Placid is one of my favorite juices and one of the most elusive clones in the DIY world, at least if you look at how many Adirondack clone attempts there are on ELR.
Let me start by showing you my most recent clone attempt and then I will go into detailed notes.
- (TFA) Honeysuckle 5%
- (TFA) Key Lime 1%
- (FA) Lime Tahity Cold Pressed .5%
- (TFA) Pear 2.5%
- (INW) Strawberry 3%
- (FA) Fuji Apple .5%
- (LA) Banana Cream 2.5%
- (TFA) Dragonfruit 1.5%
- (INW) Pineapple 2 drops per 10ml
Following in the excellent work by /u/onmywaydownnow/ (among others), my first clone attempt simply replaced his TFA Strawberry with INW Strawberry and added a touch of FA Fuji Apple. I won't go into details about his original attempt as I simply followed the recipe and it worked quite well. As for my modifications...
Personally I find (INW) Strawberry to be the only strawberry concentrate that actually tastes likes strawberry. The others I've tried (CAP SS, TFA Ripe, TFA Strawberry, FA Red Touch) are all good in their own ways but they serve better as flavor modifiers IMO. INW Strawberry tends to stand out very bold and in your face way. It's unmistakable strawberry, and depending on how much you use you can easily change its effect.
Every clone attempt of Placid I'd tried was decidedly missing something, and I attempted to fill that with (FA) Fuji Apple. It kind of worked but there was still something missing. I don't have much to say about Fuji except that it's the only apple I can stand, it's extremely versatile and works well in almost all my fruit juices albeit in very small percentages. It can easily take over.
A few weeks ago I won a 120ml bottle of Placid in a giveaway and started vaping it back to back with my clone attempts. I can't tell you how many variations I've made (dozens at least) but I still could not put my finger on the missing element. Randomly a couple weeks ago I had picked up (LA) Banana Cream so I could make the legendary Nana Cream clone by /u/fizzmustard/, and it was shortly thereafter that I picked up what tasted like banana notes in Placid. I started to experiment.
No matter what percentage of Banana I tried in my Placid clones it either completely overwhelmed the juice or you couldn't taste it at all. Attempts at raising and lowering the percentages of the other flavors were not successful. Finally I realized that in the actual Nana Cream clone, I didn't particularly taste the (TFA) Dragonfruit very much (if at all?) so I wondered if it must bring something out in the banana when paired with strawberry.
Bingo! I tinkered with the percentages a bit and found that 2.5% Banana Cream and 1.5% Dragonfruit worked quite well. Then I remembered thread regarding attempts to clone another Adirondack flavor, Cayuga. There someone mentioned that Dragonfruit tends to bring out Pineapple flavors so I thought on my very last iteration "what the heck, drop in a couple drops of (INW) Pineapple and WOW. That really seemed to set it off for me.
As a side note, I'm not at all convinced that my percentages of lime are correct, or even the right limes! I have (INW) Lime but it's quite finicky, either overwhelming or simply the wrong flavor. Personally I've had no luck with it. I wonder about (FA) Lime Tahity Distilled?
And finally, Adirondack themselves have shared with us that they use VG based nic. When I first started mixing a couple months ago I made a noob mistake and purchased a large quantity of PG based 36mg nic. Therefore no matter how much I wish my juice to be "max VG" there will always be extra PG in the nic, I believe this is why it's been difficult to make accurate comparisons between my clone attempts and the real Placid I have, which is max VG.
TL;DR: Placid attempt #71892347091
Based on their other recipes, I think it's quite more simple than this and higher TFA percentages. They use a lot of flavoring.
I'm inclined to suspect you are correct but as others have pointed out the recipes released were popular when older devices were being used and higher flavor concentrations may have been the norm. I've tried so many combinations of these flavors (and different brands of them), and increasing them by too much simply doesn't work. Additionally Adirondack actually told Reddit that 4 different companies juices went into Placid so this at least fits that description.
I highly doubt Fuji Apple is in there and the Pineapple was added as an afterthought to push the Dragonfruit/Banana. And if the Lime could be narrowed down to a single flavor that could be it.
This looks like a great recipe. And while I agree that INW Strawberry does nail the authenticity of a real strawberry, I find it sometimes just too real for most mixes. That earthy backnote it has sometimes is off-putting. To me of course. I need to try this Adirondack stuff. I keep hearing about it.
Thanks! And I'll give you that about INW Strawberry, it can get quite heavy for lack of a better word. In another recipe I used it with equal parts (2.5%) TFA Strawberry Ripe and it tastes like a sweet strawberry jam, delicious.
Great detail.
