Darcy S. ONeil
patreon
Poll: Future Direction 2025
🕑 Added 2025-04-21 15:54:02 +0000 UTCThe Dr Pepper video is coming shortly; I didn't want to post on the Easter holiday as engagement is relatively low. There is an early preview of the Dr Pepper formula sheet available to the Drink Maker and Benefactor levels, but once the video is published, it will be available to all paying members.
The content I make is for you because this content/videos are not financially feasible without support from your memberships. So, thank you for the financial support.
As an example, recreating this Dr Pepper type recipe (and yes, based on my taste testing, this is as close as it gets) requires 24+ ingredients, and about a third of the flavour compounds have no current future use. And one key ingredient costs about $200 (shipping, customs, etc.), so it gets expensive. I have found a cheaper alternative for you, though. This is an expensive video to make, and the vodka bill alone for two videos is over $100 (testing behind the scenes and demonstrating in the video), so it's not cheap.
Having said that, I enjoy the science and the discovery of making these formulas. But, this is a community so I need to know where you would like to go with the content, hence the poll. But first, you need some background info on what I experience behind the scenes. It would be a good case study on introducing something interesting but complex to YouTube that grows beyond what one person can handle.
As I publish videos, I track the analytics and engagement. In my opinion, the last 12 videos have done poorly, with only one getting more than 3000 views (the last one on Dr Pepper). The most critical analytics is audience retention, and currently, within the first 30 seconds, it drops to about 60% for the last dozen videos, and I don't even do introductions anymore, or even mention "follow and subscribe" to try to keep engagement up. So a video with 2000 views only gets 1200 people past the 30-second mark.
For those unfamiliar with audience retention, it is more important to the YouTube algorithm than the simple click-through rate. A good thumbnail will get people into the video, but if they are leaving within the first 30 seconds, YouTube sees that as a negative and then won't push it through "YouTube Suggested videos," which is how new people would discover my channel and its content. Not many people search for subjects they don't know about, and many are apprehensive about science or math; they'd prefer kitchen-level instruction using familiar things, like herbs and spices.
Now, I would love to be great at everything (videography, video editing, graphic design, programming, entertaining, etc), but let's face it, most people have a core skill, and mine is chemistry. I'm okay at the other stuff, but as a one-man show, I know my limits, so editing and graphics could be better, but there is only so much time, and I focus on making videos and answering questions.
Speaking of questions, I get a lot of questions. And not easy ones like an entertainment, news, opinion or product review channel get. I get questions like:
"I'm creating a protein-based beverage, and I'd like to incorporate caffeine into it, and make it taste like a light refreshing citrus with hints of pineapple and cotton candy, kind of like Red Bull. How would I make it taste like that and how long can I expect it to be shelf-stable? And what protein powder is best? Where can I buy it? And I'm in such-and-such a country, what are the regulations on including caffeine in this product? Also, where can I get caffeine powder?"
Though this is a composite question, many of the questions I get are multipart like this or some people send me a 10-paragraph outline of their product, asking me to review it.
Obviously, I can't answer all of these types of questions, but I do try, and I'm happy to answer questions, preferably one to two-paragraph questions. You can always ask multiple follow-up questions, but from an efficiency standpoint, I can answer concise questions quickly.
Have no doubt, I fully recognize that these questions need to be answered, as there are no easy-to-understand or easily accessible public resources on this topic.
At this point, I get at least a dozen complex questions daily, and there isn't time to answer them all. Each video I make increases the number of support questions I get. Even funnier, many people have asked me how they should use other companies' products. When I say "Ask the company," I often get a response that they did, and that "it wasn't very clear or they don't know." This was the reason I made the Working with Formulated Flavours - Basic Taster video.
Last year, I created safety and equipment videos to answer questions quickly by pointing to the video. The downside is that it killed the channel's momentum as viewership declined. That's why I've been focusing on the flavour videos, hoping they would pull in people curious about how flavours are made. The Dr Pepper stuff was just a chance discovery while looking through resources on cherry flavours.
So now that you have a basic understanding of what is happening behind the scenes (rapid growth in questions, slow channel growth and engagement), what would you like to see or what direction should we go? I do plan on doing some YouTube live streams, I'm hoping that might be a quicker way to answer questions, with it being permanently available online, so it may help with the flow of questions..
