Containers for mixing small samples and flavor tests?

[Cavediver]

I'm getting ready to start DIY mixing, and I see it's recommended that I mix up my individual flavors in varying percentages so that I can sample each one and get a basic idea of flavors and proportions. That sounds like an excellent idea, but I have no idea what to put those mixes in. If I were to mix a 1%, 3%, and 5% of each flavor, that's going to take 50ish containers!

Is that really what I should do, or am I missing something?

Next question: If this is the correct approach, should this be done in the 3ml dropper bottles, or is there a better solution? I like the idea of the small dropper bottles for mixed e-liquid samples that I'll use or give away, but it seems a little excessive for flavor testing.

Last question (yeah, right!): When I do finally get to mixing e-liquids that I want to test vape, how much should I mix? I see a lot of folks do it in 3ml or 5ml bottles, and others make 10ml at a time. I can see a consistency andvatage with larger batches, and economic advantages with smaller batches. Are there other considerations I'm missing?

Thanks!

 

[mochachocolatto]

I would just start out small ,and make single flavors you know you will enjoy .I started out making 5 ml samples .I make 10ml bottles that take longer to steep ,like my tobacco flavors .You can go to ebay ,and get these bottles for a good price .They come in all different sizes ,they are good bottles for your liquid ,they are the LDPE ones .filtercloth | eBay

 

[akatina]

I start with a 3ml test at 10% flavoring in a 10ml bottle. As long as you can measure your flavoring 0.1 ml at a time (easy with syringes), it's simple to ramp the percentages up or down in that same batch by adding flavor and base to that original 3ml sample. I drip 3 drops to test after each change, so the percentages listed will be plus or minus about 0.25% or so, but close enough for me to get an idea of where I prefer a flavor.

Here's a chart I made and keep handy that shows how much base and flavor to add to raise and lower the % flavor in my tests.

 

[Caridwen]

I start with a 3ml test at 10% flavoring in a 10ml bottle. As long as you can measure your flavoring 0.1 ml at a time (easy with syringes), it's simple to ramp the percentages up or down in that same batch by adding flavor and base to that original 3ml sample. I drip 3 drops to test after each change, so the percentages listed will be plus or minus about 0.25% or so, but close enough for me to get an idea of where I prefer a flavor.

Here's a chart I made and keep handy that shows how much base and flavor to add to raise and lower the % flavor in my tests.

View attachment 214580

What a great idea!

 

[mochachocolatto]

You can find some vapor venders online near where you live also ,and get your diy bottles ,and supplies .

 

[hottierockstar]

i'm going to pick up some of these today from Michael's. i think there are 12-18 in a pack..$1.99 if i recall (they are empty paint pots...in a strip..would normally have kid's paint in primary colors) another ecf member recommended these

i've also considered getting the little containers that food restaurants give sauces in for to-go orders from smart and final (not sure what quantities they come in or if i need 100+ LOL)

 

[DeeDee1234]

i'm going to pick up some of these today from Michael's. i think there are 12-18 in a pack..$1.99 if i recall (they are empty paint pots...in a strip..would normally have kid's paint in primary colors) another ecf member recommended these
View attachment 214587
i've also considered getting the little containers that food restaurants give sauces in for to-go orders from smart and final (not sure what quantities they come in or if i need 100+ LOL)
View attachment 214589

thats a great idea, I feel I need ten times the bottles, I have to test things out. These are cheap!

 

[Proverb31]

I start with a 3ml test at 10% flavoring in a 10ml bottle. As long as you can measure your flavoring 0.1 ml at a time (easy with syringes), it's simple to ramp the percentages up or down in that same batch by adding flavor and base to that original 3ml sample. I drip 3 drops to test after each change, so the percentages listed will be plus or minus about 0.25% or so, but close enough for me to get an idea of where I prefer a flavor.

Here's a chart I made and keep handy that shows how much base and flavor to add to raise and lower the % flavor in my tests.

View attachment 214580

Thank you for sharing this. I like the chart.

 

[DeeDee1234]

I found this on the site. I know, I know drops are are bad.. Anybody using drop should be flod

It about testing flavoring using drops

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5rhNaN5v1yPZGdCRXMyb2NJaWs/edit

 

[Mowgli]

i'm going to pick up some of these today from Michael's. i think there are 12-18 in a pack..$1.99 if i recall (they are empty paint pots...in a strip..would normally have kid's paint in primary colors) another ecf member recommended these
View attachment 214587

Michaels is about 8 miles away but we have a Family Dollar in town.
I saw they have 2 ice cube trays for a buck or buck fiddy.
They wouldn't be as good without caps but they might do in a pinch.

