Sup folks. Been a minute.
I know passable clones of HP have been around for a long time now, and a lot of you may be over that profile entirely, but I've been doing some thinking about it recently and thought I'd bounce it off you guys.
Most would agree that straight honeydew/pear/strawberry, no matter the ratio, lacks something from the original. Me personally, I feel like they are a bit sharp, dry, and unripe. Apricot was a popular addition, but my FA Apricot never did it for me (it's kinda funky IMO) and I never bothered to grab a different brand. Plus, Chef says no.
Anyway, I remember a time about a year ago, I was vaping HP, and someone near me mentioned they thought it smelled like cotton candy. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but recently it dawned on me to try hitting one of the clones with a hefty dose of EM... but I put it on the back burner.
A couple days later, when I was mixing up some Melon Boba, I caught a whiff of the cantaloupe bottle and thought cotton candy for a second. It is very sweet, full, and juicy. I also made note of the way that 1% of sweet cream worked as a "backdrop" for the melon flavors, giving them some substance without lending anything flavor-wise to the mix.
Now I was inspired. I started digging through old posts to pick my favorite of the many recipes out there. One post in particular caught my eye. OP lost a couple bottles of HP, found them well steeped (dark peach), and noticed that the caps "grinded" when he opened them. To me, this means sucralose, menthol, koolada, or... EM. Chef says that there are no additives or sweeteners, but technically, TFA Cotton Candy is neither of these.
This is what I ended up mixing, in 50/50, 5mg:
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6% Pear (TFA)
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5% Sweet Strawberry (Cap)
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4% Honeydew (TFA)
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0.5% Melon Cantaloupe (FA)
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1% Sweet Cream (TFA)
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1% Cucumber (Cap)
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5% Ethyl Maltol 10%/Cotton Candy (TFA)
I'm tasting it now after a 2 day rest (9 wrap dual 26 in a Billow, 40w regulated). It has been a long time since I've had the real deal, and Chef says no Capella, so I won't pretend that I "nailed it", but I can say that that this mix fixes every complaint I had with the basic 3-flavor clones. EM gives sweetness, body, and dulls those sharp edges. Cantaloupe is not tasted here, but adds sweetness and gives the honeydew some ripeness. Sweet cream helps round everything out, and cucumber was added for a bit of low end.
To me it is very balanced, which means it may need a bit more pear. I've yet to see what the EM will do to it long-term, but man, fresh.... it is fantastic. I'd love to get a conversation struck back up, as well as additional sets of tastebuds on the recipe.
TL;DR: EM bomb your HP clones?
EDIT: some formatting, typos.
Yeah, the apricot addition was me. I honestly think we just can't find the right flavor manufacturers for each flavor and the apricot adds the floral notes I taste in it. It is also of note that he doesn't use EM or sweeteners and the only flavors in it are the one in the description. I say, fuxk it. If you make a juice and you like it better than the original or even if it's just easier/cheaper to make, then more power to you. It's fun trying anyway. (Love cap cucumber and can see how it would be nice in the mix.)
Yeah, it's all just for fun's sake at this point. It's a really easy juice to get "close enough", yet could go a hundred different ways trying to fine tune it up to TVC's standard. I enjoy seeing what people come up with, and there have been some good ideas both in this thread and those before it.
I only DIY to make HP. I vape it (clone) 99% of the time, and 1% (actual HP) the rest. I'll have to put in an order for some of those flavors. I'll post here in a few days/weeks once I try this out. My pallet might be skewed since I vape it so much though :/
Cool. I'll update the OP if/as flavor changes over time.
EM will likely have to come down. I wanted enough for the cotton candy effect, but while flavor wasn't muted at first, I can tell it's dulled my tastebuds (EDIT: towards the end of a 5ml tank). I seem to remember having fits of vaper's tongue with original HP though as well. I'd have to put it down every now and then, come back to it later, and it would be awesome again.
I'm pretty sure the real deal has some chirimoya in it. I don't think it's much, but I believe it's in there.
I have some Silver Cloud Chirimoya and TVC does use some of their stuff. Never been able to nail it as a standalone (that I like anyway) but I can try adding a little to OP's recipe and see how it goes.
Yeah, they have cucumber as well, if you're looking to 86 all Capella. FW only has the cucumber mint, and I'm not sure that TFA had cucumber when he came up with the recipe.
I haven't tried any SC though, they're a bit on the weak side, right?
Yeah, the chirimoya smells way stronger than it tastes imo. It's definitely there but.. ethereal is how I'd describe it. I started at 3% and slowly went up to 25% standalone and never thought it'd work on its own. Kept the bottle to try as an addition though.
This is nothing more than speculative but I've always had an inkling to play around with TFA quince in HP clones. Never ended up buying any though. With the real H.Pearry I've sometimes noticed the tiniest hints of like a pineapple flavor, but not normal pineapple. The one time I've tried quince (well, quince jam anyway) it was like a weird cross between pineapple, apple, and pear. Maybe someone who's used the flavor can nix the idea right away or describe it better. Just a thought.
Some of the old threads mention honeysuckle as well, but I don't know. Doesn't seem like it would fit, but then again Chef mentions that additions outside of the main 3 flavors can't really be tasted, only improve the taste that's already there.
I don't know, this is the recipe I use and it tastes pretty damn close to the original.
8% TFA pear 5% TFA honeydew 3% TFA strawberry
Let it sit for a week or two until it turns glowstick-green, and it tastes near identical.
You know, that's the frustrating thing about this recipe. Unless you're way off, lots of variations using these three are "pretty damn close". I haven't tried this exact ratio, but have tried 6/5/3, and it tasted great, but I've never had one that was as smooth, or "soft" as TVC's.
I might try this, keeping the additions, with EM at a more "normal" (.5-1%) level. Why not.
I've spent a good deal staring at This Picture, but some of the labels are quite difficult to read at the given resolution. We need Jack Bauer and Chloe to enhance it for us!
Yeah, same here.
I just now noticed... far left, halfway down, FW... Swiss Cheese? WTF Chef.
I'm seeing 32.5% flavoring in this? Seems super high to me, are these numbers right?
I see 22.5%.
Is the 10% cotton candy a sub for 5% ethyl maltol, or am I reading it wrong?