I've been reading old posts as much as I can, but I haven't seen anyone ask this quite this way: is there a difference between STEEPING a juice to strengthen/blend the flavors and just getting a recipe adequately MIXED to vape it right out of the bottle? I'm new to DIY juice, though I've tinkered with adding PG/VG/nic to pre-mixed store-brought juices, and I'm trying to get enough supplies so I don't get frustrated with not having the right tools, but not buy so much that I go broke just getting set up! Here's the experience I had mixing my first test batch:
I made 5ml of Banana Milkshake (following the calculator recipe exactly) in a 30-70 PG/VG ratio with 3mg of nicotine and just shook the bottle for a minute or so (I didn't heat it or soak it). At that point the color was pretty light, and while the TASTE was good, the flavor seemed rather weak, and I'm wondering if that's because I just didn't MIX the juice well enough or if it just needed to steep. I've been reading about different mixing/steeping methods, from the microwave to the milk frother to the whisk-in-a-tall-glass to the ultrasonic cleaner to the boiling-water bath (my favorite for ingenuity was the Q-Tip-screwed-into-a-DRILL
) - which one or combination of those have you found to save the most steeping time, get the juices mixed right, and also not cost a fortune? Is the ultrasonic cleaner worth the $30 or so I found one for on Amazon, or is a pot of hot water simmering on the stove or 10 seconds at a time in the microwave just as good?
I'm also wondering about this issue particularly for SMALL (i.e., test) batches; I thought a tiny 5ml bottle could get mixed enough just from shaking it for a while, since the amount is WAY too small to whisk or put in a milk frother; was I wrong about that?
It seems that the goal of mixing juices is to get the liquids to "froth" and then sit until the bubbles are gone; I just couldn't get my tiny amount of liquid to DO that, and I don't want to keep vaping weak juice - does anyone have any suggestions?
