Black (Fart)

Shake, let stand for an hour or so, and use as you would any other flavouring. He next made up the Perique Black to vape as follows:

HOW TO MAKE 4ml PERIQUE BLACK @ 26mg

40 drops - 52mg Nic Juice
16 drops - Perique Black (10% reduced concentrate)
24 drops - PG or VG

Strong stuff or what?... But wow was it good.

Then I found another link on ECF posted by a guy called Nikhil entitled "GUIDE TO DIY FLAVOURING". Now some of you longer term vapers may have seen this link and the video and so, hopefully, will add these links in one of your own posts as I'm new to forums and do'nt know how. But having said that most of the major flavouring names are covered such as LORANN, FLAVOURART, CAPELLA, FAERIES FINEST, PERFUMERS APPRENTICE, BICKFORDS, TASTY PUFF and SEEDMANS. All are US based companies I think except for Fart which is Italien I believe. Here he lists what he believes the %'s of these companies flavourings should be. But be aware that his listing is only meant as a guide and, although helpful, I personally found some of his %'s a little weak. What interested me more was that all the Fart tobacco flavourings I had, and a few more, were there. So after reducing the rest of my collection, and following Lukes "HOW TO MAKE 4ml" formula for the Perique Black, I now had plenty of various tobacco juices to vape. And they all tasted great except for the Camtel which was oily and foul tasting. Even the two people I knew that vaped thought it pretty disgusting. So I would'nt recomend this one. Now they do vary in their reduction %'s, but here are the ones I bought:

PERIQUE BLACK - 10% VIRGINIA - 20% CUBAN SUPREME - 20% ULTIMATE CAMTEL - 20% ULTIMATE MAXBRO - 25% DARK VAPURE - 25% BURLEY - 30%

So now that I had Plenty of tobacco juices to vape I decided it was time to make some more recipes........YEAH!

Now a lot of people new to vaping will hear a lot said about a juice called RY-4 I think I'm right in saying that the RY stands for RUYAN which is a chinese tobacco recipe, and the 4 denotes the sweetness. Theres RY1, 2, 3, 4 the later being the sweetest. I did hear a rumour back in October of 2010 that TW were to introduce an RY-5 but I've not seen it yet. But what I can tell you about the stuff is that no 2 RY's are the same. Some prefer it from one vendor, while others prefer it from another. My first experience with the stuff was from TW and, I have to admit, it was'nt bad. But I did'nt think It lived up to the hype, until I got some from a guy I'd introduced to vaping and it was absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately the guy I got it off moved area due to his job and so I never saw him again to ask where he'd got it from. So Yeah....Had to try and make some, and went on an all out crusade to make my own recipe that would emulate the stuff I'd tried.

I spent the best part of 4 months trying to make this elusive concoction. I tried every variation that others had made and posted on various forums, but to no avail. I was however having lots of luck with other recipes of my own, which I will post on a seperate thread for any that wish to try them. Then one evening....EUREKA! After 4 tortuous months, and a lot of time spent, I managed to make something that very closely resembled what that guy had given me. It was quite by accident really. I had settled back to enjoy a new version of an RY I had made. After an hour I switched to an earlier version, still being a driper at the time, the two had mixed in my atty to produce the desired affect....Beaming smile.... So by playing around with varying quantities from each, and working out the ingredients, I now have a version I call RY-4.5 Now I'm not saying it in any way resembles what true RY should taste like, and some of you who try it will probably say "Nah...nothing like it" all I know is it's the same as the one I'd tried and I love it. Gonna have to get some from Toby and compare it.

I guess the lesson here is that if you mix up a batch of juice and it's not so good you could probably rescue it just by adding another juice, or even another flavouring.

Now if you remember back to when I was harping on about Fart tobacco flavourings, I told you that learning how to mix them would stand me in good stead for future recipes... Well heres how....

Another thing I've learned concerning flavourings is that sometimes you can't develope a recipe by mixing, that is by adding 2 or more flavourings to a base. To demonstrate what I mean I'll use 2 of my recipes as an example, one of which is a modification on someone elses recipe. The 2 in question are CHOC ROAST CHESTNUT and FERRERO ROCHER. These 2 led me on to a new technique in mixing.

Now I love nuts. Unfortunately, due to a gum infection in my early twenties, I lost all my teeth. So nuts were always out of the question, unless crushed. So it was really nice to be able to buy lots of different nut flavourings. The thing with these though is that I find them very dry and can't vape them for long, as much as I like them. Something I cured with Fart Pistacchio By adding Caramel and French Vanilla, a straight forward throw in all the ingredients mix. I did'nt want to do the same with my Roast Chestnut flavouring so decided it would be nicer with chocolate. After all I needed some for my Ferrero Rocher recipe anyway. So I ordered 6 different ones from different places, and from the 6, only 3 tasted anything like chocolate should. These were CHOC AU LAIT (DV), RICH CHOC (C9V) and DARK CHOC (C9V). I got myself 6 bottles and mixed 3 different Roast Chestnuts and 3 different Hazelnuts with each of the 3 chocolates. Put them away as usual. And tried them the next day. I found that the Choc Au Lait mixed with Hazelnut was the best as far as the Ferrero Rocher was concerned, and the Rich Choc went best with the Roast Chestnut. After a little time playing with quantities The Choc Roast Chestnut was born. However, my Ferrero Rocher was a bit lacking. but a few days tweaking, and the addition of some Sweet Cream (C9V) and French Vanilla (C9V) gave me what I was looking for. The taste of it is very much like the actual chocolates only not sweet enough. I tried Honey (Fart) but too much overpowered it. So will have to get some Ethyl Maltol to finish that one. Although it's quite vapeable with 1 drop of Honey per ml. So I proceeded to make 10 ml of each.
.
...What a Disaster!

