Getting Rid of Most of My Flavors - Part 70

by /u/ID10-T

Starting Flavor Count: 2,124 (down from 2,970)

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

MOLINBERRY

Accidentally skipped over a couple of these last time.

Melty Caramel

It's not melty caramel. It's caramel-tasting, but it's a bit dry and powdery upfront, and there's a sour undercurrent to it beneath its powdery sweetness, like there's probably some butyric acid in there. It is creamy in the finish, but that's also where it's more sour. TRASH 1

Mexican Cactus

This is not the same as MB Cactus. It's weaker. It's also thinner, but at the same time as a sort of greasy, coating mouthfeel. It has that same or similar “aloe” type of cactus flavor, with some added melon-ish apple-ish guava-ish prickly pear-ish fruitiness, but there's also some seriously earthy funk to it, almost like it's a little dirty with literal dirt. Not as sweet as most of the other cactus-flavored things. No floral or perfume off notes. Not at all juicy, actually a tish dry in the finish. It's not a bad flavor at all, could be a great mixer especially with tropical fruits and that earthy funk would go really well in a tea, but there are so many other, better, cactus flavors. MB's regular cactus for example.

I need it because it's in one of my favorite recipes, Flawed Vacations in Spain.

I'll try this simple Cactiberry Lush that mixes it with just two other flavors, FW Blackberry and FW Blueberry. TASK 1

MOM & POP VAPOR SHOP

Calipitter Chow

Weird, dumb name, but the flavor is intensely interesting. It's very nutty, not really any particular nut but like a hazelnut-peanut combo, very rich in the way that nuts are rich, and it's drenched in a sticky sweet caramel, but there's something else in there too, something very dark and kind of bitter that I can't quite place - coffee, dark chocolate, soy sauce - kind of an amalgamation of those things. Which I guess sounds terrible, but I don't think it is. It's just an accent and it counterbalances that caramel and nut like the salt in beer nuts or like salted caramel. Personally I think it's pretty awesome. Overall there's a lot of flavor here, top to bottom, without any thin or weak spots - very saturated, well-rounded flavor. It vapes like a one-shot and I could see getting addicted to vaping it standalone, but I also think it's just absolutely begging to be mixed with tobacco and could also turn up in all kinds of interesting places. Bakeries, nut mixes, coffee.

Already have a couple of recipes lined up that use it. Here's three more:

Chow-Chow My Nuts. Just three ingredients, the other two are JF Bavarian Cream and a gentle touch of CAP Super Sweet. TASK 2

Christmas Sith. Another fairly simple recipe, this one mixes it with INW 555 Gold and FLV Red Burley, plus PUR Super Sweet. I'll sub FW Sweetener for the PUR, which I don't have. TASK 3

Mr. Onetime. Says the flavor profile is “A sweet and sticky bun finished off with a decadent caramelised brown sugar sauce with crushed nuts.” Yum. TASK 4

Strawberry Milkshake

Have not tried, will do a 6% sample. TASK 5

NATURE'S FLAVORS

Black Currant

Weirdly warm grape sweet-tarts. There's a spicy warmth to it, like not the actual taste of spice, but just the warmth you get from flavors like cinnamon and nutmeg, on top of some grapey candy flavor, with a sugary sweet finish. I don't know what to make of this. It's like you wanted to make mulled wine but didn't have any wine so you just melted down some grape sweet tarts. It's weird and wrong. TRASH 2

Blackberry

Mostly tastes like berry medicine, but not cherry cough syrup medicine. Definitely a berry, but not really a blackberry, with a strange bitter medicinal edge.Has a thick, sweet, creamy-feeling body that increases the weirdness, like mixing a little flat cream soda with Very Berry-flavored Children's Mucinex. TRASH 3

Blackberry Cola

Mostly tastes like bubblegum, with additional notes of orange peel, cinnamon, some kind of berry, and nail polish, in that order. Very strange and not at all tasty, mostly because of that nail polish, but it seems like it would be weird even without that chemical taste. TRASH 4

Brown Sugar

That is ridiculously tasty, but strange that it's labeled “brown sugar.” It tastes like melted and watered down Brown Butter Ice Cream. To the point that I wonder whether increasing the concentration from the 1.5% I tried it at would turn NF Brown Sugar into basically a Brown Butter Ice Cream one-shot. It probably wouldn't, it would probably bring out off notes and taste like crap, but it's just so weird how buttery and creamy this is and how much it tastes like Brown Butter. Maybe if I just filled it out with other flavors? I looked at a couple of Brown Sugar Ice Cream recipes on ATF and can guarantee this would be a tasty addition to them. Brown Sugar is one of the key ingredients in brown butter ice cream, but NF Brown Sugar has the other ones too, browned butter, rich slightly custardy cream, some vanilla. I could really have some fun with this one, but not the way you'd usually play with brown sugar.

