I've seen several people mention how they can't or can just barely taste strawberry, usually CAP Sweet Strawberry or TFA Strawberry Ripe. I even have a buddy that mentioned he can't taste it either, and that's when I realized I was one of those people.
Now regular TFA Strawberry is quite a bit different. I can taste it fine, I just hate it. It tastes just like those hard strawberry candies with the chewy center you get at a doctors visit. And doesn't do well for me in mixes unless at a very low percentage.
My latest try was INW Shisha Strawberry. It's extremely potent but has a very off taste for me, but just a tad better than TFA Strawberry. It's like I can taste it but can't at the same time, as if I'm only tasting some of the chemicals in it but not the whole mixture.
My latest mix has 4% CAP SS, 4% TFA Ripe, 1% TFA Strawberry, and 0.5% INW Shisha. All I'm really getting is the regular TFA and the INW, plus some alcohol taste from the Sweet Strawberry. Even Ripe at 10% (I've tried very low percentages too) is just barely a hint of strawberry.
If anyone has any input on what else I could try, please feel free. Or if you want to complain about how you can't taste strawberry either, that's cool too.
you poor poor people. Can you taste it in commercial juice? If you can I know exactly why.
#SUCRALOOOOOOOOOSE
With that latest super straw mix, I don't know how OP would expect to taste it.
IMHO, Ripe shouldn't be used as a Main flavor note. To me it seems more of a flavor like TFA Banana Cream. You get the Banana, but not prominent. Works wonders for Southern Banana Pudding recipes.
Put TFA Banana Cream with Flavorah Van Cust, FA Meringue, CAP Sugar Cookie and TFA Vanilla Swirl you have a basic banana pudding. Just that hint of Banana mixed in with that Vanilla Wafer and Jello Vanilla Pudding.
Sometimes I just use it to give that Ripe Taste to other Fruits.
I feel that TFA Straw Ripe is kind of the same unless you sweeten the fuck out of it.
Is /u/NotCharlesManson's answer below the correct one? It seems right to me...
Not really. Before realizing what was going on, I was trying some juices at local B&M. This guy was so excited about this strawberry cheesecake. All I could taste was sweet cream and CAP NYCC. Told him, it wasn't for me and he was stunned. So he had me try a lemon version and it was delicious. Same when I tried Unicorn Milk. But, when I tried The Upside by Schwartz, I tasted the strawberry.
Barely any flavor tastes right to me, and I have about 40-60 of them. FeelsBadMan
Yyeeaahhhh it's rare I actually mix something that has lots of flavor. I probably have around the same amount as you too.
It's mostly creams and strawberry that I just cant taste. I've got all the most common creams and I only just get a hint of a creamy mouthfeel and not much flavor from them, but maybe that's the point as cream isn't so much of a flavor, but more of a consistency.
Fortunately, I've yet to experience this issue. I've been using Strawberry Ripe since I started my DIY journey, and I have yet to have any issues with tasting that. Most of my other flavours from TFA, yeah, I will admit, I've had some issues tasting them or having them taste accurate.
Something I've noticed really helps with TFA Strawberry Ripe is adding Dragonfruit to the mix. If you already know about this, then I'm sorry for repeating the information, but that little addition really compliments the strawberry and makes it pop out from the rest of the flavours.
My best recipe had TFA Strawberry Ripe at 8% and TFA Dragonfruit at 2.5%, maybe give that a shot and see if you get any flavour out of it.
I can sort of taste strawberry. TFA Strawberry is the same for me. I can kind of taste it, but it has an off-putting taste to me. I could taste Ripe a lot better if it didn't have so much damn maltol in it. CAP Sweet Strawberry is one that I can pick out easily in a mix, but it's tough for me to say "yeah, that's definitely strawberry.
Out of the 14 strawberries I have, the only ones that are " yeah, that's definitely strawberry" are Bakers Flavors' Strawberries, Medicine Flower Strawberry, and INW Strawberry (not shisha). All of the other ones have very interesting properties that I like to use, but not for an accurate strawberry flavor.
