Today we are going to consider a wide range of Stage Flavor flavorings from Insteam Company, which do not require long infusion time, on the example of ten premixes, which aroused my greatest interest.
Briefly about the main things: the bottle volume is 10 milliliters, recommended infusion time is 2 hours, recommended flavor concentration is 9-10% of the final volume for self-pumping for powerful devices (mixes with balance shift towards glycerin) and 14-16% for balanced mixes for MTL devices and PODs. The number of flavors in the lineup at the time of publication of the article is 35.
As it turned out, Insteam is not only a valuable fur an extensive flavor library of ready-made liquids, which currently counts more than seventy copies, but also a wide range of possibilities for experimenters.
Flavorings, glycerin, propylene glycol, nicobusters and even pleasant for beginners stickers – the guys provide a full set of components to quickly and easily assemble the liquid, not inferior to the quality of ready-made store versions. e-cigarettes online boutique in australia And, importantly, for a much smaller amount of cash. It is a sin not to take advantage of such an offer.
You can buy products for individual consumption in the nearest retail outlets of vape products. To place a wholesale order, contact the manufacturer directly through the official Insteam website.
Packaging and labeling of Stage Flavor flavors
The flavor substances are sold in small clear vials with black caps. The childproofing system and the first opening control ring are in place, nothing unusual.
The labels are much more interesting. Four colorful rectangles on the background hint at the flavor content. A small snowflake in the upper right corner and an ICE signature just below it warns of the coolness in the premix. The rest of the trade and consumer information is placed on the back, and I lacked only one thing – a line with the recommended concentration of flavoring in the finished mix. Big guys will figure it out, but newcomers in mixology will have to go to Insteam website (or read the “Short about the main things” box at the beginning of the article).
Necessary components and pleasant trifles
Glycerin and propylene glycol, VG and PG are the basics, the base without which vaping is impossible. It doesn’t matter if you use both components or only one of them (hello glycerin claudcheiser and propylene stelcer on tobacco) – the base must be clean, stable and usable. No drugstore or conventionally edible analogs!
In addition to their flavorings, Insteam offer both bases – tested, compliant with TU and packaged in 100, 250 and 500 ml bottles. The labels, in addition to entertaining characters, contain important information about the packer, date of manufacture and packaging, expiration date, international name of the product, storage conditions and purpose. The QR code, by the way, leads to the instructions for self-dispensing, which is quite appropriate.
Nicotine
Some may disagree with me, but vaping is about nicotine after all. Surrounded by tasty, fragrant, bright, but… Many people switched to vapor just because of the convenience of controlling the amount of nicotine they consume, and many of them are still not ready to give up nicotine completely.
What’s my point? To the second conventionally integral part of the basic composition of vaping liquid. Nicotine booster or nicotine base, as it is called now, has changed for the sake of piety, the state and common sense – now it is not “hundred”, but “twenty”, and you can’t get really strong liquids with its help. It’s for the best.
20 real, legal mg/mL of maximum purity vs. oxidized, diluted whatever from a cluttered, cockroach-infested basement. Thanks, I’ll take the first option.
Little helpers
If you can make kneading easier, it’s worth it. I looked at these stickers not without a bit of skepticism, at first not fully understanding their essence and point of application. Well, how can you measure the components, guided by marks on a piece of paper, and not electronic scales?
It turned out that you can, and you can do it very successfully. The main thing is to glue evenly and pour everything neatly, so that you do not have to cover with paper napkins or rags.
Preparation and testing of liquid based on Stage Flavor flavors
The temptation of simplicity in the form of stickers was irresistible. Having carefully attached the black-and-white vinyl to the transparent plastic of the bottles, I completely surrendered to the will of the manufacturer, trusting the scheme on the right side of the image, named “50/50”. Fifteen milliliters of glycerin, half a vial of flavoring, a few drops of a booster subtitled Classic and some propylene glycol to a full vial. Shake vigorously and leave in a dark place for the already thrice mentioned 2 hours.