Excited to try this PB&J Cheesecake. TASK 6

And this Guava Cheesecake. TASK 7

Burnt Sugar

I'm not entirely sure what “burnt sugar” is supposed to taste like. This might be halfway accurate. It kinda tastes like molasses, where it's very dark but also very sweet but also has a bitter undercurrent. It's dark and bittersweet, like my entire romantic history. I said half because I doubt the other half is supposed to be there, it's butter. Rich, unctuous, butter. Full and creamy. No clue what butter has to do with molassesy burnt sugar, but it's there, and it's pretty tasty. It makes me want to change my accent from Texas to like Mississippi or Alabama and dip cornbread in it. I'm half trying to joke, but OoO Cornbread or some kind of yellow cake actually does sound like a great pairing. Any weirdos who just want whatever burnt sugar is and don't want butter might be pretty pissed by it, though, because it's really buttery.

I'll mix this Lemon Nut Cookie that uses it, but I'm going to drop that CAP Super Sweet down from 0.75% to 0.25%. TASK 8

Cake Batter

Tastes like Cake Batter made out with expired milk and glue. Like, yes, it tastes like a cake batter for the most part, like a white cake with a little vanilla, but it also has an Elmer's School Glue flavor in the middle and a slightly sour dairy finish. It could be just the brain trying to process that glue note in here, but if feels more pasty than battery. Like toothpaste with cake batter, glue and sour milk flavor instead of mint. Overall, pretty terrible. TRASH 5

Cantaloupe

Definitely tastes like sweet, natural cantaloupe. It has a soft floral quality throughout that makes it almost soapy, but not in the same way that I usually mean when I say soapy. It's not that perfumey type flavor either. It's just a floral quality that makes it kind of like an underripe cantaloupe, if you've ever had the misfortune to get one of those. But at the same time, it's sweeter than an underripe cantaloupe. Also underripe melons have a crunchy quality and this is soft, not sharp at all. Bottom line is it's not a bad cantaloupe, but it's slightly off in a strange floral way. That might just be a little overflavoring at 3.5%. If I saw an otherwise good looking recipe that used it, I wouldn't hesitate to try it, but seeing none, TRASH 6

Chai

Almost entirely clove. I hint of something kind of citrusy that might be cardamom, a tiny touch of cinnamon, but all of it is greatly overshadowed by clove. I have better clove flavors. TRASH 7

Cookie Dough

Tastes like chocolate chip cookie dough-flavored syrup. Or like chocolate chip cookie dough made just like grandma makes, except grandma has dementia. It's sort of identifiable as cookie dough and has really interesting accurate brown sugar note and bittersweet chocolate top notes, but it's like grandma messed up and put the wet ingredients for four dozen cookies into the dry ingredients for one dozen; instead of having a rich, thick, doughy taste, it's almost syrupy, and nowhere near sweet enough. There's not enough flour and sugar here at all, it's like chocolate chip cookie dough you could drink through a straw? Take it up to 2% and it's the same demented grandma flavor, but now she can't remember whether she put on her perfume so she just keeps putting on more every few minutes; that bittersweet chocolate flavor takes on an almost lavender-like grandma-y perfume. It's really weird to have a “perfume” note that goes beyond that weird chemical thing and actually tastes kinda like a flower. It's quite a bit sweeter in the base at 2% but probably not worth the hint of grandma's perfume. I think this could be useful at 1% or so, with something to thicken it up and make it more doughy, or mixed with a different cookie dough just to capture some of that brown sugar. It's probably not worth the effort, though. TRASH 8

Fig

This is weird but nice in the same way NF Brown Sugar is weird but nice. It's super creamy and buttery. There's some sugary sweet fig-ish fruit taste upfront but the base is like overchurned ice cream and the overall effect is like plums cooked with butter and then covered in heavy cream. Also, kind of like raisin rum ice cream without the rum. Not fresh figs, but like dried ones that were partially rehydrated by cooking. I think it's heavenly, but the fruit taste is a little off and it shouldn't be creamy and buttery if it's just supposed to be a fig.

It was upsetting to me to not find a recipe using such a tasty flavor. Guess I'll have to try creating my own.

