Liquid Barn Vanilla Ice Cream
ConcreteRiver
Disclaimer: I didn't pay for these, they were sent to me by Liquid Barn. Shout out to Liquid Barn
Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.14 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: Liquid Barn Vanilla Ice Cream, 6 and 11% @ 1g/ml, 60/40 VG/PG base, Steeped 39 days.
Flavor Description: Rich ice cream base with a prominent, bright vanilla.
It's definitely an ice cream. Heavy, rich, and with some serious buttery notes. Feels pretty rich and full fat. A heavier base with moderate butter notes and a store brand ice cream middle. Sweeter cream, without any real prominent funky dairy notes to mess with it. Liquid barn suggests using this as a custard substitute, but it doesn't really have the heavy eggy notes you'd look for in a custard.
There's a good deal of vanilla in here. It's a very bright, commercial type of vanilla instead of a darker, spicier vanilla bean. It doesn't have much in the way of depth, but it does have a slightly malty kind of note to it like DIYFS Holy Vanilla. At higher percentages, that malt comes out quite a bit more and gets almost a dry cocoa type of flavor. The brightness and lack of nuance kind of makes me think of a cheaper ice cream, but it works pretty well for the profile. I get just the tiniest hit of a black pepper in the top notes for the vanilla, but it's pretty subtle even at the suggested 11%. It does however seem to get a bit dry that high (at least solo), almost like you've got too much ethyl vanillin going on.
This has a really nice, thick texture to it. It's a heavier flavor overall, with a really solid density to the base. Like most of the liquid barn creams, it feels just a bit thin in the middle, but it's by far the least thin of all their creams I've tried. It's more just normal thick in the middle compared to that crazy thick base. Also pretty sweet overall. Doesn't go full frosting sweet, but it's sort of an un-nuanced sweetness without anything dark to it, just sugary.
I'm a hard, hard black pepper taster with TPA VBIC, this seems to be a fairly effective substitute without the vast majority of the black pepper... at least for me, steeped at relatively high percentages. I pick up just a bit of a peppery edge to this with extended vaping, but it's nothing close to TPA. I don't have a ton of VBIC-style experience, but this noticeably richer than FW and CAP. It's maybe a bit richer down low than TPA, but thinner in the middle and with less of a distinct butter taste.
Also, this one probably isn't for the Low DAAP crowd.... it has a truly impressive 35,000ppm Acetyl Propinoyl. Hats off, that's almost obscene. The component list for TPA's VBIC lists AP as under 3%... so that one is mostly likely between 20,000-30,000 ppm... so maybe it's not so crazy after all. That's part of the issue with being a company that actually publishes it's information, it leaves you open for special scrutiny. So shout out to Liquid Barn for having their DAAP testing publicly available, even if I did literally LOL when I saw that.
Off-flavors: Flavor gets just a hair thin in the middle. Some drier malty, almost black pepper or cocoa, notes up top vaped solo.
Throat Hit: Light. The top end of this gets a bit harsh and dry solo, but it's nothing major and the base is smooth.
Percentage testing: At 6% this is pretty solid. Vanilla is pretty much on point for a vanilla ice cream, with that bright if slightly cheap tasting fairly one-dimensional vanilla. Base is already fairly thick but the middle feels just a bit thin. No real off notes.
At 11% the middle of this flavor has filled out quite a bit. The base is downright heavy, and the middle is pretty solid for an ice cream. Vanilla is starting to go malty and I'm getting just a bit of black pepper here. Vanilla might actually be a bit too prominent and I'm getting some dryness.
Liquid barn suggests mixing with this at 11%, and honestly it works pretty well up there. I feel like the top notes get a bit too malty, but nothing chemical or weird. Just based on these tests, I'd probably be using it around 8% as an ice cream base or around 5% as a cream component in a mix. Just looking at published recipes, plenty of people are using it lower in the 3-4% range for their bases, and while that could work for some richness I feel like the flavors relatively flat and lacking some of the charm down there. I don't know... do what you want.
Uses & Pairings: Well, it's a vanilla ice cream, so basically use this in 1 ouf of every 3 published recipes. Should work well as a TPA VBIC sub for the pepper tasters out there, albeit at about 1.5-2x in terms of percentage. Use either as an ice cream base, or as a thicker, richer cream element that doesn't taste like a whipped cream.
The mighty ID10-T has done a lot of futzing with this that I've gotten ahold of through mixer's club, and his trick seems to be mixing this with some HS Ice Cream to fill it out. Seems to be a pretty good trick to deal with that bit of thinness in the middle.
Second Opinions: This one is pretty darn popular.
Here's the ELR Page. There is a fair number of notes on there, all fairly positive. Take your pick, basically.
Not sure who the original poster but both "A.D.V." and "Mirabella" write: "tested at 7% with a 3 day steep. best ice cream ive found so far! No pepper taste like TPA's, no overly dairy'd note like CAP's, no powdery texture like molin's, no coffee creamer taste like FW's, and no muskyness like HS's! yes, i have tried them all. its like a cross between the best parts of TPA's and CAP's but with a bit more sweeteness. good enough to be vaped solo at 7%. contains acetoin but is so worth it! very forward on the vanilla flavor-its not too strong but i would be cautious adding another vanilla. perfectly sweet but would really shine with 1% sucralose. just a little lacking on the milk aspect so could use some help from FA cream fresh 0.5-1%, however, it has a nice butter flavor on the end. is quite a bit lighter than the other offerings so if substituting add few percent more. no chemical flavors or off notes and the mouthfeel is really smooth (in this test i caught just a bit of harshness on the top but is for sure the 6% nic i am using. mixes with anything. highly recommend 5/5! my new go to for everything ice cream."
User "RinVapes" adds: "tastes like straight up vanilla ice cream... not vanilla bean ice cream... just vanilla ice cream. works well with other creams. no pepper note like the one i get from TFA VBIC. however I will say this one is not as sweet "
And one more from user "Silhouette" that's a bit more measured: "I know my palate is an oddball, but this comes off just a smidgen empty for me. I smells and taste what seems like French Vanilla Deluxe, TPA Custard, a heavy butter and cream. It has no real discernible pepper smell or taste, but smells quite similar to TPA VBIC. I'm a pepper taster, and I'm glad this doesn't have it, although I find Hangsen FVIC to be a more rich, while this is more buttery.."