If this approach is not for you, you want more numbers and specifics, then remember about the manual and look here – simple in essence, but rich in meaning step-by-step instructions will obviously be useful not only for a beginner, but also for an old-timer who left the vape scene, but suddenly decided to return. Anyway, don’t forget to scribble a couple of lines on the label about the date of mixing, its name, strength and ratio of components in order to avoid panic attacks and insistent burning in the rear area in the future.
All the resulting Insteam Stage Flavor mixes were tested on the unchanged MTL-drip Auguse Era RDA with a 0.74 ohm nichrome fuse and the Innokin Kroma R in VW Hard mode at power levels from 18W to 22W. Needless to say, before each new flavor, the drip was rinsed, the coil was burned, the cotton was changed for a fresh one, and I took a relaxing one-hour break.
Be careful and cautious when handling each component! Nicotine can be dangerous even in the lowest concentrations! And don’t get it all over the place – it will take a long time to clean up.
Stage Flavor – Apricot Energizer
Insteam Stage Flavor Apricot Energizer.
Truly bright and truly invigorating – the concentrated flavor of Apricot Energizer hits your nose and bursts into your lungs. Caramel lime, lemon, a bit of chocolate guarana and the sugary pulp of overripe apricot in a fizzy soda. The flavor components read perfectly and didn’t muffle each other, score.
Contrary to the aroma, the taste was not too bright, but quite enough to recognize both sweet and sour apricot, and lemon-lime base of the energizer, and the undertones of buttery cocoa with a caramel tinge. And not only to recognize, but also to enjoy them, even taking into account the empty inhale, mostly turned to the sour half of apricot in a light lemonade. The exhale is dense, sugary, with a subtle bitterness of citrus and apricot seed, and the soft fruit aftertaste almost does not give away the presence of energy, masking it with natural acidity and a small amount of candy caramel.
Stage Flavor – Absinthe with blackcurrant
Eucalyptus, anise, a berry filling of currants, imaginary blueberries and something sour – the flavor is beautiful, but pensive. It is as if he asks a question: “Where is the old man, where is the sea, the plaid, the rocking chair, where is the wormwood and alcohol, I ask you! Where is the absinthe in this absinthe?” Well, you get the idea. Absinthe is canceled, we apply a lovely mixture of fragrant berries, herbs, seeds and leaves. Actually, I like it.
Stage Flavor – Orange Garden Berries
The smell is reminiscent of fresh orange-lime juice without a single piece of zest, but with a huge amount of black currants, its sprigs and leaves. The berry part of the mix clearly contains something other than currants, but you can’t recognize this something – either raspberry or blueberry-jackberry, literally a drop of juice that keeps you on your toes.
Cool orange lemonade with a huge drift into candy caramel, but still not lacking in bright natural tones. There are no questions about the berries in the flavor – although they are noticeable, the whole cluster of raspberries, blueberries and black currants play a supporting role to the mighty orange, and it turns out great. This is a classy lemonade based on natural syrups, there is nothing more to say. Cold, pure orange explosion, lemon drop and berry support, bravo!
Stage Flavor – Watermelon Lemonade
This is not a flavor, it’s a watermelon bomb with whole lemons as a topping. The flavor is frighteningly pungent and bright, as if it comes from undiluted extract of lemon zest and watermelon rind. Burning, fiercely perfumed .
Sweet and tart, ugh! The cold sugar of the inhale explodes into an herbaceous-caramel exhale with a crisp watermelon-lemon core. Not candy or marmalade, but a sugar-laden soda with dense syrups and ice. A pleasant bitterness and echoes of lemon muffin lurk in the aftertaste, not to be missed.
Stage Flavor – Banana Strawberry
Strawberry is there, banana is there, caramel is there too. The smell of strawberry-banana candy constrains your thoughts with dense sweetness and rich ripeness of fruits so much that you want to refresh your mouth with something. And this is even before the vaporization starts.
Inhale – good coolness of flavor slowly but surely melts under the onslaught of ripe strawberry with tender, but as if not fully ripe banana. Exhale – sweet strawberry caramel intertwines with the green, slightly dried banana skin and its soft core, creating the sensation of a swallowed berry cloud. Aftertaste – the frozen, almost lost berry power settles on the tongue with a subtle grassy undertone and melted sugar. A superbly executed classic that has tortured more than a dozen mixologists. Applause!