Raisin Rum Pudding V1 TASK 9

Ginger

Super solid ginger flavor, very spicy, super accurate, not quite as sharp and wet as VT Ginger Root, so probably a little more versatile than that one, but still a bit more along the lines of raw ginger rather than dried ginger spice powder, ginger ale syrup, or candied ginger. Very slightly earthy, not floral at all, some thick body to it but not syrupy or creamy. Should actually work in a bakery as an accent like adding just a little ginger, at a lower %, but also in just about any other setting, cream, fruit, tobacco, ginger candy, cocktails and other beverages, just about any ginger anything. As much as I enjoy FLV Ginger and CAP Gingerbread, if I could only have one ginger, it would be this one.

I use it in one of my own recipes, Falkor, and have a recipe in line that uses it. Here's another: Ginger Sprite. Looks so spot-on, it could help settle a stomach ache. TASK 10

Gingerbread

I had really, really high hopes for this one because NF Ginger is really good, and was more than a little let down. This is mostly just ginger with a little cinnamon behind it and some very dark, molassesy-tasting but dry sweetness. Not getting any bread, and the cinnamon tastes a little off, slightly metallic. Still, that's most of the way to gingerbread, minus the bread. It tastes like the metallic edge of the cinnamon could be worn down in a mix and it could maybe work pretty well, but I don't care enough to try. TRASH 9

Grenadine

Actually tastes more like it's supposed to be a black cherry soda syrup than that brighter, tarter yet also sweeter grenadine. It's so dark. It's quite sweet with very little tartness. Not saying it absolutely nails black cherry soda syrup but if I were trying to build “black cherry” anything from scratch I might consider this as a component. It does taste like it COULD run soapy with overflavoring but at 3% it's not really underflavored, not getting a hard punch of flavor but it seems like it's just one of those undersaturated tasting no matter what deals. Anyway, there's a decent amount of flavor at 3% without soapy or medicinal and it might be great for supporting a black cherry, but I did not see anything I wanted to mix that uses it. TRASH 10

Guava

Have not tried, will do a 3% sample. TASK 11

Japanese Plum

Essentially the same thing at 1, 2, and 4%, but 1% was a bit less offensive. Grape-peach dryer sheet baby powder. It tastes like FA flavor Summer Clouds – where the florals taste remarkably like dryer sheets after you get past the peach, but with added candy grape flavor, and a powdery dry finish that resembles baby powder, with a little vanilla to it. TRASH 11

Lemon Lime

It's a bit top heavy and very zesty. I get both lemon and lime, but more lime that lemon, and it's mostly just the zest. Like 75% lime zest and 25% lemon zest, a little bitter but mostly tangy, with the lime coming through a little sweeter and carrying on a little longer than the lemon, like there's a little lime juice in there. Both fading out before the finish, which is kinda dry. It's also a little throaty. If you need a combination of natural-tasting lime zest and lemon zest for some reason, maybe some cocktail that uses both, this might be for you. TRASH 12

Lemon Meringue

Not lemon meringue. Tastes like a sweet lemon cream with an overly zesty and slightly pledgy lemon that's a little harsh. I tried NF Lemon Meringue at 4% and it's quite likely that it isn't pledgy or harsh at all at a lower concentration, but it still probably just tastes like zesty lemon cream. If you want lemon cream, try VT Yogurt Drink instead, it has a delicious lemon note and is smooth as can be. TRASH 13

Malt

Haven't tried, will do a 1% sample. TASK 12

And this Florida Man recipe; I'm a sucker for lime + cream. TASK 13

Mango

Peach candy with lemon zest hairsprayed to it. Nasty-tasting and a little harsh, too. TRASH 14

Orange

Very natural, tastes like biting into an orange, without the accompanying juiciness. An orange that was only peeled and not sliced, and not peeled very well, with a lot of the bitter pith involved, as well as some peel in the top notes. Leaves a bitter aftertaste. It's not thin, there's some body to it, but it's neither especially dry nor juicy. I'd mix a recipe that uses it, but I don't see one and don't love it enough to try to create one. TRASH 15

Orange Mango

Just like the NF Mango, peach candy with lemon zest hairsprayed to it, but some jolly rancher tasting orange blended with the peach. TRASH 16

Orange Mango Passion

Acidic tropical soap. Top notes are acidic, somewhat lemony, floral passionfruit, there's some soapy orange and a soapy aftertaste, no discernable mango flavor. TRASH 17

Papaya

Some sort of tropical cream-sicle dipped in vegetable juice. I say creamsicle because this thing has a creamy finish with some vanilla that sticks out like a sore thumb covered in vanilla whipped cream. Vegetable juice because there's a bit of a somewhat floral, somewhat piney, but mostly GREEN astringency right on top that tastes like a veggie of some sort. Maybe you'd call it a peel note. The tropical fruit in the middle tastes like some kind of orangey-colored tropical fruit, which I guess is pretty much papaya, but doesn't exactly taste like papaya to me. This is a really strange flavor. TRASH 18

