Strawberries and cream. Most people love it and some of the most popular vendor e-liquids are a variation on this flavor profile.
We see numerous attempts to clone Mother's Milk, Unicorn Milk, etc, and many of these clone recipes push into the way-too-many-flavorings category. You can – with few ingredients – make a great strawberries and cream at home. Don't make it too complicated!
Here's my extremely simple recipe for a very tasty take on this profile:
Mustard Milk - Simple Strawberries and Cream
Ingredient|% :---|---:| Strawberry (TPA)|6 Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (TPA)|8
PG/VG: 30/70
Flavor total: 14%
Huh? Only two ingredients? Yep! No cheesecake, no graham, no fumbling with "stone" bases or 4-layer creams. It's easy, new-mixer friendly, uses cheap flavorings, and it rocks.
TFA's Vanilla Bean Ice Cream is a fantastic flavor. It's rich, buttery (more on that in a second), packed with authentic vanilla flavor. It mixes perfectly with TFA's Strawberry (not Ripe, not Organic) to create an exceptionally smooth and delicious vape.
The Vanilla Bean Ice Cream is complex enough on its own that it doesn't need other supporting creams in this use case. At 8% it provides a wonderful base that carries the strawberry flavor and augments its sweetness.
TFA Strawberry is very sweet and a bit tangy, which compliments the milky notes of the ice cream.
This recipe does contain acetyl propionyl. Based on the concentration used in this recipe and referencing TFA's spec sheet on Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, this recipe contains between 0.08% and 0.8% acetyl propionyl. Please use your own judgement to make a risk assessment on whether or not you'd like to consume this molecule.
Want a diketone-free Strawberries and Cream? I've got you covered!
Mustard Milk - Simple diketone-free Strawberries and Cream
Ingredient|% :---|---:| Cream Fresh (FA)|1 French Vanilla (TPA)|2 Strawberry (TPA)|6 Vanilla Bean Gelato (TPA)|4
PG/VG: 30/70
Flavor total: 13%
We keep the TFA Strawberry at the same 6% concentration; it needs to stay front-and-center as the prominent top note.
Below that, substitute TFA's Vanilla Bean Gelato for the ice cream as the cream base. The Gelato is, more or less, the same flavoring as Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with butyric acid in place of acetyl propionyl. Keeping the concentration down to 4% prevents the butyric acid from becoming too apparent with its potentially foul flavor.
The addition of TFA French Vanilla (not the diketone-containing French Vanilla Deluxe!) fills in some of the vanilla gaps left by the lower concentration of Vanilla Bean Gelato. You can also substitute TFA's Ethyl Vanillin 10% solution instead of the French Vanilla. French Vanilla is preferable, however, as it contains para-Anisaldehyde. Its marshmallowy characteristic adds a touch of unflavored creaminess to the mix.
Finally, FA Cream Fresh adds that silky butterfat note without the addition of diketones. It does take a week or more for those nuances to shine through. You could bump this to 2%, depending on your taste preferences, though use caution. Using FA Cream Fresh at 2% may make the mix more enjoyable right after mixing, but potentially overpowering after it settles.
At four ingredients, this is only slightly more complicated than the first recipe, but produces a comparably complex, rich and delicious flavor.
Give these recipes a shot and share your feedback! I'd love to know what you think. Also, play around with fruit substitutions here. A simple swap of the strawberry for a peach, blueberry, raspberry, etc flavoring might make your new ADV.
<3 fizzmustard
As always Fizz, thanks for posting man. It's quality content like this that makes me enjoy this sub still. I'm actually going to mix this up now out of curiosity =).
Have you tried any of FLV's flavors by chance?
Hey, we do what we can. It's like you live the life you want to lead...make the sub you want to read.
No, I haven't tried Flavorah but I'd like to of course. Next project :-p
damn wordsmith =) Will have to try the simple version of strawberries and cream. Still not my favorite flavor profile but it hits the spot on occasion.
