Flavor Perception in Varying Wattages

Both your responses seem to echo how I feel about it.

I may or may not be able to explain myself well enough, but the point I’m trying to convey is, are there physical or chemical changes in play that actually do change the flavor, or is it how the build reacts to power ranges that affect how the juice flavor is perceived? May not be an answerable question even. Because to my mind, it sounds like how the build affects the flavor is really what’s in play, rather than the juice itself responding to wattage. (My opinion is that the juice just don’t give a care, and external factors are what actually makes it seem to taste different).

*Oh, and let’s not forget that there may be unintended bias as well that tricks the mind into thinking there is a difference. Case in point- the wife’s insistence recently that the brand new juice was actually the aged juice when I did the SV/USC testing.

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I really need to get a mod to move my other long winded post here… But I read (and replied to) existing posts first, so… :laughing:

You’re probably right about “semantics” (in this case, terminology). :wink:

To me, heat is “all the same” (in regards to TC vs Power mode). Primarily from the standpoint of:
If you dial up a temp setting, you can turn around and switch to power mode, and then find the corresponding power setting you need to get the same heat (temp). See also “Heat Flux”.

Granted, this almost has to be done on two identical mods, with two identical atties, and two identical coils to fully appreciate/understand the correlation (at least IMO, as there could be too many variables otherwise).

But in short, yes. lol

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I’m one of “those” on both counts.
I don’t know whether you should consider yourself lucky, or I should. LMAO

It does feel as though it’s a curse at times, and a blessing at others. :wink:

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I believe in this - one example springs to mind, a lemon and elderflower mix I make - higher wattage will give you a stronger lemon lower wattage will give you more elderflower.

@Jose 's comment on chocolates and coffees at higher wattage is also something I have experienced many chocolates will give a burnt taste at a higher wattage (like one of the shit coffee houses in town here that don’t clean the machine properly and use super hot water). There are a couple of chocolates that are unaffected by high wattage medicine flower dark chocolate is a good example. I am yet to find a coffee that doesn’t taste bitter when the power is high.

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Can depend a lot on build and cotton too, could be some flavours have compounds with lower flash points, hence the burning, I suspect some kind of sweetener.

I have however noticed different flavours shining at different watts like @woftam has said, mostly fruits but also (CAP) Vanilla Custard

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Ok… This will take a bit of digging (and time) into my notes at the other spot, because that’s the only place I kept them (like a dumbass). I should have written them in my notebook, but for a while, I was in the habit of just keying things in on my phone as I vaped (tested)…

I should also clarify that there’s a resounding NO, not all flavors exhibit this effect!! But I have seen it happen on more than a handful (or two) of instances.

I’m pretty sure that I need to look at Raspberry for one, possibly Boysenberry, and several others (of course). [I’m primarily putting these down for my own mental reminder]

I can understand that… To me though, given the differences in atties (chamber size, air pathing/turbulence, how choked off the wick-feeds might be, coil size limitations, etc etc) I do believe that the reason you see some atties discussed as delivering “great flavor” is directly relevant to what I’ve mentioned in parenthesis.

I have run temps up and down (as well as power) on many occasions, and with some mixes… I have been able to find different flavors being dominant/prominent/what have you, at different ranges in the same atty (my theorems).

It’s also possibly worth noting that this was most frequently seen (or, a learned experience) when I was testing mixes as they were maturing (3 days, 7 days, 2 weeks, etc). So I think that’s a potentially important thing to note.
That’s solely in regard to “highlights” though.

With respect to certain flavors needing certain power to bloom (or be “more noticeable”), that’s related, but a different kettle of fish.

Some would give a burned taste if you exceeded a certain power (my brown sugar tests come to mind). Some were just kind of “It’s kind of there, but it’s substantially lacking”, until I ran the power up past my normal point (roughly 30-40w typically). Once I did, then it was like “oh. WOW. There it is!” The realization of certain flavors needing certain power levels was both eye-opening, as well as frustrating (immediately, as well as what it meant for the future of how I felt I needed to test).

With that said, it’s not as prevalent as I initially feared (Thank God), BUT it’s still something that I try (frequently) when I have a flavor that doesn’t quite behave as expected OR when I’m delving into a new brand!

FlavourArt is definitely one where I’ve seen a flavor or two that seem to prefer “higher power” (relevantly speaking of course). To me that means anything above about 42-45w (as that’s bordering what I deem as being “medium power”).