>Thanks! And I'll give you that about INW Strawberry, it can get quite heavy for lack of a better word. In another recipe I used it with equal parts (2.5%) TFA Strawberry Ripe and it tastes like a sweet strawberry jam, delicious.
I can't wait to get inw strawberry to try with my upside clone attempt. You're the second person who's said that's what makes tfa ripe turn into the jam flavor I'm looking for!
Great analysis! I would give a hit to two alternatives /u/psyki
There is a strawberry in TDM (Tino di Milano) line , Wild strawberry , with a hint of cream (not strong) and also Wild Strawberry also from the main line of Inawera and also use Quince instead of Dragonfruit. Both of the flavors from INW bring a strong note of the flavor but you should wait some days to settle in your mix.
I've wondered if what I think is banana is a cream of some kind. I'm also keeping in mind that Adirondack is probably somewhat limited to flavor producers who can produce MASS quantities. I've been meaning to check out that INW Wild Strawberry, I'm a huge fan of INW and strawberry.
/u/psyki Hello. I've tried your clone without ever tasting the real thing and certainly something is missing. A bonding note between the lime and honeysuckle. Then i've remembered from my years as sous chef that usually hybrid citruses are good in order to bond limes or lemons with other fruits as those bridge sweet and sour/acidity. Looking in the flavor map , there is a key flavor that combines very well with honeysuckle. It's called Amanatsu , the closest i've found to that (if i remember well) is sweet tangerine. Give it a try!
Interesting, thanks for the notes! I've never heard of Amanatsu but I have CAP sweet tangerine. I'll try a bit next time I make a batch. In my experience with it so far it is extremely overpowering so I'm thinking .5% or less.
I just got in some quince so I'll try that instead of dragonfruit as well.
I'm another Placid clone-attempter. Hell, You and I have discussed it.
Personally, I'm still pretty set on Northwest Strawberry. I like a combination of INW limetka, and lime tahity cold pressed.
I've been trying to clone placid as well. I've been experimenting with a bit of FA blackcurrant in my attempts.
Before I thought to try banana I thought I detected a hint of licorice or anise or something of that nature. I've ordered 10ml of TFA Horehound because the description vaguely fits the bill. I'll find out soon enough!
So i take it the above recipe is very close then .
Thank you
I just made this the other night (1/16) haven't tried it yet though, I'll report back tonight if it's close. Glad people are still working on this. It's one of my all-time favorites and it feels like we'll never get it right!
Keeping true to the "4 different companies" platform: http://tjek.nu/r/3fR7
For those not on ELR:
Honeysuckle (tfa) @ 4% Lime (inw) @ 0.5% Lime Tahiti cold-pressed (fa) @ 1% Pear (tfa) @ 3% Strawberry (tfa) @ 2% Sweet strawberry (cap) @ 1%
Edit: just 3 days in and it's not only delicious, it's wayyy more accurate than previous attempts!
I think you're on to something with the strawberry combo. I mixed this the other day and it was definitely the strawberry in placid
Strawberry TFA 3%
Sweet Stawberry Cap 2%
Sweet Mango 7% CAP
I passed placid trough GC/ms + flavor analysis.
I have now the exact recipe but will not release it.
All i can say is That placid is an awesome but simple flavor profile.
I made this and it is not bad. Thanks for the mention. I have to say though that I don't think it tastes like placid hehe. She is a mysterious mistress for sure! So much so that i've mostly moved on, I might revisit sometime in the future but for now i'm enjoying other vapes. Thanks for the recipe!
I'll give this a shot. I've got everything. Never had placid though
Actually, I was wrong. I did everything as written except I couldn't find my INW pineapple, and I ran out of INW strawberry at 2%. I added 1% of a silvercloud strawberry instead.
It's a pretty tasty mix, I'll let it sit and post back.
Loooong time lurker here. After many attempts at placid I figured out that my clones were always too sweet. I tasted the original @ 0mg and it was super bitter while everything I've tried to make was sweet. That's when I tried FA bitter wizard and I finally found what was always missing in every single attempt.. You only need a tiny amount. I've tried 1 drop\10ml and 2\30ml and both seem to work so far. I feel I'm getting pretty close now to the real thing.
Nice! I don't have that but do share your recipe if/when you feel like it :)
Once I figure out which one of the mixes is closest I'll post it. You should definitely put that order in for bitter wizard if you haven't already. It's amazing what 1 drop of this stuff does
Just to pull this topic back to the forefront, I wanted to let you and others know that I had a "eureka" moment with Placid, the other day.
Whenever other people are around me when I'm vaping Placid, They always ALWAYS ask if I'm vaping cotton candy. ...which got me thinking. Is ethyl maltol something we've missed so far?