I'd put in the right amounts of both flavourings for both recipes. only when I tried them the Hazelnut had Totally obliterated the chocolate, and the Choc Roast Chestnut was off somehow. Double checking everything over and over found my quantities were definitely right. So what was going on? Could'nt do much with them them so down the sink they went. I'd have to start again. Then I remembered the Fart tobacco's. These had to be reduced in potency first. Then it hit me.... Of course.... They worked well enough when first making them up individually and then mixing them together, but not when trying to mix them as one. So I made up 5ml each of the 2 nuts and 2 chocolates and the next day mixed them. And after 24 hours tried them. They were great.

So I can only conclude that the molecules in some flavourings are too powerful and end up overpowering other flavourings, or changing them altogether. But once you reduce them, or dilute them , they behave. With my Malibu recipe I've found that I only need to make up my rum flavouring and that it was'nt necessary to make up the coconut, I could add that after 24 hours. some flavourings are fine straight from the bottle, others need reducing first.

In my journey through the weird and wonderful world of mixology I've come across some pretty whacky things, and that do'nt seem to make sense. And yet they do seem to work in some cases. Recently I came across a thread on STEEPING. I'd heard the term used in cooking, but vaping? Always curious about anything to do with juices I took a look. Basically if you have a juice thats a bit harsh, or has a chemical aftertaste, or if a bit weak, Steeping could cure it. This is done by removing the cap and droper nipple from your bottle of juice and placing it in a dark place for 1-3 weeks, occasionally giving it a shake apparently the open bottle allows evaporation of certain chemicals in the juice. On a video I saw on the subject the person showed how juice gets darker after time as it matures, showing juice at 1 week another at 2 weeks and yet another at 3 weeks. I can tell you the 3 week old juice was pretty dark.

Now I had some Custard flavouring (DV) that I found to have a chemical aftertaste, and also a bit too lemony. So I tried Steeping it After a week The chemical taste had dissapeared. After 2 weeks The lemon taste had weakened and I can report that it certainly improved that juice. In the future I'll experiment some more with this method before drawing any final conclusions.

These days I find that I'm not that keen on tobacco flavours anymore. I've got loads of Fart stuff that I know I'll probably never use myself. But then it does come in handy when showing other people all about vaping. The only 2 I still vape regularly are the Ultimate Maxbro, which I would'nt describe as a tobacco flavour at all but it does have a pleasantly unusual taste all of its own . The other is Statex (DV), and although this tastes like the pre-made State Express I got from TW, I do find it a bit lacking. I love peanuts, and as the statex has a peanuty aftertaste I've enhanced the peanut with some Peanut Butter (C9V). As State Express and 555 are basically the same cigarette in the US I' ve named my concoction 666. And no It's not because I'm a Satanist. What I'm saying here is that flavourings can be quite versatile and are useful in all kinds of ways, not just for recipes.

Another part of mixing worth covering is the use of VG (vegetable glycerine). As most people know VG is thicker than PG (propelyne glycol) and a lot complain that using too much seems to gum up their atty's, or that it does'nt whick as well as PG. Personally I cant say I've noticed any difference between them. I've used all PG and all VG mixes without any problem. The thing with VG, and this is intended for new vapers, you need to thin it out a bit. You can do this using either alcohol (Vodka), or de-ionised water. (Use 20% - 25% Vodka or water)

I've found that I prefer using a good quality Vodka as it gives a better throat hit than de-ionised water does. You should also be careful where you buy your VG from as some are thicker than others and wont thin out enough. I remember buying some from Asda and found it much too thick, In fact to get it to the same consistency as PG I needed to thin by as much as 40%. Way too much alcohol. The best VG I've found, and use, is from Tesco. You'll find it in the Home Baking isle labelled as Glycerine. It's a 38ml bottle and only costs 65p. There are bigger bottles and jars of the stuff also sold at Tesco but these are highly concentrated and should be avoided. Or you can buy it from Boots in 200ml bottles at cost of £1.45. I personally hav'nt used this Boots VG as it does say something about it being used for sore throats, which made me wonder if there was some kind of medication in it, and that put me off just in case it reacted with any of my flavourings or nic juice. So for now I'll stick with the Tesco stuff.

To prepare my VG I first pour the 38ml into a 60ml Tablet jar (available at some chemists). I then put 9ml of Vodka into the empty bottle and shake well to rinse out any remaining VG and pour it into the Tablet jar. Put top on Jar and shake to mix it together thoroughly. Now it should be ready to use. As I've said I find mine to be the same consistency as my PG and have no problens with it..

If you want to use de-ionised water instead you can buy this from car spares outlets and is cheap to buy. You could make your own but collecting the steam droplets takes a while. I spent 20 minutes and only got 3ml, so hardly worth the effort. Please do'nt confuse de-ionised water with distilled water they are not the same thing.

NOTE: Beware when buying supermarket flavourings as a lot of these are essences or extracts and are oil based. Alcohol based ones should be fine, I use a couple myself, especially Rum from Asda. I could'nt find a decent Rum anywhere so gave it a try. But its best to make this up first (8-9 drops per/ml) and leave for 24 hours before adding any other flavouring. 2 days is better.

Now over the months I've gained a lot of experience and have a far better insight into mixing. I'm also pretty sure that there is much more for me to learn. So I will keep checking the various forums for any useful info.

So to finish off I'd just like to point out that as far as the statements I've made in this post go, they should of course be used only in the context of ideas for you to try out for yourselves and in no way am I implying that they are law. As you can now see there is a learning experience involved when mixing your own juices and I can only hope that my own personal experiences will in some way save you time, money and bother. And remember, PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE!.

grizwald

PS If you wish to try any of my recipes you can find them listed in my post entitled "GRIZWALD's RECIPE COLLECTION"