Getting Rid of Most of My Flavors - Part 68

by /u/ID10-T

Starting Flavor Count: 2,158 (down from 2,971)

TASK OR TRASH - Each flavor gets assigned at least one task or it goes in the trash.

CAPELLA New York Cheesecake

Update. Tried two recipes, one of them was very good, 5 stars, but still not quite so good that I feel like I have to keep CAP NY Cheesecake just to be able to have it again. But the other one is a new favorite for sure. Cheesecake RY4, can't wait to make some more! TASK 1

If you love RY4 and don't mind coconut or don't get coconut off-notes from INW Yes We Cheesecake and/or TFA Cheesecake Graham Crust, this is a must-mix recipe. Holy crap, it's so good! On the other hand, if you're just looking for a great cheesecake recipe, it's probably a pass. The detectable cheesecake flavor is just barely there on the backend, though the richness and thickness of cheesecake is present throughout. It's a weird idea, cheesecake and tobacco, but it works. Oh boy does it work. This is now one of my most favorite RY4 recipes ever. I get, as promised, a “sweet, robust RY4 tobacco slathered in vanilla-laced caramel, backed up by the velvet-smooth cream of cheesecake.” I also get some coconut taste from the cheesecake, but I don't mind that at all, I was in the market for a coconut RY4 now that Chef's RY4 Castle is no more and now I sort-of have one. This could use a bit more coconut for a coconut RY4, but that's not what it's supposed to be.

MEDICINE FLOWER

Garden Raspberry

Corrections. In part 67, I said MF has two raspberries. Turns out they actually have at least three. Also, I said my corrected starting flavor count was 2,970. Turns out, it is 2,971, because I found that I have MF Garden Raspberry, which is not the same as MF plain old Raspberry, which I have thrown out, or MF Wild Raspberry, which I'm excited to try. I'll give Garden Raspberry a sample-sized mix at 0.25%. TASK 2

MOLINBERRY

American Bubble Gum

Nearly perfect baseball card type bubblegum. A bit of lemony/orangey fruitiness poking out where it shouldn't as a kind of off-note, but it's very slight and not unpleasant. Lots of depth, not top heavy, and a sweet, lingering bubblegum flavor. That lingering flavor puts it ahead of the pack as far as not tasting like ABC gum. It doesn't finish weak like so many of them do. Thick, almost chewy. A little chalky and dry but not as dry as most other bubblegum flavors. The pinkness is reasonably soft and this might work as a base for fruit flavors to have that thick-yet-chalky bubblegum taste if a bold fruit can cover up the pink gum flavor.

I'll give this flavor three chances to convince me to keep it:

Chuck Bubble Berry “forest fruit type gumball” TASK 3

WHACK Bubblegum “strawberry-watermelon bubblegum” TASK 4

Cantaloupe Melon Bubble Gum TASK 5

Apricot

Pretty bright, slightly tart, fresh authentic apricot. Some nice sweetness, but natural-tasting sweetness, not overdone and candyish. A little thin, more like fresh apricot juice, really. I don't even know if apricot juice is a thing. But I don't get ANY off notes and it really tastes like apricot, not a peach or nectarine or vague stone fruit thing. It's a little soft, along with being thin, but it's a very solid apricot that's a bit more flavorful and a little more accurate than FA Apricot, not to mention juicier.

I want to try Nick's Battenberg “A soft pink and yellow sponge cake with a light slathering of apricot jam and a coat of marzipan to finish” TASK 6

Attitude

A complex profile that comes across somewhat muddled, but free of any gross or unpleasant off-notes. It's supposed to be blueberry, raspberry, custard, and caramel. I get something more like an ill-defined hybrid berry that most often tastes more like raspberry but sometimes tastes more like blueberry. There's some darker sweetness in there that sometimes tastes kind of like a drier caramel, but up against the more blueberry tones tastes almost chocolatey. Underneath, there's always a small amount of custard or more like a heavy cream, not-quite custard. Not especially rich or full, with no butter or eggy goodness. I think it's a pleasant enough flavor, just muddled. And unnecessary. TRASH 1

Big Watermelon

I know I've tried this one before, but I can't remember it clearly or find any notes I've made on it, so I'll give it another try at 4% and take some notes this time.

