Herbal Tides DIY Heaven Knows Concentrates

 

Dan and the team over at Herbal Tides very kindly sent out a great selection and of HT Heaven Knows Concentrates, and some of their PG & VG, free of charge for the purpose of this review.

About Herbal Tides

Herbal Tides have been passionately producing eliquid since 2009 and treat mixology as a science of love. They pride themselves on creating some of the tastiest eliquid around.

As fellow vapors they understand how important taste and quality is when it comes to juice. This is why they develop their recipes using only the highest grade and most flavourful ingredients around.

 

Heaven Knows Flavour Concentrates 

2017 saw the launch of Herbal Tides DIY Concentrates, and Heaven Knows was born.

Heaven Knows highly concentrated flavour blends have been created so you can make world class e-liquids in the comfort of your own home!  With an outstanding range of flavours to choose from to suit every palette.

Huge choice of flavours.

They currently split the Heaven Knows collection of Concentrates into 7  distinct flavour bands.

CUSTOM FLAVOURS

Venom - Snake juice - pear & coconut cream

Beetle Juice - Mango, pineapple, passion fruit & raspberry mix

Autumn - Grape, lemonade mix

Bull - Strawberry shortcake

Asec - The Old Planet 10/Sh*t Me! Aliens! - absinthe & mint

DESSERT FLAVOURS

Nut Brittle - Nutty with sweet toffee & sugar

Rhubarb and Custard - Classic dessert

Hazelnut Cream - Hazelnuts and cream

HT Custard - Our classic custard, a great base for a fruit

Cake Batter Dip - Cake sponge base

Biscuit Base - Strong biscuit base

DRINKS FLAVOURS:

Slush - Blueberry, raspberry, bubblegum slush

Caramel Cappuccino - Caramel coffee

Berry Juice - Blackberry, raspberry, blueberry mix

Coffee shake - Coffee milkshake

HTO Juice - Grapefruit, pineapple and lemon

Milkshake Base - Milkshake base concentrate

FRUIT FLAVOURS:

Island Fruits - Pineapple, orange, mango and passionfruit

Forest fruits - Strawberry, blackcurrant and blueberries

Lemon & Lime - Lemon and lime

Fruit Mix - Kiwi, strawberry mix

Melon & Pear - Melon and pear

Strawmelon - Strawberry and melon

Mixed Grape - Perfect three different grape mix

Raspberry Mix - Three different raspberries mix

Rig Oil - peach and coconut cream

ICE FLAVOURS:

Amara - Heisenberg style - blackcurrant, menthol, blueberries and aniseed

Blue Mist - Blueberry, grape and menthol

Toffee Mint - Toffee and mint

Purple Rain - Raspberry, blueberry, strawberry and menthol

Red Snowden - red berries, black grape, sweet eucalyptus, aniseed and menthol

Jack Storm - A mix of fruit menthol

Blue Freeze - mix of berries, menthol, mints and bubblegum

Mentholyptus - eucalyptus and menthol

Menthol - Menthol base, simple

Mixed Ice - Mix of six different mints and menthols

SWEET FLAVOURS:

Wham - Sweet shop wham bar flavour

Fruit Salad - Classic candy flavour

Rainbow Dust - Lemon and mixed fruit sherbet

Popping Candy - Strawberry and Vanilla Custard sweets

Juice Hammer - Pink and red Square Candy 

Pear Drops - Classic candy flavour

Sugar Sweet - Fruit mix

TOBACCO FLAVOURS:

Blazin' Saddles - Pralines, cream & tobacco

Tobacco Drops - Hard, blunt flavour

Gold & Silver - B&H style

Cuban Cigar - Strong and bold

Virginia - Light tobacco

Tobacco - Dark and straight

RY4 - Mixed nuts and Tobacco

Each of the HT Heaven Knows Concentrates come in a choice of either 10ml for £3.49 or 30ml for £8.49, and due to them being only flavouring, falls out side the TPD regulations.

DIY Supplies

Before you start mixing your own ejuice, in the comfort of your own home, you will need to stock up on some basic DIY supplies,  which once purchased, will allow you to Mixing for months to come.  You will need some base ingredients and some mixing hard wear.

The three main base ingredients you will need to make up your own DIY ejuice, apart from your Concentrates are:

VEGETABLE GLYCERIN (VG) 

A main component in eliquid, VG creates most of the vapour. An essential for mixing.

Bottle size 60ml £3.99,  100ml £4.99,  250ml £6.99

 

PROPYLENE GLYCOL (PG)

An essential component of most eliquids, PG acts as a flavour carrier.

Bottle size 60ml £3.99,  100ml £4.99,  250ml £6.99

NICOTINE BASE (7.2%) IN PG

Pharmaceutical grade Nicotine base in Propylene Glycol, for DIY eliquid. Available in 3 sizes.

Bottle size 60ml £16.99, 100ml £20.99,  250ml £42.99

As far as hard ware Supplies, there a few basic requirements that you will need in your DIY Kit, for safe mixing.

 

 

MEASURING CYLINDER

One of the easiest ways of mixing is using one of these, using our online calculator; just pour in the ingredients up to the line (Excluding Nicotine base, ALWAYS measure nicotine with a syringe or pipette). Available in three sizes.