Passion Fruit

Skinny sweet-tart passionfruit. There's a nifty little sweet-and-sour passionfruit top note there with a floral quality that's not overdone, but all of that is crowded right into the front end and at least half the exhale is raw VG. Might be good for adding a passionfruit right on top of something without it getting too mixed up in whatever heavier thing is underneath it, but not a lot of fun to vape solo. Also a little dry. TRASH 19

Passion Orange

Horrible throat hit, lots of yucky orange, some washed out pineapple base. Like getting kicked in the throat by a skinny orange dressed as a pineapple from the waist down and wearing passion fruit perfume. Pretty harsh. Mostly orange flavor, highly reminiscent of FA Orange. Not FA Royal or Blood Orange, just plain Orange, the one that nobody uses anymore. Natural rather than candy, but like old orange juice that's separated and all pulp is at the bottom and you didn't shake it and this is just the flavor of the watery top half. Has a light hint of the floral part of a passion fruit, but the bit of tartness it has seems to be coming more from the orange and there's no sweet syrupy base. There's hardly any base at all, but what is there tastes like a washed out pineapple. TRASH 20

Pomegranate

Dark, sweet, a little tart, tastes like it could easily go medicinal if overused, but not like plastic cherry medicine, more like undiluted concentrated juice might have a weird, bitter medicine taste. Also seems like it could go hand soap pretty easily, like the TFA Pom does, but isn't there at 3% for me, thank goodness. So could be difficult to work with, but tastes pretty on point, not to the brighter, sweeter more jewel-like pomegranates I've eaten, but to plain undiluted pomegranate juice, which is darker and more tart. This could still use some more tartness but that's about it. Full bodied but juicy. Could be used as the sole Pom in a Pom recipe, or to back up another pom (though probably not a TFA because soap or FA because medicine), or to fill in something like a black cherry. Nothing I want to mix uses it. TRASH 21

Pumpkin

Nope, that's clove-scented hand soap. Very clovey, a bit floral in a perfumy way, with a soapy base. There's something else behind that clove, maybe some nutmeg or anise (which doesn't belong at all), just enough that it's not just straight up clove, but no other really discernible spice notes to even justify calling it “pumpkin,” no cinnamon or ginger, and besides that it's perfumy, soapy, and just terrible. TRASH 22

Pumpkin Pie

Have not tried, will do a 3% sample. TASK 14

Rum Raisin

I think this one is pretty tasty, but I don't get rum from it, or even raisin really. It just has a generic “dried fruit” flavor that could be a raisin, or a date, or a fig, or any of those things. It also has a much sweeter, cleaner flavor than others called raisin, not so musty or funky. Not so earthy/dirty tasting. It doesn't taste like candy but it does taste candied, kind of like dried fruit that was partially rehydrated in sugar water, or like picking the candied fruit out of a fruitcake and eating it. If raisin is just a small part of a much larger profile, it seems like it could work for that raisin note. Anyway, there's nothing unpleasant about it to me, and it might be useful in some way I haven't thought of yet. It's not bad or scary, it's a friendly little flavor, but I don't have a use for it. TRASH 23

Strawberry Daiquiri

Tart top note but slightly floral like a raspberry flavor, weird savory-esque cooked lime, and a somewhat thin candy strawberry finish. The lime tastes very cooked, like picking a lime wedge off a sizzling hot pan of fajitas and eating it. Or if you've ever had a drink garnished with a grilled lime at a fancy bar and eaten that, it's similar, but not as smoky. It's a bizarre thing to find between a tart raspberry top note and a candy strawberry. Whatever they're doing for rum is not vaping right. But I licked some of the juice and it tastes like strawberry daiquiri candy. I might not be vaping this but instead of tossing it in the trash, I might put it in the kitchen because it could be an interesting addition to frosting to use on something like a strawberry cupcake. TRASH 24

Vanilla Cream

I've got 13 flavors named “Vanilla Cream” and none of them taste downright yucky to me, but some of them are a little weird and this one is by far the weirdest. It tastes like tea with vanilla cream in it. Pretty thin and lacking cream body for a vanilla cream flavor, but definitely finishes creamy. Strangely top and middle notes taste a whole lot like warm, sweetened black tea with a slightly floral vanilla. It's not terrible, just strange to be getting so much tea from a flavor called vanilla cream. Also, NF Vanilla Cream has just a little throat hit on it, which I think is normal for a tea flavor (think FA Black Tea, though it tastes more like FLV Black Tea), but also very weird for vanilla cream flavor, which should be soothingly smooth without any harshness. TRASH 25

New Flavor Count: 2,099