I received a great comment from one of my YouTube subscribers, Iclies, on how she does heated-steeping for her DIY e-juice mixes and I thought it would be a great tip to share.

First, if you’re new to DIY and wondering what steeping is, it’s basically the process of aging the e-liquid faster. This aging process helps the ingredients to combine. It also brings out fuller flavors. This process will happen no matter what you do, for example, if you leave your e-juice on a shelf, it will still steep, but it will take longer.That’s why many people use speed-steeping methods.

So here’s her process of speed steeping with heat.

1. It’s best to heat steep using glass bottles, rather than plastic.

2. While you’re mixing, heat up tap water in a small saucepan on the stove. Don’t add nicotine yet.

3. When you’re done mixing, turn off the stove and set your bottles down in the water with the caps off.

4. Wait for 15 to 20 minutes, take the bottles out of the water and add nicotine. Voila!

That’s it! Pretty easy!

So let’s talk about all of this really quick.

The reason you want to remove the cap is that it allows oxygen to more quickly oxidate flavor molecules, which increases the speed of aging. This also helps evaporate excess ethanol from some flavorings.

You also don’t want the water to be boiling. High heat will damage flavor concentrates and nicotine. In the steps above, we’ve left nicotine out and that’s because nicotine degrades more easily in high heat than concentrated flavorings do. Leaving the nicotine out will allow you to steep the e-juice in warmer water.

If you want to steep with nicotine in the bottle, according to Nude Nicotine you should steep in room-temperature water at around 20-30 Celcius, or 68-86 Fahrenheit. Nude Nicotine says this will allow the e-juice to steep faster without damaging the nicotine.

Iclies says that this will speed up the steeping process by several days, which can save a lot of time. The general recommendation for slow steeping, which is pretty much just letting the bottle sit in a dark, room-temp area, is about 2 weeks. So this quick heat steeping method will let you get to that point of optimal flavor much quicker.