Close to a cleanup, /tired, semirant

[Biochemist]

This follows on from my last post in @zouzounaki's thread about INW smoke and prunes, it is almost a rant but I want to hear your opinions.

I bet a lot of us will have gotten there at some point. What point? The point of tiredness of trying out recipes, buying concentrates, flavour testing etc.

I have a lot of concentrates in my drawer, let's say 100 but I haven't counted them, about 20% of them are used in tried and tested ADV recipes as a key note and the rest are either accents, or concentrates I bought to try, or tried once in a recipe that I hated and never again. Never had the time or discipline to test them properly so they just sit there, occasionally I'll pull out a couple at random, have a look for recipes that may use them, and then put them back in because I am missing something and don't want to buy any more.

I'm even thinking to make an excel file of my favourite recipes so I can track what I've used from the key concentrates and know when I need to buy more.

The following on thought is to keep 5-10 complicated recipes (6+ ingredients) that really reward the effort of making them and go back to how I mixed 2 years ago: store bought one shots, super simple recipes (1-3 ingredients), and the occasional store bought premium e-liquids.

I went through that phase with my atomisers around Christmas and actually gave away about 10 of them in a Christmas raffle, only did me good to clear out the drawers and reduce the hassle.

Do you have similar ups and downs with vaping were the hobby becomes a chore and obsession and needs a soft reset?

 

[Mr Ripple]

I first read semirant as semi retired
Probably one of the reasons I've mostly avoided following recipes and writing stuff down.
As for having flavours i dont use, I've not got many of those cos I've usually bought them for a reason.
I do have some that ive bought that wernt right for me so wont use so maybe ought to get in gear and give them to someone that will.

 

[Ment]

I'm with you on the flavour thing, and counting all brands of the same flavours I have around 300. We definitely need a systematic approach, with each new concentrate tested on its own and the good ones mixed in simple recipes to establish profiles.

The problem is, a clean dripper or tank is required for each one and I don't have the discipline to follow it through, and a while back I decided to concentrate my efforts and am trying to perfect around 6 recipes.

I believe the next big breakthrough in vaping will be with flavourings - so far, most are just adapted food flavourings and most of those don't reproduce the original flavour when vaped. A scientific approach is needed to formulate flavours specially for vaping, but the problem is that the big boys with the funds are concentrating on pods where flavour isn't such an issue.

 

[zouzounaki]

Yes and no, for me. I do have quite a few concentrates, maybe a similar amount to you. I generally make simple blends, though, and don’t really like following recipes. Too complicated and too much of a chance I won’t like it. I tend to be the same with cooking. Keeping t simple is the way forward for me. There are a few I make (like this one for example https://alltheflavors.com/recipes/55565 ) but I think of those as blends as well, rather than recipes, as they only have few, similar ingredients.

So I find myself buying concentrates that it’s almost a cert I will like, but then I pick up others odd ones on a whim, as I think they will blend nicely with something else, or because I like the flavour and want to try it. I’ll mix a small batch to test, maybe make a 30ml blend, then it will just sit there. So I’m probably similar in that I might use 20% of them semi regularly. 80% oddities purchased on a whim. I have an ongoing plan to go through these and think up excellent new taste experiences that I can mix up, but I rarely do this. Maybe one of the oddities will come out every couple of months and sometimes end up moving into the more regularly used group.

As for devices, I don’t actually buy a lot, but do have a box with maybe ten or so atties and a few mods and random bits. Having several financial commitments I tend to buy clones as I don’t really have the money or inclination to buy expensive high end stuff. But I also seem to have a preference for this stuff over the chinese designed mass produced gear, hence the clones. I give them away here and there and might have a bigger clear out soon myself. But I don’t get too neurotic about it. They all fit in a fairly small box and are out of the way. The concentrates take up more space.

However, don’t get me started on my record collection...

 

[zouzounaki]

I'm with you on the flavour thing, and counting all brands of the same flavours I have around 300. We definitely need a systematic approach, with each new concentrate tested on its own and the good ones mixed in simple recipes to establish profiles.

The problem is, a clean dripper or tank is required for each one and I don't have the discipline to follow it through, and a while back I decided to concentrate my efforts and am trying to perfect around 6 recipes.

I believe the next big breakthrough in vaping will be with flavourings - so far, most are just adapted food flavourings and most of those don't reproduce the original flavour when vaped. A scientific approach is needed to formulate flavours specially for vaping, but the problem is that the big boys with the funds are concentrating on pods where flavour isn't such an issue.

Are you thinking of a move away from trying to replicate food flavours in vapour? And creating new and undiscovered gustatory sensations?

 

[Ment]

Are you thinking of a move away from trying to replicate food flavours in vapour? And creating new and undiscovered gustatory sensations?

Yes. It's a pity I've lost touch with my biochemist buddies, I could have picked their brains.

The issue is that the tongue interprets vapour differently from solids and liquids. I can't think of any activity before vaping where people would have sampled steam infused with flavourings, so it really is a whole new area.

 

[Mr Ripple]

Yes. It's a pity I've lost touch with my biochemist buddies, I could have picked their brains.

The issue is that the tongue interprets vapour differently from solids and liquids. I can't think of any activity before vaping where people would have sampled steam infused with flavourings, so it really is a whole new area.

Heston Blumenthal

 

[zouzounaki]

I think you are right @Ment . This is partly why I like some of the FA tobacco concentrates. Many of them taste nothing like tobacco, and actually taste like something that, as far as I can tell, hasn’t existed as a flavour sensation. As well as the tobaccos there a few that are just outright strange (oba oba and hypnotic mist come to mind). I like them a lot, partly because I don’t know what it is I’m tasting.

 

[Mr Ripple]

I'm with you on the flavour thing, and counting all brands of the same flavours I have around 300. We definitely need a systematic approach, with each new concentrate tested on its own and the good ones mixed in simple recipes to establish profiles.

The problem is, a clean dripper or tank is required for each one and I don't have the discipline to follow it through, and a while back I decided to concentrate my efforts and am trying to perfect around 6 recipes.

I believe the next big breakthrough in vaping will be with flavourings - so far, most are just adapted food flavourings and most of those don't reproduce the original flavour when vaped. A scientific approach is needed to formulate flavours specially for vaping, but the problem is that the big boys with the funds are concentrating on pods where flavour isn't such an issue.

Flavourah were specifically designed for vaping although I've only just started discovering them.
Ill always recommend the Alchemists Cupboard for the most natural tasting fruits.

 

[zouzounaki]

When the possibilities are endless, why would you want to make your eliquid taste like a donut or a packet of skittles? Why not just eat a donut? Inhaling donut flavoured vapour is never going to be as good, surely?