About 98% of all the flavor oils that I use come from MMS (I have quite a slew of them!), and the taste comes across quite well for my family, friends and myself. I use most of them at the maximum usage rate listed on their site, but some are strong enough that I am able to use less than the max rate.
I've tried flavor oils from a few other different vendors, but with the exception of the other remaining 2% of all the flavor oils that I use, I must say that I've had the best overall experience with MMS 's in terms of strength of taste, and also quality of the actual flavors themselves (i.e., their Root Beer tastes just like A&W''s, their Peach tastes just like a real juicy peach, etc..). I use their Sugar Baby sweetener, too (at 2%).
When I talk about 'taste', I mean exactly what I say- when we lick our lips, we can actually, truly
taste them. Whether or not it's an illusion, or whether or not our senses or taste buds are being fooled, I'll leave that to the brainiacs to argue it out, but for us, the taste sensation is very real.
I'm not in business, but I do a lot of gifting to family and friends at Christmas and birthdays, etc.., and I'm always getting repeat requests for certain flavors from each of them because they love how they taste. If the flavor oils I try out do not emit a taste at their max usage rate, I don't buy them ever again because nobody amongst my family or friends (including me) desires to merely/only smell them.
When do you add the flavor oil to your melted balm base? For what it's worth, I add mine right before I pour into the tubes, then once poured, I immediately place them in the fridge or freezer to solidify them quickly. I'm very small-time- I master-batch my base (just the oils/butters/waxes.....no sweetener or flavor yet) in 1oz - 2oz quantities at a time and store in the fridge until I feel like making a balm or two, or a small handful, at which time they get flavored & sweetened.
IrishLass