Mixing can get pretty intense. If you’ve ever vaped an eliquid and was blown away by its complexity, or the amount of different layers within the mix, it’s probably because of the mass amount of time spent developing that recipe. As a beginner this can be daunting. But we all start from somewhere, and this video and article is meant to help you get started down the road of recipe development.

Now pairings are the best way to get started in mixing. A pairing is just a recipe with two flavorings together to create one main profile. If you’re unsure what a main profile is, be sure to check out this article on definitions to understand. But these pairings are excellent because they’re easy to think about, easy to put together, and can bring out some pretty complex flavors. One thing to note about all pairings is that once you’ve got a lock on them, you can bring all the pairings you’ve learned along the way with you into advanced recipe development and use them as layers. Layers are a bit more difficult but you can learn about them here. 

Creams

Pairing flavors with Ice Creams, Milk, or Cream flavors is probably the easiest of the bunch. All you need is a cream flavoring you enjoy like TFA/CAP/FW Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, or CAP Vanilla Custard, or CAP Sweet Cream, and then top with your favorite fruit, or flavor. A good example is Mustard Milk, which is a delicious Strawberry Ice Cream recipe that only consists of TFA Vanilla Bean Ice Cream at 8%, and TFA Strawberry at 6%. If you’re not a fan of strawberry, put in a different fruit like FW Blueberry at 4%, or CAP Juicy Lemon at 6%. Any single fruit flavoring you’d like will pair against TFA VBIC, and contain a great Fruit with Ice Cream flavor. You can do the same but instead of Vanilla Bean Ice Cream use CAP Vanilla Custard at 3-4% for more of a custard/fruit recipe that dominated the vaping world in 2013. Too thick? Use CAP Creamy Yogurt 5-6% for more of a yogurt recipe. Do you enjoy how creams vape, but hate the taste of cream or milk? Then go ahead and use TFA/FA/CAP Marshmallow at 3-4%. Marshmallow is great if you want all the benefits of vaping creams, with out that cream/milk flavor. It still has that richness, thickness, and fluffiness, without that “sour milk” flavor that some get when vaping heavy creams. One thing about cream pairings is that there isn’t much variance, and there’s only so many flavors that pair well with creams. But those that do, do so well, and are easy to mix.

Easy Strawberry Yogurt

Easy Blueberry Ice Cream

Bakeries

Bakeries are impressive, contain tons of complexities, and have the dimension of texture that other profiles do not. But they are a bit more difficult to get right, and might take a bit more time to develop correctly. Luckily for you I know of a few flavorings that you should buy that can act as a pairing and but are a bit easier to mix up. CAP Sugar Cookie is probably one of the best bakeries out there with its warm, home baked, flavor. Using it at 6-7% will give you this thick, sugar cookie body, that you can top with any flavor you’d want, like TFA Double Chocolate Clear at 3% for a chocolate cookie. It does need a bit of a steep, but its flavor is excellent. If you want more of a “crispy”, store bought cookie with a ton more texture, FA Cookie at 0.5-1% is great. Pair this with fruits for a nice fruit cookie with tons of complexity. INW Biscuit is excellent if you want to pair lighter flavors with it like TFA Pear, or CAP Lemon Meringue Pie. INW Biscuit is a rich, buttery, and flaky like bakery that’s light on its feet. Jump into pairing those flavors with any topping and see what you can come up with. Just know you should take your time as they are a bit more difficult to pair correctly. But once you do, you’ll have a damn impressive recipe on your hands.

Easy Lemon Cookie

Easy Butterscotch Pie

Fruits

Fruits are the most fun to pair. Mainly because there are millions of different fruit pairings out there. Most fruits can pair with other fruits and its up to you and your vision, along with the specific flavoring, that determines its success. Now I don’t need to spell out any specific fruit flavorings because they can all pretty much pair up nicely if you use the correct percentages. But I do want to note that when making fruit pairings, you want to max out each flavoring in terms of percentages. For example, TFA Strawberry’s max flavor percentage is around 6-7%. That’s the amount I would use in my recipe. If I were to pair it with FW Kiwi, then I want to use the max that flavoring allows, which is around 4-5%. If you’re unsure what the max concentration of a fruit is, check out the flavorbook, or other flavor notes online, for an estimate. Your own testing should tell you this as well. But get out there and go mess around with fruits. There’s not much you can do to mess it up, so get creative.

Easy Lemon Lime

Easy Strawberry Kiwi

And that’s it for this article. There are a ton more pairings out there, and you can get much, much, deeper into pairings. I just wanted to go over the basics for you beginners so you have an easier time purchasing new flavors for when you start to craft your own recipes. Once you get good at mixing pairs up, then you can move on to building your pairs out, and creating more interestingly complex recipes. And before you know it you’ll be creating recipes with 4 or 5 layers, all filled with the brim with pairs that you’ve created today. It takes time, so don’t rush it. The last thing I want you to do is waste your time, money, or supplies. One of the perks of DIY is saving money, so if that’s a goal of your, being attentive is a must. OK, go out there, mix up some pairs, make sure you share your findings, and I’ll catch you in the advanced section any day now.