10ml £1.00, 50ml £1.70,  100ml £2.00

 

SYRINGE

An essential tool for liquid mixing, available in three sizes.

10ml £0.50, 20ml £0.70,  30ml £1.00, 60ml £1.20

STERILE BLUNT NEEDLE

Suitable for all sizes of syringe, this needle makes it easier to reach the bottom of bottles when using a syringe, also it makes thing less messy. One size £0.30

 

LATEX GLOVES

Biodegradable powder-free latex gloves for safe handling of nicotine base & hygiene when mixing. Available in three sizes 

£0.20 a pair.

Ejuice Mix Calculator 

Now you have all you suppliers and have chosen your your Concentrate, or mix of Concentrates, it's time to calculate your blend, using the easy to use online calculator on the Herbal Tides website  

Following these simple sets.

1) Enter the amount of ejuice you want to make.

2) Choose your desired strength

3) Slide the scale to set your PG/VG ratio.

4) Enter your Concentrates of choice, in % strength. You want between 20% to 30%  overall Concentrate, so if you blending two flavours, 15% of each.

5) lastly set your set your base Nicotine strength.

It will then, give you a clear to follow recipe, to make your perfect blend, 

Mixing time....

 

Get your self a nice clear area, away from pets and children, and get all your supplies today, along with some kitchen roll, and water in case you have any spills.

 

Then take you VG and pour 15ml into your measuring cylinder, 

 

Then repeat the same with the PG, pouring in 4.75ml, I find the best way is the just keep adding on the quantities, as you are pouring them in, so you fill the PG upto the 19.75ml, then you know you have added in 4.75ml.

 

Now it's time for your Concentrates, I went for biscuit base with a custard topping, to try and make a custard tart type vape. personally, I found it easier to draw out 4.5ml of liquid  out of each bottle in turn, and then just adding it to the cylinder.

 

Once all the base ingredients have been added, you can the add the 1.25ml of Nicotine. To produce a 3mg end result.

 

Always ensure that you wear gloves when decanting Nicotine, due to its toxic nature, 

When I measure it out I always use a small 5ml syringe, and if anything, measure under rather than over, as for me to much Nic, will spoil the batch.

 

The ingredients will sit in layers in the measuring cylinder, until they are mixed, so it's just a matter of carefully pouring the contents into your chosen juice bottle. It's funny, once you start mixing your own ejuice so, you will never throw an empty bottle away again.

 

That's it, juice made.

Herbal Tides Steeping Advice.

Steeping eliquid is essentially the process of allowing it to sit, age and mature. Much like a fine wine or whisky (but not for as long!). Steeping can enhance and strengthen the flavour of your juices. However, all of our juices taste great straight from the bottle, so don't worry about it if you need to tuck in! Steeping works by allowing the flavour molecules to bind with the base carrier (usually propylene glycol), so when your device vaporises the eliquid, more flavour is carried through… Or so they say. It is somewhat of an ongoing debate amongst the vaping community, give it a try and decide which side of the fence you sit on!

There are two schools of thought with regards to steeping: 

• Steeping with time, allowing the liquid to age and mature naturally.
• 'Speed Steeping', for those of you that just can't wait!

Steeping with Time.

Steeping with time is by far the least technical process. If you want a stronger, fuller flavour, leave the cap on. If you would like to tone down and refine the flavour, remove the cap. Place your liquid in a dark place at room temperature or higher, be careful to put it somewhere it won't get knocked over and out of the reach of children and pets. Give it time. 

Generally speaking 2 weeks will suffice for most liquids to bring a noticeable change, some people steep somewhat religiously for 3 months! That choice is up to you, if you're unsure, give it a test each week.

 

As time progresses your liquid may darken, see the image below for typical colouration. Clear and light coloured liquids generally do not change in colour as they mature.

Speed Steeping

There are many weird and wonderful speed steeping methods, should you want to delve deeper into the world of speed steeping, a quick Google search will bring up a plethora of methodologies. But for now here is an easy and common method used by many vapers:

Secure the cap of your liquid and place in a bath of warm water (~60℃) for 10 - 15 minutes. Whilst still warm, shake well for a few minutes, repeat as necessary. Allow the liquid to cool thoroughly before opening the cap again or it may explode all over you! 

Please note: Allow liquid to cool as it may burn your skin if still hot!

So we will be leaving this juice for a week or so, and then will come back, vape on it, and give you a full review.

Conclusion & Pricing.

I'm am still gob smacked as to what great value it is to make up your own batch of ejuice, Dan, the owner of Herbal Tides, has always been passionate about bringing outstanding flavoured ejuice, at unbelievably great value, he is on a true mission to make vaping as affordable as possible, without having to compromise on quality.  And the HT DIY Range holds true to this vision.

Yes there is an initial out lay, as you put together your DIY kit, and base ingredients, but the savings are amazing.

For example to make up your favourite batch of 100ml of ejuice from the HT Concentrate range will work out at £8.64, Yep £8.64 for 100ml of Premium high quality Ejuice. All made in the comfort of your own home. And you can see how easy Herbal Tides have made it.

So what are you waiting for.....happy Mixing....and if you get stuck or are unsure on something, Dan and the HT team are very approachable, and there to help.

So this little batch will steep for a week or so, depending how long I can hold off my cravings, then we will come back to it and give it a full review.