It's used in the just-added WHACK Bubblegum recipe, and I found a few more that I'll mix as well:

Gallagher's Ice Pop. Really interested in what all those non-watermelon flavors are doing there, especially the VT Persian Lime. TASK 7

Iced Melon Straws similar to Gallagher's Ice Pop, even has VT Fizzy Sherbet and FLV Cream like Gallagher's, but it's simpler and it includes strawberry. TASK 8

egregious amounts of backsweat. Something for summer with watermelon, mango, lemon, lime, and guava. TASK 9

Blue Rock Candy

Weak in concentration and deeply weird. It tastes like raspberry-banana candy and it has some cooling in it, like a touch of koolada. I don't hate it, but it's just so strange that it has a strong runty banana base under that candyish raspberry that's not clearly “blue raspberry,” and I could do without the cooling. I wouldn't know what to do with this myself, but I'll give this Blue Fyre recipe a chance, since I'm always on the lookout for a new favorite blue raspberry recipe. TASK 10

Boom!

Supposed to be a watermelon and strawberry combination, and it is, but it's like 80 percent watermelon and 20 percent strawberry. I'm not mad about that. The strawberry part is kind of mediocre. I think it's just their sweet strawberry, but the strong candy watermelon makes it all candy. Very bright, bold, sweet and tangy-nearly-sour candy watermelon all up in my facehole. Similar to Hubba Bubba watermelon bubble gum for the most part, even with that candy green rind bit, but a little thinner. It's not really thin but it doesn't quite give the impression of a thick chewy body. Only drawback besides the strawberry just sort of getting in the way of the watermelon is that it's a little throaty for me. I can live without it. TRASH 2

S'mores Marshmallow Brownies

I get a cheesy sour milk off-note from this one. It's mostly covered by a mountain of sweetness and chocolate, but it's there and it's off-putting. Otherwise it tastes like moist, rich chocolate cake with marshmallow frosting. Possibly it needs to steep longer than the five or six days I gave it, or be mixed lower than the 7% that MB recommends. I don't know, though. Even though it's mild, that spoiled dairy taste lingers and makes me feel a little sick. Also for people who don't like sucralose, I could be wrong, but it tastes like that's where some of the fairly intense sweetness comes from here. Also, to be a smore brownie I'd think it would need some graham taste and for the marshmallow to be toasty. But it's possible it does fine as a chocolate cake with marshmallow frosting that comes in on the finish just by itself, at less than 7% or with a longer steep.

I don't have high hopes for it, but I'll at least try Sam's Troop 420 recipe before I chuck it. TASK 11

Butter My Biscuit

Whole wheat digestive biscuit with slightly fakey butter spread on it. Plain dry darker bakery, not a blonde-colored shortbread type of biscuit, definitely something that tastes brown, like one of those high fiber whole wheat digestive biscuits, not the kind of biscuit Americans eat for breakfast, but the kind English people have with tea... yet absolutely covered in butter. More like spreading butter on one of those biscuits than a baked-in buttery taste. The buttery base flavor here comes across only very slightly movie theater popcornish if I concentrate on it too much, but if I just relax and enjoy it, it's decent butter flavor. It could easily be a great cookie component if you have a cookie flavor that's not as dark or as buttery as you want it, but I'll be fine without it. TRASH 3

Cactus

Definitely a cactus flavor, mostly tastes like that weird green aloe-ish cactus taste (like INW Cactus), but at the same time, very very fruity, like the first few seconds of a piece of Fruit Stripe gum. I can't tell you what sort of fruitiness that is. It's not prickly pear, I can tell you that. The closest I can think of is like Tutti Fruiti snow cone flavor, or, again, Fruit Stripe gum before the flavor disappears. Sweet like strange fruity candy or snow cone syrup as well. It finishes on that sweetness tied to a nice little tanginess. Not especially juicy to an extent that I think it might add much juiciness to other things like iNW Cactus does, but not a dry flavor either. There's an interesting-looking recipe that uses it (Purple Cactus by Daniel), but I'm missing a couple of ingredients for that, so I'll let this one go. TRASH 4

