How important is it to use the same brand in a recipe.

[RabberFl]

Can the same flavors of different brands be considered easily substituted?

Like Coconut TFA for Coconut FA, Graham cracker TFA for graham cracher FW? I'd like to follow the recipes, but having to buy multiple brands of the same flavor can add up quickly and limit how many flavors I buy.

 

[fozzy71]

I often sub other brands, I just have to look up recommended percents for the brand I am subbing in place. I sub brands for every ingredient in a lot of recipes now that I am switching entirely over to real flavor's super concentrates and no longer using the more popular tfa/cap/fw flavors that many popular recipes use. It obv won't taste exactly the same but if it was a good recipe to start and you use the proper percent for the flavor you are subbing in it should still be a decent vape IME.

 

[NGAHaze]

To truly be able to taste the intended flavor of the recipe, yes, it's usually fairly important. However there are some flavors that will work ok as substitutes for one another.

Additionally, various brands will have different strengths for the same flavor. For example, you probably wouldn't want to use the same percentage of Inawera Lemon as say, TFA Lemon.

That's not to say you shouldn't try the recipe using the flavors that you do have, only that you might need to make some adjustments.

 

[wllmc]

in my opinion, you would be better off starting from scratch again. no recipes will taste the same, not saying they might not end up good but there are no subs for any flavor really. TFA cherry taste like TFA and flavor art cherry taste like flavor art and real flavors taste like real flavors, even 1 substitute out of 10 in a recipe will change it, for better or worse only your tasters can decide.

 

[gakudzu]

Love those 3 answers! All different, from people who are happy with their own way of doing it. That's what it's about for me, too.
You can listen to a million opinions, but in the end, it's your own taste buds that decide what you like.

 

[Heabob]

Can the same flavors of different brands be considered easily substituted?

Like Coconut TFA for Coconut FA, Graham cracker TFA for graham cracher FW? I'd like to follow the recipes, but having to buy multiple brands of the same flavor can add up quickly and limit how many flavors I buy.

Some flavors are way different between brands while others are pretty close.
After you become a "flavor collector" like many of us here, you will usually know which ones might work for subs.
If you're on a budget try subbing anyway as you might find something decent even by accident.
Thing is... you may not like a certain recipe even using all the correct flavors.
Just never know cause so many of us have different tastes.

As your example of graham cracker:
CAP Graham Cracker has a hint of Cinnamon to me.
It may work just fine but depends on the recipe.
My favorite is TFA Graham Cracker Clear because it's neutral, without cinnamon.
The regular TFA Graham Cracker is quite dark in color which I'm not too keen on due to coil gunking from those dark ones.
Taste is close enough where either one should work.
FW is a bit different than the above but it's not a bad flavor.

 

[Rin Vapes]

Overall, important but you can use what you have and see what happens. (which is what I do) It may not be exactly the same but many times it's good.

 

[SteveS45]

To me it is not important at all because I do not follow other recipes for my creations. I might look at a recipe to get an idea for something I create that is my own. Never been one to try and recreate something rather make my own unique creations. Just my way of doing DIY.

 

[Cramptholomew]

in my opinion, you would be better off starting from scratch again. no recipes will taste the same, not saying they might not end up good but there are no subs for any flavor really. TFA cherry taste like TFA and flavor art cherry taste like flavor art and real flavors taste like real flavors, even 1 substitute out of 10 in a recipe will change it, for better or worse only your tasters can decide.

I swapped out .25% FA Apple Pie for .25% INW Biscuit in my Coconut Cake late week. Worked like a charm! Might've even been better. But, that's not a one to one sub. It is a sub, though, which I'm loathe to do...

 

[wllmc]

I swapped out .25% FA Apple Pie for .25% INW Biscuit in my Coconut Cake late week. Worked like a charm! Might've even been better. But, that's not a one to one sub. It is a sub, though, which I'm loathe to do...

I agree some stuff swaps out pretty good,,, cookie for biscuit etc but its pretty rare. .... here is my embarrassing moment of the day. when I clicked this for some reason I thought fozzy was the OP and I was replying to that hahaha I knew he was transitioning to only real flavors . then I realized some time later the real OP and my answer kinda fit still so I just let it roll

 

[AndriaD]

Can the same flavors of different brands be considered easily substituted?

Like Coconut TFA for Coconut FA, Graham cracker TFA for graham cracher FW? I'd like to follow the recipes, but having to buy multiple brands of the same flavor can add up quickly and limit how many flavors I buy.

It's important if you want the mix to turn out exactly as the recipe's originator's mix turned out, or pretty close to it. Different brands have very different flavors, even if the name is the same. In my own recipes, in my blog page, I make a note that no flavor other than Inawera Shisha Strawberry actually TASTES like strawberry, so if you want my strawberry & cream recipe to actually taste like strawberry & cream, that's what you have to use. For my Smocha recipe, I note that other chocolate flavors MIGHT be used, it's just that Molinberry Glamour Chocolate is the only one I can taste.

One thing to keep in mind is that recipes are *guidelines*, not Holy Writ. If something about a recipe doesn't suit you... CHANGE IT. That's the benefit of DIY. I generally have to double the flavor percentages of most recipes I've seen, if not even triple them. My own best method has been to search out and read a great many recipes for whatever I'm trying to achieve... and then create my own recipe for that, because a) I need more flavoring that most people, and b) I have to use whatever flavors I actually have; I don't have many FA flavors, so I usually have to substitute for those.

Andria

 

[Cramptholomew]

I am switching entirely over to real flavor's super concentrates and no longer using the more popular tfa/cap/fw flavors

How come you're switching?

 

[fozzy71]

How come you're switching?

Because I like the majority of their flavors just fine (I have single flavor tested 67 of their 200+ flavors so far) and can use them at very low percents, plus they are local to me so my money stays in my state. A 1oz bottle of something I can single mix with at 3.5% will make me 800+ MLs of finished juice for a $7 bottle of flavoring. Mixing a 1oz bottle of TFA at something like 20% total flavoring will only yield 150ML of finished juice so even though RF is about double the cost it makes about 5 times the finished juice for the percents I would typically use each at.

The only things I plan to order from anyone else going forward are tobacco and menthol flavors. RY4 Double for some of my recipes (like Deadly Sin, PRY4U, Scutch, etc that I will convert to use Real Flavors for the secondary flavors instead of TFA, etc) and CAP Menthol + TFA Western for my brother's girlfriend's juice she seems to like (that makes me gag).