Stage Flavor – Double Guava
The smell is spicy, thick and one hundred percent exotic. It’s as if strawberries, lemons, pineapples, raw roots and palm leaves were blended into a single cloud, with a thin shaving of tart quince on top. Full-bodied to the max, heady and nourishing.
Light coolness, viscous woodiness, indecipherable hints of fruit and the familiar aromatic spicy tartness of dried and then soaked leaves. This is guava, and it’s beautiful. From the skin to the pink core, from the strange brackishness to the sticky fruity sweetness, from the tight crunch of the chewed root to the fresh frosting, it’s guava. One of my favorite interpretations of the magical fruit, I dragged the aroma to my personal stash.
Stage Flavor – Strawberry Pomegranate
Caramel strawberries, sour pomegranate, tart skins and strange hints of aromatic leaves form the scent of this mix. Shades of flavor slip and flow into each other, showing the viewer either ripe strawberries with earthy pomegranate skins, or sweet pomegranate seeds with sour, still unformed berries. A strange and wonderful odor, firmly catching the attention of the curious explorer.
Sour-sweet, in some places tart mixture of caramel strawberry and ripe pomegranate at first seems disjointed and out of place, but a few puffs later it presses into the flesh of the tongue as an indivisible fruit. Strange at first glance, but great in the end, the idea resulted in one of the most interesting and unusual mixes. Playful, daring and unpredictable, as wild mixes should be.
Stage Flavor – Cactus Pine
The sour aroma of grated juniper needles with a soft, ingratiating hint of heady opuntia. Fresh, green, truly herbaceous and piney to the point of piney – that’s all you need to know about the flavor of the resulting mix. I couldn’t imagine that such a combination of flavors could seem edible, but saliva went juicy.
Anise, badiane, fennel, and some moist cactus flesh. The mix of fennel and the sweet sulphur of the melon cucumber, which in decent society is called cactus, was for good measure. Yes, it’s a great iced greenness, but it’s just a pity it’s not what you expect. It’s possible that this flavor needs a little more time in the infusion to fully open up.
Stage Flavor – Caramel Latte
Sour caramel, velvety milk and a subtle hint of coffee that gradually becomes stronger and stronger. The smell is more reminiscent of Möller’s coffee taffy than a cool drink, especially in terms of the caramel and its prohibitive sweetness, perfectly complemented by the natural acidity of the milk.
Either way, this coffee no longer tastes like butterscotch, but rather a strange mixture of coffee-milk liqueur and liquid caramel. Natural coffee beans and accent shades of alcohol in caramel, dense sweetness and well perceptible coolness – if not for the obvious alcohol in the exhale, I would easily take this mix for coffee ice cream. Very good, especially in combination with the previous sample deliberately added to the drip.
Stage Flavor – Cheese Cracker
Cheese cracker? Cheese Cracker. The mix exudes the blissful, earthy strength and flavor of crispy wheat crackers with a subconsciously oily cheese sauce. I’m lying, not sauce, but dry cheese essence, of course, but the associations with actual cheese crackers come up on the count of one.
It’s not a classic cheese cracker, but rather a mixture of cornmeal with soldier’s galettes that have been in storage for a decade and sweet cheese mold dust left over from kneading the very sauce from the paragraph above.
Overall impressions and conclusions
A while back, everyone was vaping. Everyone who was involved in vaping, of course. But not everyone got at least satisfactory results, let alone good ones – there were too many factors to take into account and too much experimental data to possess. Well, or be a genius. They practiced “on kittens”, poured liters of unsuccessful doubles into the sewer and grew into the now famous producers few.
Today, more people talk about self-sampling than do it – whether it’s the scary stories of older people, who have forgotten about the development of the market and the emergence of new opportunities, or the wide availability of ready-made products. But ready liquids are obeying the laws and rapidly growing in price, and mixing is becoming easier and easier – isn’t that a reason to try it?
