FA concentrates help.

[oinkerz]

Afternoon ladies and gents, So i decided to give Flavor arts concentrates a try after seeing two recipes i liked the sound plus the low %'s mean for more juice. So the problem i have is the juice has been steeping for a little over 2 weeks now and all i am getting when i try it is harsh juice with next to no flavor at all. I was going to have a play around and increase the %'s later today but thought why not gets some advice from my fellow apes.

So the recipes are:

Cherry lips
Black Cherry 1%
Cherry 1%
Ylang Ylang 0.5%
Both mixed at 80vg/20pg 3mg Nic.
Melon Mix
Water Melon 2.5%
Cantaloupe 2.5%
Peach 1%

To me these % seem very very low but, i know with FA they say to use it lower than most and hey these are recipes i found online that some one likes so thought it would be a good starting point. So as said above i have a batch of each that have been sat in a dark draw for just over 2 weeks and all i get is a harsh throat hit and no flavor but they smell amazing. Do i need the leave them a little longer or tweak the recipes? Your thoughts and input would be greatly appreciated my fellow apes!

 

[vulture]

I've just started mixing but I've tried FA peppermint and custard as one shots,the peppermint was nice as a shake n vape,so I mixed a few 50mil bottles and after 2 weeks flavor had diminished,
I left the custard to steep for 3 weeks and found flavor is fine but very harsh throat hit I mixed both @5% 3mg in a pg30/70vg mix. I've used there creams in other recipes and not had any issues.
Not sure if it helps!
But I'd up your % and maybe try the flavors individually to see which one is causing the harsh throat hit

 

[Ment]

I've found Flavourart to be no stronger than any other brand and mix at up to 20%.

It could be that my taste buds are fooked and I can't pick anything out below that. It could also be to do with expectation - some people may be happy with a hint of flavour.

 

[Mr Numpty]

I've been mixing with FA concentrates for quite a while now. To me they are, generally speaking, much more potent than other brands, but there is quite a variance in potency throughout the range. I'm not surprised to read that your recipes there are weak, for instance, although I'm a little surprised the cantaloupe didn't come through at 2.5%.

Anyway, I have found that single test mixes at 5% with FA concentrates are useful. Some will blow your head off at 5% whereas some others are weak at that level.

 

[scrumpox]

What surprises me most is that you report a harsh throat hit ... an 80VG/20PG 3mg juice should not be harsh at all, especially with only 2.5% and 6% flavour in total. Something is wrong there. Where did you buy your diluents and nic from?

Secondly, as @Mr Numpty says, FA concentrates are very concentrated but vary from flavour to flavour quite a bit. When I started out mixing I would try to learn each concentrate and flavour first, as a single flavour mix of 5 or 10mls. Only once I had the % the way I liked it would I then attempt to blend them. Other people's recipes are for other people's taste buds, always treat them as a starting point.

Finally, as they're all fruit flavours, neither mix should require more than 48 hours maturation time. No need for a week in a drawer before you sample one and they're highly unlikely to improve over time.

... one last thought ... are you measuring out using syringes, or by weight or by drops?

 

[oinkerz]

Thank you all for the replies. I buy all my base from darkstar never had a problem before with throat hit/harshness, i do have some different juices mixed with same base that i know should be spot on as i have made it before so i could try that see if i get a throat hit with that then i know its one of my base ingredients and then i can try both pg/vg see if they seem iffy if not i know its the Nic. I do all my mixing by weight using a set of scales that weigh down to 0.00g, Think i will mix all of them seperate are 5% and test them and work it out from there.

Thanks once again for the advice.

EDIT: Just a quick after thought, I have a ultrasonic cleaner that is heated think its worth me throwing it in there see if it helps? I never normally use it for anything but cleaning, I have seen bits on using them for steeping juice though.

 

[chopper]

I'd look to the nic first off.....how old is it?

 

[oinkerz]

@chopper Bought it around the time i first mixed the juice so had it no longer than a few weeks.

 

[chopper]

Where abouts did you get it from pal? To me, harsh throat hit at 3mg 80/20 is screaming bad nic but because it's new it shouldn't be bad......another thing to consider could be the flavourings, the pg in them may have gone bad

 

[chopper]

Also, a little trick I've found is to add a bit of sweetener if it's not too harsh, that can kind of rescue it. But all depends just how harsh it is to begin with