Pimp Your E-Liquid - Vaping Abbreviations, Tips and Tricks, Part X
We all know how easy it is to be tempted by a delicious-sounding description. And yes, the e-liquid may well be tasty – but everyone’s palate is different. When I vape eucalyptus or ristretto, the ristretto can’t be bitter enough for me, and the eucalyptus is welcome to make my toenails curl. I want that “if it’s too strong, I’m too weak” feeling! Honestly, that’s definitely not a flavour that would win over most vapers. My caramel candy is a different story altogether: I vape it now and then instead of eating sweets. Especially if you’re new to vaping, here’s a hot tip – craving something sweet? Vape it, and it won’t go straight to your hips. With caramel candy, I want the kind of flavour that could normally rip out your fillings; it has to be properly sweet.
And that brings us right to tweaking your juice. The maker of my caramel is too stingy with the flavour and sweetness – the solution: pimp it. So I buy ready-made caramel candy e-liquid from an American brand, and I also keep caramel flavour concentrate and an e-liquid sweetener, also made in the US, in my drawer.
Or maybe you like Double Apple, but there are double apple e-liquids from all kinds of brands, and with some of them there simply isn’t enough apple for you, or the liquid is just missing something! The solution: cinnamon flavour concentrate. In December, I always use up apple e-liquids that just didn’t quite work for me on their own. I add cinnamon concentrate and, depending on the apple flavour, a bit of apple or even pear.
There are a few things to keep in mind, though:
A. Every flavour concentrate manufacturer gives different recommendations for how many drops or what percentage to use per 10 ml. Concentrates vary in strength.
B. Because taste is personal, go carefully. If you don’t know the concentrate yet, start by tweaking with just two to four drops per 10 ml. Shake well and let it steep for a few days in a warm place. Then try it – still too weak? Add a few more drops, but let it steep again each time. Flavour needs time to fully develop. The same applies if you use sweetener.
C. Use only flavour concentrates from vape shops – no exceptions!
Stay well away from baking flavourings or, even worse, essential oils from craft shops! Those things are generally not suitable for vaping! The same goes for sweetener: only use sweetener that is specifically made for DIY e-liquid mixing.
So before you start creating proper recipes of your own, simply tweak a few bad buys and learn what actually tastes good to you. That bad buy is just sitting in the fridge or drawer anyway, so get creative.
With a little tweaking, you can get some good practice without opening a full-blown poison lab right away! And yes, next week we’ll say a few words about DIY mixing!
