This is a "Masterpiece," meaning that it's a fully finished recipe and not a "stone."

My favorite vape juices are ones that mimic authentic, raw, fresh fruit flavors. This is my best recipe for a realistic, natural watermelon. No candy notes or artificial watermelon notes in this one, just freshly-cut juicy watermelon.

This is the quintessential summer taste. It’s fruity and refreshing with a slight hint of floral melon blossom, delivering a clean, hydrating sensation with a light, crisp, and watery texture.

I experimented with different red fruits (pomegranate, strawberry, raspberry) to give it a red fruity edge, but then I realized, watermelon doesn't have a red fruit component. I think that the color of watermelon flesh tricked me into thinking it does.

So I did a little research. What makes watermelon red is lycopene, just like a tomato contains lycopene.
On the other hand, strawberries and other berries are red primarily due to pigments called anthocyanins, specifically pelargonidin-3-glucoside, which develop during ripening as chlorophyll breaks down and sugar content increases.

So I went to Walmart and bought a watermelon and blindly focused on the flavor itself.

I named this recipe after a "Black Diamond" variation of watermelon. It is a large, heirloom variety known for its dark, blue-black rind and sweet, red flesh. It lacks the stripes of common watermelons. It's prized for its intense flavor, high sugar content, and juicy texture, making it great for eating fresh.

I successfully grew watermelons last year and Black Diamond was one of the varieties I grew. It’s a denser-fleshed, flavorful watermelon; not quite as watered down as a grocery store watermelon, but still very watery nonetheless.

This recipe has been steeped and tested and I can confirm that it has a very tasty freshly sliced watermelon flavor.

[The one-two combo of Fresh Watermelon (Flavorah) and Watermelon (Red Summer) (FA) is the best available flavor duo for a realistic watermelon flavor in my opinion.] ⬇️⬇️


Recipe:

Fresh Watermelon (Flavorah)
2.5%
The bright, realistic red meat for the watermelon top note. This is a very valuable component for a fresh watermelon flavor.

Watermelon (Red Summer) (FA)
3.5%
The sweet, red fleshy, authentic base of the watermelon.
Overall, this flavor is the closest to fresh watermelon that I've tried so far. It was initially at 3% but I bumped it up to 3.5% to fill out the pink-red fleshy flavor just a touch more.

Hami Melon (SC) (WF)
1.5%
Adds a crisp melony structure and keeps the mix from being too soft. This definitely adds that crunchy sweetness. This flavor doesn't have any musky notes to it and reminds me of a pink or dark orange fleshed melon. Which is exactly what a real Hami melon is.

Ripe Galia Melon (SC) (WF)
1.5%
My favorite melon-family ingredient. This gives it the essential heavy notes that prevent the watermelon from fading, and provides more dense melon meat to hold the flavor. It is a much heavier molecule. By layering the watermelon over this Galia melon, the watermelon top notes have a nice melon base to cling to. This also has a slight musk to it that all fresh melons, and even watermelons, have. But I kept it low because watermelons are only a tiny bit musky.

Ripe Pear (WF)
1%
This helps add a grainy texture, and provides the slight mealy, gritty mouthfeel. It helps create a texture on the tongue that mimics the cellular structure of a watermelon while not imparting an actual pear taste. It also adds a neutral fruity taste, acting as a bridge or flavor carrier.

Pear (FA)
0.8%
The neutral wet juice sensation. The melon flavors I added have a wetness, but this gives it a different angle of wetness. I think it adds moisture and water. This is one of the pear flavors that I use as a flavor carrier, the other is Pear w/ Stevia (CAP) which is sweeter, but I didn't want this recipe to be very sweet because I don't find watermelon to be very sweet.

Melon Rind (Flavorah)
0.5%
The secret to that specific watermelon texture isn't actually in the watermelon flavors themselves, it's in the Melon Rind (Flavorah). I haven't found anything that compares to this flavor (even cucumber) and I find this essential for recipes like this. This adds the realistic watery white rind edge and extra texture, and even adds a tiny bit of green skin flavor. This flavor is dominant and can almost lean into a cucumber type taste at high percentages, so a low 0.5% is recommended. It dominates the taste after a shake & vape but blends in well after about a day.

Wild Melon (Flavorah) 0.5%
This is a heavier concentrate that adds the fresh pink melon notes, helping the overall flavor stay present and doesn't fade even after a couple weeks.


* I find the difference between melon and watermelon is that watermelon is much less dense and more watery, while most melons are denser and tend to have much more musky and floral notes compared to watermelon.

* PG/VG: I always use higher PG levels for realistic fruit recipes, especially for watermelon as thinner liquid = thinner, waterier hit.
More importantly, PG is a much better flavor carrier than VG and will bring out the flavor better.
For this recipe used 45% PG.

Steep Time: 24 hours. This does not need to be steeped long, depending on your technique for mixing/blending the juice.
My blending method is basic, it consists of placing the bottled juice in a cup of hot water (120-130°) for around 2 minutes followed by vigorous shaking for 10 minutes or in my bottle shaker for 5-10 minutes.

My suggested steep time is only 24 hours when properly blended.

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⛔️ Here's a little bit of information I found which explains why real fresh watermelon flavourings are so hard to mimic.

The actual red watermelon flavor and aroma relies on compounds released when the fruit is cut.

Key Compounds in Red Watermelon:
• (Z,Z)-3,6-nonadienal: Identified as the predominant aroma compound in fresh watermelon, providing the most characteristic odor.
• (Z,Z)-3,6-nonadien-1-ol: A crucial alcohol with a very low threshold value, offering a strong "watermelon rind" aroma.
• (Z)-3-hexenal: Contributes significantly to the fresh-cut, green grass aroma of watermelon.
• (Z)-3-nonenal & (E,Z)-2,6-nonadienal: Key flavor contributors.

(Z,Z)-3,6-nonadienal may well be the compound that gives watermelon much of its distinctive aroma and flavour, it’s unfortunately easily broken down, which limits its potential for use as a natural or artificial flavouring. Attempts to produce structurally similar esters that might provide a similar aroma and flavour have also been unsuccessful to date, so it doesn’t look like the problem of substandard watermelon flavourings is one that’s going to go away any time soon.


Candy/artificial watermelon flavoring on the other hand requires completely different compounds.

While natural watermelon flavor is complex and unstable. Artificial flavors often use a combination of esters to mimic a "sweet-green" aroma, though they mostly taste more like candy than real fruit.

Artificial/Candy watermelon compounds:
• Ethyl Butyrate: Provides a fruity, sweet note.
• Dimethyl Sulfide: Sometimes used in trace amounts for a "juicy" sensation.
• Other common fruit esters: Such as amyl acetate or ethyl acetate, are sometimes used in combinations, although they are not naturally found in high concentrations in the fruit itself.