Some people here have said their two tobacco blends are the best they've ever had (even comparable to or better than NET's). I have both of those on order now and am anxious to mix them up.
Thanks for the excellent post. I've been messing with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream lately as well, and have loved the results so far. I'll try your recipe out soon
It really is a great flavor, I just hate that it contains AP.
Everything good contains AP or some kind of diketone though... Not to make it sound as if I have no concerns about my health, but I love custard flavors to death, and am not willing to use a crappy substitute at the risk of my recipes suffering (a la Capella's VC v1 and v2). Has anyone found a legitimately amazing substitute for custard that is completely safe to inhale? Im all ears if there's any suggestion.
Great post, thanks. As usual I'm missing most of the flavours haha.
Have you played with TFA Strawberries and Cream flavoring? I just got some but haven't had a chance to play with it yet.
No, I haven't. It looks to be similar to their Whipped Cream mixed with Strawberry and a bit of lemon lacing. Sounds interesting.
Can I substitute anything for Strawberry TFA? I've got:
- Strawberry (Ripe) TFA (which you recommend not to use)
- Strawberry FA
- Sweet Strawberry v2 CAP
- Strawberries and Cream TFA
Anything there or combination of which that you think would make a good sub for the straight Strawberry TFA?
I would just try it,I personally dont see why not. TFA Strawberry is a horrible, disgusting flavor to me, if I had time this weekend I would try it with Ripe.
It sounded like Strawberry TFA was a perfect match to the Vanilla Bean Ice Cream TFA... yeah I think I will try a combo of Strawberry FA (which has the rich tartness of Strawberry Ripe TFA, but stronger) and some Sweet Strawberry CAP. Probably 2 and 4% respectively. Thanks for the push to try it.
Fizzy D. It's been a few days now. It's very good. I like how from vape to vape, I can taste either strong strawberry or vanilla ice cream. You nailed the %'s and you can taste both ingredients without one dominating the other.
Instead of the usual 10ml sample, I whipped up 50ml without tasting it. I'm already down to 1/3 of it. I think it's safe to make a 120ml bottle and if it passes the test of time, it'll join the big leagues w/ my other 450ml batches.
I just happened to be looking for a recipe for a bottle I added nic to, and this popped up when I refreshed ELR. Making a bottle now!
Let us know what you think – it's serendipity! :)
I will tell you that I love you. I got a free bottle of Brew City's Straffles at Vape Bash, which is supposed to be Strawberry waffles. It is pretty good, and you just saved me a lot of time chasing it. Another ingredient or two (maple syrup for one), and it will be close enough to keep me happy. But this is seriously good on it's own.
Awesome, so you mixed it up? The 2-ingredient version tastes awesome right after mixing and only gets better over the course of a week.
Maple will work well here. Maple flavorings anchor around cyclotene (coincidentally, the same molecule in RY4 flavorings) and the TFA Vanilla Bean [Ice Cream|Gelato] flavors contain a small amount; it will pair well. TFA offers several maple and waffle flavors, but most contain A/AP if that's a concern. You could try their plain Maple flavoring, which is simply a 10% solution of cyclotene.
thanks, mr. fizz. as a still-lowly novice-apprentice, i am grateful for the recipes i see here--and for this post even more so. the advice to stick to / not abandon simple 2- or 3-flavor recipes is something that had occurred to me but i hadn't followed through on.
It's very easy to start overcomplicating recipes...trying to get a "hint" of this or a "note" of that. I'm guilty of it myself. But sometimes those more complicated recipes just muddy the whole thing. It's actually very difficulty to properly balance a 2-3 ingredient blend and coax out all the flavors you want.
Keep at it!
How about acetoin? Is the 2nd recipe free of that too? (It's not a diketone but is closely related).
And why they replaced D and AP with human vomit I will never know. Surely there is another molecule out there that can give a similar "butter note" without smelling like vomit.
In any case, thanks for the recipes!