And as usual, add your comments below. The poll is just a few suggested directions, but I'm always open to hearing things I may not have considered. And thank you for supporting this content.
Comments
ginkeeper
for me the issue and where retention will waiver perhaps is the recent focus on extracts and oils that are not easy to access and not considered safe, or at least have a question mark over their safety, for human consumption. I know from your videos that you have addressed this but it does put me off personally of putting a lot of work into developing something that has contentious ingredients. Its hard enough making something great without having the addition of is it safe. Complex things have a place, albeit niche, but ingredients that are expensive and have a question mark over them. i think thats the route of the poor results. A solution would be to refocus on making soda fountain type drinks that are safe and natural and ask patreon subscribers if they would pay more for the chemistry side of your work. If it cost $100 per month so be it.
Darcy S. O'Neil
Hello Jason, Sorry for the slow reply, sometimes I miss comments. Glad you are here though. I do plan on using some of the flavours in future videos, specifically some cocktail-related stuff. Things like a proper Dr Pepper Old Fashioned or a Cherry Daiquiri. Because these flavours can be used by the drop like bitters, it keeps the strength of the cocktail, but really punches up the flavour without dilution. Once I get into the cola stuff, that's where a lot of variations can happen. One I'm working on is an Old Spice Cola, yes the cologne/aftershave. The problem is that I always have to lay the groundwork for people to understand how it works, so I have to start with the basic cola recipe and build up. And there are lots of requests for non-alcoholic (like zero alcohol) versions, which is a lot more technical, which just takes more time to figure out. And I'm glad you mention trust, I feel that is important as there is so much misinformation on "chemicals" out there and a lack of understanding. Hence, I do a lot of basic concept explanation videos. They don't get a lot of views, but they are evergreen content that will grow the channel. I'll keep plugging away. Eventually, something will get traction, though I thought the Dr Pepper stuff would get more traction, but still only a few thousand views a month on. Thanks for the support.
Jason McMillen
My Story: Hey Darcy! I discovered your YouTube channel months ago—long before the Dr. Pepper video, though that one really pulled me in. I live in Canada and have a SodaStream I use here as much as I can. After a doctor’s checkup a few years ago showed my blood sugar steadily rising, I’ve been cutting sugar from my diet wherever I can. Most of it’s been easy—except for my Dr. Pepper habit. I Needs My Pepper Maaaaan: Dr. Pepper Zero has been hard to find here, and SodaStream doesn’t sell Diet Dr. Pete in Canada. Importing it isn’t worth the cost either. So I figured maybe I could make my own version. It would also help me to stop me from consuming as much aspartame as I do! Not much for information out there so I kind of shelved the idea until I started watching your videos. I’ve been following ever since. Shopping for Ingredients: I enjoy the variety of flavours and am amazed at how much beverage you're able to get out of each batch. The shopping lists for your recipes don't present themselves well when you try to look them up on other websites I notice. Maybe a small video on ordering food-grade chemicals from suppliers? Reuse Stuff You Made Somehow: Yeah I can see how each flavour video would be a budget problem to work around, large quantities of products for each one, many of the ingredient used may not work for others. Maybe find a way to come back to that formula or those ingredients again for some creative reason? Dr. Pepper variants? Make a separate video of friends, family or colleagues tasting testing your flavour compound (less sciencey, but easier on the budget) and that'll make for more easily/quickly consumable (ha ha!) video content to battle the algorithm? One for You, One For Them: I guess if you want to keep the channel viable using the YouTube algorithm and keep it from growing into a mega-budget you may have to "make one for them and one for you" as part of your content generation plan. I do agree with Jeff about your flavour videos though, It's nice that you are truly educational and keep all the flashy fluff out of it. You come off more sincere and profession looking. I trust you know what you're talking about because of the level of earnest demeanour you put out there. I think maybe you just need to add a new layer of content to help drive your algorithm higher. Tasting with a guest, Q&A sessions, tips & tricks, behind the scenes, blooper reels, develop a flavour right on camera as an episode? Whatever you got man, I enjoy your content and hope you'll keep doing more.
