The autumnal equinox is the cue for flannel, pumpkin spice, baked cinnamon apples and salted caramel. To mark it, I picked three DIY e-liquid recipes built on those spicy-sweet flavors: warm apple, cinnamon, tobacco, vanilla and custard. Earlier posts on making your own vape juice and on End of Summer recipes explained the ingredients, the suppliers and the way a recipe is laid out. The recipes come first here, and a recap of those basics follows for anyone who needs it.
Three recipes for fall
Fall Festival
I came across Fall Festival by accident. It mixes Caramel Butter, Vanilla Custard, Maple Syrup and Fuji Apple flavorings in a 70/30 blend, and the batch comes to 10mL, a sensible size for an experiment. There is tobacco in it. If you would prefer to skip that, set the RY4 Double to 0% when you customize the recipe.
Philly Pumpkin Cheesecake
Something pumpkin had to be on the list, and Philly Pumpkin Cheesecake was the one that caught my eye, since I like both desserts it is named after. The ingredients include Philadelphia buttercake, whipped cream, pumpkin and eggnog. As posted it is 70/30 VG/PG with 3mg nicotine and makes 60mL, and you can scale it up or down to suit yourself.
Apple Bear Claw
Apple Bear Claw is modeled on the pastry: flaky warm crust, soft apples soaked in cinnamon, and a sticky, sweet cream cheese icing over the top. The mix is 85/15 VG/PG at 3mg nicotine in a 30mL batch. Its author suggests steeping it for a week, so expect to wait before the flavor fills out.
I have not mixed these three myself yet, so if you try one, tell us in the comments how it turned out.
Before you mix: check your supplies
It sounds obvious, but assuming the cabinet is stocked is an easy mistake, and one I have made often, in ordinary cooking too. Confirm you have enough VG, PG and flavoring, plus nicotine if you want some throat hit in the finished juice. For restocking I like Liquid Nicotine Wholesalers, which sells base liquids, nicotine and tools such as graduated cylinders, beakers, chubby gorilla bottles and e-liquid mixers, and suits beginners and experienced mixers alike. It carries flavorings as well, though I go to The Perfumer’s Apprentice when I want a much wider choice.
Where recipes come from
You could experiment from scratch until you have a juice you are proud of, but working from published recipes first is a good way to get comfortable. E-Liquid Recipes is a strong starting point. It works much like a social network for home mixers: you post recipes of your own, adapt ones other people uploaded, and search by flavor, whether that is vanilla, tobacco or cereal.
Google and vape forums turn up recipes too. That is how I found the site above and another one, All The Flavors. Both list each flavoring with its brand abbreviation, which I find very handy.
ejuice.deals also posts DIY recipes picked to fit a weekly theme. The week before this one was The End of Summer, and this week is the Return of Autumn.
How to read a recipe
Anyone who has baked from a recipe will recognize the format. In place of cups and teaspoons you get set amounts of vegetable glycerin (VG), propylene glycol (PG), nicotine where the recipe calls for it, and exact quantities of each flavoring.
- Grams or drops: E-Liquid Recipes lets you measure flavoring either way. Grams are more exact and require a kitchen scale. Drops can be easier for a first attempt but take longer, and losing count can ruin a batch, so count into a separate beaker.
- Abbreviations: the letters beside a flavor name identify its brand. CAP = Capella, FLV = Flavorah, SA = Solubearome, PUR = Purilum, and there are many more. They tell you exactly which flavoring to buy to reproduce a juice, and a quick search will explain any you do not recognize. They become familiar with practice.
- Customizing: the site has a built-in tool for adjusting a recipe. Click the wrench icon beside it and you can turn a 70/30 VG/PG mix into 60/40, or move nicotine from 3mg to 12 mg, which is admittedly a big jump.
- Steeping: give the finished juice several days before it goes in a tank. Many recipes state no exact steeping time. In general, longer steeping means better flavor. Read the comments under the recipe to see what others did, or taste it now and then until you find what you like.
Why bother with DIY
These flavors may be bolder than what you normally vape, and that is the appeal of DIY: trying profiles you did not know existed. Every well-known e-liquid company started somewhere, and its bottled juice is a pre-made liquid mixed in a lab, much like what you are doing at home. If you have a fall recipe you love, or a question about any of this, share it in the comments or reach us by phone, email or social media.