Yes, the second recipe is free of any ingredients known to be potentially harmful, including acetoin.
Those components include:
Component|CAS # :---|:---| 2,3-Pentanedione (Acetyl Propionyl)|600-14-6 Acetoin|513-86-0 Diacetyl|431-03-8 Diacetyl trimer|18114-49-3 Ethyl acrylate|140-88-5 Hydrogen sulfide|7783-06-4
I've kinda gone off the idea of strawberry and cream after my disastrous 10% tfa ripe strawberry, 10% tfa Bavarian cream mix. I have 200ml of it sitting in bottles and it's horrible :(
Gonna let it steep, see if it improves at all.
It might improve in about 4-6 months.
Dilute it by half and add a cheesecake or custard base?
It's actually 6mg and I sometimes vape 3 so I could just add 200ml of vg and see how it is then. I added some strawberry at random to try and drown out the bavarian cream so there's probably around 15-18% strawberry.
Fizz have you done it again? =) thank you so much for providing the community with more gems. It's especially awesome for people like me who don't have much free time to experiment, wife 2 kids and full time job. Vanilla Bean is indeed the king of TFA desserts IMO. Can't wait to try this.
Hey, I hope you enjoy it. I can kill a 15mL of this (either one) in a couple days. Post back here to let everyone know what you think!
This thread has been linked to from another place on reddit.
- [/r/mistyfront] Mustard Milk, or Strawberries and Cream the fizzmustard way (plus a bit of diketone-replacement methodology) (/r/DIY_eJuice)
^(If you follow any of the above links, respect the rules of reddit and don't vote.) ^(Info ^/ ^Contact)
The mustard milk is delicious! Shows I need to spend more time with my base ingredients.
Very much appreciated sir!
Awesome, glad you're digging it!
The only issue I'm having is that it seems to be clogging wicks after about 5ml. Probably the ethyl maltol in the vanilla bean ice cream right?
Just made another batch of this tonight, adjusted the Max VG percentages down to 8% strawberry and 12% vanilla ice cream as I found the strawberry coming out a bit more than the vanilla with 9 and 12% the first time.
However, I made another batch with 8% pear (TFA), 12% vanilla ice cream, and 1% ethyl maltol (10% TFA), and it is pretty damn good after a short hot water bath. A very smooth pear that I find similar to Charlie Noble Commodore Pearry, which I like, but I may enjoy mine more.
I might bring down both of the flavors down slightly for the next batch to see how that affects things, but it is pretty tasty right now. /u/fizzmustard is absolutely right that vanilla ice cream is a great base flavor, and I can't wait to try it with other fruits!
This is simple and great. Thank you!
I mixed up 30ml of this after a smaller test batch, and while vaping through the 30, I played around with mixing it up with some Mother's Milk clone recipe inspired changes.I've called Yooper Milk:
- 8% TFA Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
- 4% CAP Sweet Strawberry
- 2% TFA Strawberry
- 1% Koolada (could be omitted...but 'ice cream' says 'cooool' to me)
- 0.5% TFA Orange Cream
- 0.5% TFA Dragonfruit
- 0.2% TFA Pear
> You can also substitute TFA's Ethyl Vanillin 10% solution instead of the French Vanilla.
I got really excited here for a minute, but as far as I can tell, they only have E. Vanillin in crystal. Does anyone sell E. Vanillin in solution?
This is otherwise really great, though, link passed on to my local mixing group!
Here's a 10% pre-mixed solution – Bull City Vapor is a great, reputable vendor too.
(nods) That's TFA Vanillin 10% (CAS # 121-33-5), but in your writeup you mentioned "TFA's Ethyl Vanillin 10%," (CAS # 121-32-4, if they had it.)
I use ethyl vanillin 10% in PG all the time, but have to make it up for myself from powder. I'd love a premixed solution to refer people to, but I haven't found one when I've looked. They're quite different; e. vanillin is stronger and far sweeter.