Cactus Cupcake

This one is unique. I don't get any cakey bakery notes from it so there's a little false advertising in the name, which I usually get madder about. But it's so good though. Weird, but good. It tastes like you mixed a cactus flavor into a tub of frosting. I don't know why anyone would do that, but that's what it tastes like. And it's a really good frosting, creamy and super sweet. That also tastes like cactus flavor. Like you didn't have any vanilla for your frosting so you just said fuck it and substituted some MB Cactus for the vanilla. I want to say, as I often do with these combination flavors, that I could do it better myself. But in this case, I'm not sure I could. I can't think of a frosting flavor I could mix with cactus to get a better result than this. Most of them are too vanilla-y, especially the really good ones, and the ones that aren't, aren't this sweet or rich.

I don't have all the things I'd need to mix the only ATF recipe that uses it, but I'd like to hang on to it a bit in case someone comes up with something else. In the meantime, I'm going to try adding 4% of it to this recipe: Phucker Cookies, which is an old favorite of mine. These cactus cookies already taste like they have a little sugar glaze on them, but let's see if they still taste amazing with a pile of fruity aloe flavored frosting on top. TASK 12

Captain Rum

A smooth, sweet, light vanilla flavor, NOT RUM. Just a slightly light-rumish top note and a base that's slightly sweeter than VG and has a hint of vanilla. Seems pretty useless really, as I'm not getting more than a subtle hint of light rum liquor out of it, and there are so many other options for vanilla. TRASH 5

Cheesecake

Very lemony, like FA Custard-level lemony. Lemon is the main thing here. There's some cream behind it but it's more of a light and fluffy, whipped cream type of cream, not a thick, rich, cheesecake. Very faint bakery in the finish, but more like a cookie than a traditional graham crust cheesecake and again, very faint. I'm not finding anything off-putting here, unless you don't like lemon, but it's not a cheesecake. Loopy Cake was an excellent recipe and excellent use of it, but not quite something I just need to make again, so I don't think I have any further need for MB Cheesecake. TRASH 6

Chill Pink Lemonade

It's pretty clear that Molinberry thinks the pink part of pink lemonade is raspberry. That definitely tastes like raspberry flavor on top of that lemon, unfortunately the raspberry runs a little floral, as they do, and the sweet lemon underneath is a bit cleaning product-y and the combination is just a little bit... not good. Also, the chill. They added such a tiny amount of cooling to this that it's just silly, that might as well have left it out. It's almost annoying to have it be there but be so faint. TRASH 7

Chocolate Custard

The “chocolate” is more like a little bit of dry cocoa topping rather than an integrated chocolate flavor like I'd expect from a chocolate custard flavor. I really wanted it to taste like a chocolate Snack Pack pudding. I don't think it quite gets to custard either. Underneath that drier and slightly nutty cocoa top note is something like a moderately thick, sweet dairy cream, but just not as thick as you'd get with an eggy custard and barely a hint of butter. Just a touch of chocolate in the finish, where it's buttery, like the chocolate frosting-type stuff in the center of some truffles. Don't need it. TRASH 8

Classic Belgian Waffle

I think this has been discontinued? Or at least people have been having trouble finding it for a while now. That's a shame because while I haven't tried it as a single flavor yet, I hear it's really good, and it's in one recipe I love and a couple recipes I've already planned to try. I'll do a sample at 3.5%. TASK 13

That recipe I love is Cookie Ate Yo Waffles, and I'm excited to make it again. TASK 14

Gonna try some other fantastic-looking recipes while I'm at it:

Goostaf. VT Butter Toffee Base, Golden Syrup, and Honeycomb on waffles. TASK 15

Banana Waffle Trouble. “Waffle with banana and a splash of whipped cream” TASK 16

Nutter Butter Waffles. PB waffles! TASK 17

Blueberry Cheesecake Waffle. Can't wait to see how FLV Boysenberry and VOS Blueberry work together. TASK 18