BTW, I’m pissing MYSELF off at how much I’m trying to cover (or feel I’m having to avoid miscommunicating), so I know where some of you reading are… LMAO

Anyways, sorry for the novel. But there’s just SO damned much that ties in together IMO, that it’s hard NOT TO cover certain aspects. =/

Sorry you asked yet Phil? :crazy_face:

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No, I’m not. Every discussion yields a little more knowledge and understanding, and inevitably leads to more questions. Never sorry about that.

This highlights, yet again, just how complicated this “simple” hobby of DIY juice making is. There just seems to be absolutely no single checklist that can be applied universally to anything depending on the subject. It is all but impossible to write anything but a guideline; anyone who publishes a claimed definitive bible on DIY is almost surely full of horseshit. The best anyone will be able to do is make observations and give guidance; in the end it seems that every single recipe, every single concentrate, every single bit of kit would need to be thoroughly tested in many different conditions in order to ever be able to say “This Is, Period.” And I don’t think anyone ever in the history of vaping will ever test everything.

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I’m always up for “some antics”!

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I use steam engine to build and Check all my coils, so I use the heat flux at the bottom to determine how “hot” I run my coil. I usually prefer a heat flux of 240-280 for custards and candies and fruit/creams, but I have noticed that any bakery mix seems to taste better at 300-315 heat flux, and all of that distinction is with the same coil.

So if that same coil at 300 heat flux is running about 40 watts, then my cinnamon bakery mixes are good there, but even better if I switch to a coil where a 300 heat flux is 60 watts.

Granted what I am talking about is just flavor getting better, not really changing, but I have experienced that a few times too, just struggling to think of an example other than chocolate lol. Also, we’re talking about coils, but in reality we’re talking about how juice tastes and as always that’s subjective as hell lol so what coils do what for me is probably only applicable to me, just like which flavor I choose for which recipe.

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The most striking example of this for me was a mix that unfortunately I don’t remember. It happened to be in VW mode. What I do remember is that I was vaping it at 75W and getting a good “blast” of flavor. For whatever reason, I lowered the power to around 55W. I perceived a definite separation of flavors starting with a definite strawberry followed by others. I attributed this to a slow heating time of the atty. The flavors of the vape were more subtle all around.

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It would. It really would!

I have an example right now of a way to see the difference.

Same mod, identical coils (same I.D., same material, same impedance, etc), exact same liquid from a single batch. Two different atties, and two different profiles of taste experienced.

The only difference is: one is the Recurve, one is the Theorem.

It’s frustrating. But I continue to try and make sense of it as well. But yeah, I wish we could be at the same table and pass things around…

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I won’t put another man’s drip tip to my lips. I’d rather this whole thing remain a complete crap-shoot mystery. :grimacing:

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They ARE removable you know… chuckles

Besides, you think I’d want your lips on my tip?!? :crazy_face:

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I’m not sure how old you are, or how far your standards have fallen. So I don’t know the correct answer to that. I know how I’d answer that…

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Hahaha oh geez, when I think back to the days of my youth and sharing cigarettes and joints with so many people. Sometimes complete strangers.

I have discovered that dirty coils aren’t always a bad thing. A few times I have been able to identify flavors in commercial juice that were only prominent on a dirty coil.

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Says a lot about the quality of those juices, eh? :laughing: “Try our juices- they taste great when you coil is shit!!”

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And not to be too icky, but I can’t think of a fluid or even a substance that my wife and I don’t share, intentionally or otherwise, and she doesn’t have a spot on her I won’t plant tulips on once in a while, but I still think using her atty is like using her toothbrush- eww!

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I don’t know. I’m usually quite inebriated by that point.

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Finally had the means/time to get some examples here!

So! About the wattage/power/heat thing…

Since Daath so kindly installed a “notes search” feature when I asked him about re-adding the now missing “expand all flavor notes” button… Life just got a LOT easier to find the notes about some of the flavors I’d experienced power issues with!!!

To begin:

Australian Chocolate (Hangsen)

Caramel Toffee (Hangsen)

Metaphor (FA)

Blueberry (FW)

I’m sure there are others… but this is what I came up with in just a couple searches. :wink:

As mentioned, I’ve also seen similar traits (temperature/heat sensitive) from other flavors (some as mentioned above: chocolate/coffee).

Hopefully this will help give a starting point to others who might want to look into this ‘phenomena’.