I keep forgetting to shake my juices

[PullWinkle]

I set an event on my calendar for 1:00 pm. to remind me to shake the vape. Every day when it goes of, I dismiss it. I'll be in the middle of something, like writing an email, and not wanting to lose my place or say what I'm thinking I say to myself, lemme finish this first. And promptly forget.

Now, let's say I made a batch of 6 bottles and given they are all desserts, they need to steep for 2 weeks. So, after they steep, I open a bottle and try it and it's "Kinda" good, but not great. It's been shaken maybe 4 times, in 2 weeks. I'll vape it (15 ml) 'till it's gone, then open the next.

Long and the short of it is, most times my vapes end up steeping for a month or 2. Or even more. If they've steeped for a month or more, being shaken only a couple a couple times a week, will the extended steep counter the lack of shaking?

 

[Old Goat]

Um... You're worrying about something that really doesn't need worrying about.

Shaking your juice every day isn't necessary. In fact, I would argue that you're better off leaving the bloody stuff alone.

When you first mix your juice, give it a good shake to make sure everything is properly combined. That's the important bit. Once everything is mixed, shaking it every day isn't going to make the flavours develop any faster.

And here's something worth remembering. Air and e-liquid are not friends.

When you shake a bottle vigorously, you introduce thousands of tiny air bubbles into the liquid. While the bubbles themselves aren't going to destroy your juice, oxygen can contribute to oxidation, particularly of the nicotine. So repeatedly shaking the living hell out of it isn't doing you any favours.

Now, don't get me wrong. The occasional shake isn't going to hurt anything, and if a mix has visibly separated, it certainly needs mixing again.

But steeping is about time, not how often you can give a bottle a concussion.

So, to answer your question, a month or two of steeping without regular shaking is perfectly fine, assuming you mixed everything properly in the first place.

Keep your bottles tightly closed, somewhere cool and dark, and let time do its thing.

Personally, I would be far more concerned about leaving a bottle in a hot car for an afternoon than forgetting to shake it for two weeks.

Delete that bloody calendar reminder. You've got enough things to worry about without scheduling daily exercise for your e-liquid!

 

[Santa's Lil Helper]

“Daily exercise for your e-liquid” sounds like a subscription somebody would try to sell.

PullWinkle, do you keep one of those six bottles untouched until the end, or do they all get opened as you work through them? I’d be curious whether a sealed one tastes different from one opened regularly at the same age.

Also, beginner question off the back of this: does a clear-looking bottle tell us anything about how well it’s mixed, or can it look perfectly uniform and still need a proper mix before filling? I’m learning that “looks fine to me” isn’t much of a testing method.

 

[PullWinkle]

I’m learning that “looks fine to me” isn’t much of a testing method.

If I understand you correctly, no I don't open any until I'm ready to vape it. I open one, pour some in a pod, taste it, toss the pod and bottle because it tastes like ass, then open another. Same thing, so I toss the next. And the next.

I JUST finally made a couple bottles that are "Okay", and the last I tried was REAL good! Supposed to me an Almond Joy. I could taste the chocolate and coconut, but not so much of the almond custard. Soon, I'll try again, bumping up the almond, and another with no almond at all and call it "Mounds Didn't"!

If I understand EGO, AKA @Old Goat we should be shaking it only IF it looks separated. But some of my mixes are using clear liquids only.

Dunno about "Looks fine to me". There was this one chick...

 

[Old Goat]

No, mate—“only shake if it looks separated” is too narrow. Clear ingredients don’t give you a little flag saying everything’s mixed properly.

Mix thoroughly when you make it, keep it capped, and give it a mix before filling. My point was that you don’t need a daily appointment to shake the living daylights out of every bottle.

And keep some of that good Almond Joy untouched as your reference. Then test the almond change separately. You’ve finally got something you like; don’t send the whole batch back into the laboratory wearing a blindfold.

“Mounds Didn’t” can stay. That name’s earned its bottle.