 

[Rat2chat2]

Good suggestions. DIY is in my future too. Thanks.

 

[Cavediver]

I would just start out small ,and make single flavors you know you will enjoy .I started out making 5 ml samples .I make 10ml bottles that take longer to steep ,like my tobacco flavors .You can go to ebay ,and get these bottles for a good price .They come in all different sizes ,they are good bottles for your liquid ,they are the LDPE ones .filtercloth | eBay

Thanks for the link! I wound up looking around a bit and found another supplier with prices in the .15 to .18 per bottle for 5's and 10's.
Batteries Chargers, Cell Phone PDA Accessories items in dropper store on eBay!
That's much better than the .45-.60 range I was finding!

I ordered 50 of each for testing and messing around. That ought to keep me covered for quite a while.

 

[Cavediver]

I start with a 3ml test at 10% flavoring in a 10ml bottle. As long as you can measure your flavoring 0.1 ml at a time (easy with syringes), it's simple to ramp the percentages up or down in that same batch by adding flavor and base to that original 3ml sample. I drip 3 drops to test after each change, so the percentages listed will be plus or minus about 0.25% or so, but close enough for me to get an idea of where I prefer a flavor.

Here's a chart I made and keep handy that shows how much base and flavor to add to raise and lower the % flavor in my tests.

View attachment 214580

Also an excellent idea for flavor tasting, although I don't think I'll have the patience to make this work for things that require 2+ weeks of steeping time. Thanks for the chart!

 

[akatina]

Also an excellent idea for flavor tasting, although I don't think I'll have the patience to make this work for things that require 2+ weeks of steeping time. Thanks for the chart!

I do this mainly when getting to know single flavors so the steep time typically isn't that long. But even when mixing a more complex profile, as long as the 3ml base gets the necessary steep time you'll probably find the times for subsequent percentages isn't nearly so long thanks to seed steeping. I learned about it in a post Hoosier made on a thread, lemme go find it...

EDIT:
Here it is! There's more conversation about the concept of seed steeping after this particular post, but this is the one where I first heard about it.

Well then we should cover the one technique that you haven't included. Seed Steeping.

Simply it is taking 1ml of a well steeped juice and making a batch with it in the bottle. Cap and shake.

I have one recipe that takes at least 2 weeks of steeping to taste great, at least 1 week to taste good, and tastes like nasty crap when first mixed. (I only have one recipe that tastes like nasty crap when freshly mixed and this is the one.) It has been part of my daily rotation for a few months, but I sometimes forget to make a batch far enough ahead, so when I read about seed steeping, I thought it was worth a shot. Did the seed steep (the steep part of the name makes it kinda' confusing as there is no real waiting time) and that recipe was good right off the bat.

Since this is the only recipe in my current rotation that needs steeping, it is the only one I have tried this on. When I do go and mix up some of those recipes that benefit from steeping, I'm going to try it again to see if shaves a week off of everything.

This has to have something to do with flavoring interactions as there is not enough time for entropy to occur.

And that is the reason that observation and trying new things is so dang important. We are dealing with full diffusion, flavoring interaction, flavoring and nicotine interaction, flavoring and PG/VG interaction. It seems reasonable that we can speed all these up with heat, but heat also can have an adverse impact on nicotine and flavoring. It seems reasonable that we can speed some of them up with agitation. It doesn't seem reasonable that speed steeping would have that much of an impact, but it works, so there is something else going on that I haven't been able to qualify.

And all this is ignoring what happens when we breathe juice...

 

[Mowgli]

Thanks for the link! I wound up looking around a bit and found another supplier with prices in the .15 to .18 per bottle for 5's and 10's.
Batteries Chargers, Cell Phone PDA Accessories items in dropper store on eBay!
That's much better than the .45-.60 range I was finding!

I ordered 50 of each for testing and messing around. That ought to keep me covered for quite a while.

Hell yeah! I've been looking for cheap small dropper bottles on a different thread.
I just bought (50) 10ml bottles for about $7.50 including shipping from China.
I have more batches in my cart, waiting to see how the first transaction goes for me.

Thanks for the heads-up!

 

[mochachocolatto]

I wish I would have got that deal a few months ago ,cool thanks for that link on the bottles cavediver!