Just recently mixed up 8% vanilla bean ice cream and 4% loranns banana cream, and honestly ive enjoyed it just as much as my banana cream pie recipe ive been developing with 7 different flavors, even with it containing ridiculously expensive flavors like inawera and flavourart. Im trying to move towards simpler cheaper tfa recipes like this now because im slowly realizing most of those more expensive gourmet flavorings are gimmicky and not worth the price.
I'm on my phone and could probably research this myself but... Is that alot of diketones in the first recipe? 0.08?
Not really. I just believe in full disclosure.
The problem is that acetyl propionyl can – at a high enough temperature – degrade into diacetyl. There's question if diacetyl inhalation from vaporizers is truly a factor in development of bronchiolitis obliterans (research is sparse and concludes that it may not be, independent of other risk factors), but there's no harm in being careful.
> blem is that acetyl propionyl can – at a high enough temperature – degrade into diacetyl. There's question if diacetyl inhalation from vaporizers is truly a factor in development of bronchiolitis obliterans (research is sparse and
Okay this is quite delayed. but I tried this a few times. I really want it to work and for me the VBIC just tastes like vanilla chemicals. even after a few days steeping. is this normal?
Thanks for the post. Love the less is more recipes. Honestly I have trouble perfecting anything with more than three or four flavors.
Haven't tried yours yet, but have you tried expanding it into a Red, White, and Blue?
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream added to the to order list.
Hope you enjoy it!
I haven't tried moving this recipe, specifically, into a strawberry/blueberry cream. Blueberry can be tough. You might try dropping the Strawberry to 6%, then adding 4% TFA Blueberry Wild. That's just a guess though since I haven't mixed it.
Anecdotally, I ran out of TFA strawberry yesterday and today came across this recipe. I subbed in FW pear for the strawberry, and it was wonderful. This is going to be a great, fun recipe to play with!
Thanks, fizz!
Yep, it's very versatile. I mix a Pear Cream as well (though with a few more ingredients) that I love.
Shit, I bought Gelato thinking it was another name for Ice Cream. It does mean ice cream in italian :(
I'll try 4% V.B.Gelato with 1% FA Vienna Cream and some other fruit, because I only have TFA Strawberry Ripe (and INW Strawberry which I never had any success with). Or maybe some jamaican rhum, that might be nice.
Nice. Still a newb and this helps me out. Gives me a direction after my batch today. I did same as the simple Strawberry (TPA) Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (TPA) above except I did 6% and 6%. I thought I was a little light for 80vg but still really good. The other one looks good too! Thanks!
I thought I finally had every flavor I would ever need (hah, that's never gonna happen), and I don't have TFA VBIC. I do have Flavor West's VBIC from my very first order, however. I don't suppose you have any experience with that one or any idea how it might compare? As its the main component of this awesomely simple two ingredient recipe, I'd love to hear from anyone who's tried it!
Just made both of these with half strawberry ripe and half sweet strawberry since I don't have strawberry. I tried the vbic version after shaking and it tasted funny. I will let steep for 3 weeks and report back. Thanks for the simple recipes!
That's not surprising. I don't suspect the Strawberry Ripe plays nicely with VBIC.
if you don't mind, could you explain why the two don't work together? I'm trying to learn the deeper aspects of diy. Thanks!
Sure, I can try.
The only definitive answer is completely subjective but...they don't work together because it tastes bad :-p
I can speculate on specifics though I'm not really qualified as a perfumist; this is just experiential data from my notes.
- Strawberry (Ripe) contains ethyl caproate which gives a pretty distinct pineapple note, and most palates find this flavor clashes with the creaminess of Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.
- Strawberry contains undecalactone, a lactone. Lactones are esters of hydroxycarboxylic acids and have a fatty, butter-ish character. Undecalactone pairs well with the cream of Vanilla Bean Ice Cream to bridge the two ingredients together.
- Strawberry (Ripe) contains a lot more maltol than Strawberry and by comparison is too sweet when paired with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.
- Strawberry contains a bit of vanillin.