Classic Sponge Cake

Definitely cake, but not an authentic moist buttery sponge cake, more like a slightly overcooked bundt cake. It's not very moist and maybe a little stale, but not cardboardy. Sweet but kind of powdered sugary in the sweetness, like a stale powdered sugar donut. Does have a full and grainy mouthfeel, with no offensive off notes. I don't see anything wrong with it as a bakery component, but it's not a great cake or a great single flavor. Its primary competition, would be FW Fluffy White Cake and PUR Simply Cake, and if the frosting notes on those are unwanted, this one definitely wins. It's grittier and not as soft as the FW White Cake. It emphases the browned edges more and is more flavorful than the PUR Simply Cake. As a bakery component to do something like fill out a waffle or donut or something this would probably also be a winner. But, if I really want to vape cake, I'd be much more likely to choose one of WF's offerings like Angel Cake, Fluffy White Cake, or Princess Cake.

I need it for Cookie Ate Yo Waffles. Found a couple more I want to try: Munching on Claire's Cakes. An eclair cake by the same mixer as Cookie Ate Yo Waffles, so I'm not as worried about the chocolate as I might have been otherwise. TASK 19

And: Vanilla Custard & Cake, which can't not be delicious. I mean, just look at it. TASK 20

Cocktail Kiwi Fruit

It tastes like a weird strawberry banana melon, which is kind of how you might describe a kiwi to someone who has never had one, but not quite kiwi. It has that green strawberry tartness right up front and a super duper sweet finish, like cloying sweet, it tastes like there is a lot of sweetener in it. Right in the middle there's this funky ripeness and kind of yogurty sourness that's a bit rotten, like an old squishy melon splashed with a little milk that's on its way to the trash. Has a very full, thick mouthfeel and a lot of flavorsome depth, but it's yucky. Maybe a small amount of it would work well to ripen another kiwi, or a melon, or a strawberry, but trying to use it as the main kiwi in a kiwi recipe does not sound like a good idea. TRASH 9

Cookie Bite

Crispy darker cookie. A well-done crispy cookie with brown sugar instead of white sugar in it, with a hint of butter, and a nice crumbling cookie texture, like a chocolate chip cookie minus any chocolate. There's a chocolate chip cookie in the picture and some people I know have sworn it's a chocolate cookie, but I just can't find the chocolate at all. Maybe I'm blind to whatever chocolate people are getting from it?

It's an ingredient in about half a dozen things I've already planned to try. Here's a few more:

Sidin Rhötgun. Golden Oreo pudding, looks delicious. TASK 21

Kahula S'mores Mousse Cups. I'm a little concerned because the notes say MB Cookie Bite imparts a chocolate note that I don't get from it, but it has other chocolatey ingredients and looks very tasty, thanks to the combination of VT Chocolate Mousse and SSA Tiramisu. TASK 22

Fudgy Chocolate Cookie also looks terrific. TASK 23

Creamy Cake

This is a chocolate cake. It's thin and dry and a bit light on the cocoa. There's a bunch of cream that's a little dry, with a slight vanilla taste. It seems like it needs a lot of help in every way to be what it's supposed to be, which is like a Ding Dong, I think. More bakery, more richness within the bakery, more chocolate, creamier cream...

This Monkey Cake looks like an excellent use for it and is already on my to-mix list. Nothing else I want to make uses it, but since MB Cream Cake basically tastes like a slightly improved (more chocolatey, a bit creamier while still not being creamy enough) version of FW Creamy Chocolate Cake, I looked for recipes using that one, too. I don't want to mix this Salted Caramel Chocolate Brownies as written (couldn't if I wanted to because I've tossed a couple of these ingredients already), but I can steal heavily from it to create something I think will be delicious.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake V1 TASK 24

Custard

Custard with light caramel and a light but odd spice note. Airy, not very dense, or especially thick. Not perfectly caramel, but a dark caramelly sweetness. Eggy and only very slightly buttery. Light vanilla tastes more like part of the caramelly stuff than the custard. Spice note in the back seems a bit nutmeggy, but not a clear nutmeg. There's nothing I want to mix that uses it. TRASH 10

New Flavor Count: 2,148