- Strawberry (Ripe) contains (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol which has a pungent, fresh-cut grass flavor. Good for mimicking a fresh-off-the-runner strawberry, but bad for mixing with a cream.
Basically Strawberry (Ripe) is pungent, plant-like and sour which makes it an unpleasant match for Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.
Does that help?
Thanks for the recipe. I wonder if it is a coincidence that Wizard Labs is sold out of both TFA Strawberry and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream in the 1oz size at the moment :)
Gonna give it one more day to see if they notify back in stock. Otherwise I guess I'll just have to add a few of each to my already growing shopping cart, or go to another source and pay shipping for both orders... tough decisions.
With max VG would you recommend a higher percentage of flavoring?
Edit: made it standard and it does seem weak. Going to try 3% more each
Edit 2: did 12% and 9% and it's much better.. I think my math is right and I kept the same ratio
First off, thanks for the recipe! Looks yummy and I like how simple it is. Do you think FW Vanilla Bean Ice Cream would work the same?
Did you try it with FW? I think above he mentions lowering the vanilla bean to 5-6% if using fw.
Whipped up 10ml of this yesterday to give it a shot. Before it was gone I was already grabbing at the 120ml bottles to make some more. One of the best I've found on here and for sure the easiest.
Late to the party but i made this last night and let it breathe/steep for the day while i worked. finally had the chance to try this and wow its amazing! I've never tried a 'premium' commercial strawberry milk and the only iteration ive tried was strawberry ripe and sweet cream ( TFA)
I order the vanilla bean ice cream just for his recipe and am really happy with the results. By the way, could you recommend any other uses for the vanilla bean?
Thanks for a great and simple recipe
That's awesome, I'm happy it worked for you!
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream is a very good cream base when you want to add both cream and vanilla – it does both well. Mix it with other fruits, try making a banana split, use if for a milkshake base, etc.
I really do hope something special comes along before the year is out. We can't have Fizz winning Best Recipe of the year twice in a row.
http://imgur.com/LnOcICo Looking for help. I think I have what I need. Just want to make a 10ml to try and I need some help with numbers. Thanx in advance
I just whipped this up and thanks! Its my first batch DIY ever and it was not a flop. Im vaping it at 50-70w and the higher wattage the vanilla seems to come out real nice. I wanted to ask, If I wanted a cake batter hint, kind of what ITC vapes spoon licker does, what should I add/change? I love this recipe and it will be in the rotation but that spoon licker is clone worthy imo.
did the Mustard Milk - Simple Strawberries and Cream picked up a 4oz of each, straight vaping a bit flavorless atm to me, but I can see where its possibly gonna go hopefully after steeping for a day or two to let em mix a little more.
so pretty nice and ez, and isn't harsh at all just hope within a few days it comes out more, or ill just add a little more haha.
Makes me wanna add like 1 or 2% FA Condensed milk I feel that Onestopdiyshop uses in their strawberry milk which can add some sweetness to it if I want.
I mixed these two as soon as VBIC came out. This ratio works well but if you want to take it over the edge add this.
TFA Strawberry - 8%
TFA VBIC - 2%
TFA Vanilla Custard - 1.5%
TFA Bavarian Cream - 2%
TFA Sweet Cream - 1.5%
Two drops of acytel pyrazine per 10ml
I call it Holy Grail
Just tried my first diy juice (mustard milk diketone free) and have to say that I'm more than impressed...granted, I haven't steeped it and I by accident inputed max VG as desired ratio..wanted to go for 70/30.
Thank you fizzmustard for this excellent ejuice and making my first diy ejuicing an enjoyable one!!
/u/fizzmustard I made this and added 2% tfa juicy peach and then made another batch with 2% tfa raspberry sweet. Gave it a 10 min heat bath and theres no flavor on either one. Any suggestions? does this need steep time? I've made the original 4 months ago and it was good right after I made it. Any suggestions from a master would be much appreciated