I know MF is considered expert level and its extremely potent, but would you recommend it as a main strawberry as a replacement for say strawberry Ripe or something to use in a strawberry milk or custard type deal?
Honestly, I probably wouldn't. It takes a while to get the full flavor out of it (think more than a month at times), and I think other flavors might work better for that.
I'm in exactly the same boat. I can taste TFA strawberry, I just dont like it. All I get from CAP sweet strawberry is a baked tannin taste. I tried mixing the two and the Cap totally mutes the TFA. Still debating trying other brands.
I should mention I can smell it just fine.
I can taste strawberries better when I add a little pear. I'm fond of FA Red Touch and TPA Pear at about 2:1. I use this as a single profile strawberry, and haven't tried it combined with creams. Discovered this from trying out strawberry-pear combinations by /u/NotCharlesManson from here: https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/comments/3oubmo/best_strawberry_to_match_with_tpa_pear/cw0iedw
May want to try the One on One Strawberry(s). TFA strawberry tastes "waxy" to me. I say that because I don't really know how else to describe it. However, I do really like OOO strawberry fresh. It comes out very authentic to my palate. Be warned though for me 5% is really strong. Think INW strong.
I know this is a DIY topic but I found it interesting nonetheless. I recently purchased Strawberry Zues from Oasis Vape and I cannot taste anything. I purchased 13 flavors from them and the other 12 are great, but when I vaped the Strawberry one I just could not taste it. I've tried it on 2 different RDA's and in my Herakles Plus with the same results. I'm glad I am not alone.
Previously, my ADV was a Strawberry Apple from a local shop and all I tasted was apple but I've been told and I've read that apple is very overpowering so I just chalked it up to being that. Seems like it could be something more, now, though.
I'm definitely in the club but it's sadly one I never wanted to belong to :(
Oddly, my experience, flavor-wise, is the opposite of most it seems - I can taste to varying degrees some strawberries (Cap Sweet, INW Shisha, Ripe) but NOT TFA Strawberry. It just gives me a strange, sweetish taste and it makes other flavors taste weird.
This issue has had me kind of sad since I started vaping about eight months ago - even when I started DIYing. I barely (if at all) taste strawberry notes in commercial juice or DIY recipes. Mothers Milk - can't taste any strawberry. Mustard Milk - can't taste any strawberry. Granted my DIY attempts have only been with TFA Strawberry and CAP Sweet. I can get a bottle of strawberry soda or strawberry lemonade at the gas station and I get that candy strawberry taste just fine - just not in juice. I looooooove strawberry. I just wish I could taste it in my vaping.
I have strawberry blindness as well. Usually strawberry doesn't come across as a flavor to me but as a feeling, harshness and dryness. There are some juices that have strawberry in them that I can enjoy, but they are all fruit/candy mixes, even then it's not strawberry I'm tasting but what it's doing to the other fruits. Strawberries and cream/strawberry bakery vapes are unspeakably horrid and unvapable to me.
If a good recipe comes along that I want to try I replace the strawberry (after the first batch I always mix as is first) with another fruit. I like to sub with FA Lemon Sicily, TFA Blueberry Wild, FW Blueberry, INW Raspberry, TFA Juicy peach, and a FA White Peach/FA Peach combo.
Not complaints but I can taste strawberry just fine.. so neh neh neh neh.
In all seriousness though my friend is the same as you, he can barely taste strawberry. I'd like to know why so I can potentially get him onto the mustard milk recipe and save him some cash.
Edit lol you downvote morons. Downvoting is for off topic comments, not ones you disagree with. Fscking lames.
Using pre-made, or home-brewed concentrates?
One of the first, one of the second. I have some friends who are strawberry non-tasters and have some theories about it.
I'm an apple/pear non-taster, so I know your pain.
My theory flavors aren't complete flavor profiles, though. They're note profiles, but I'm curious at what PPM people taste various notes. And which notes one is blind to.
I'm in the burbs. Can't taste strawberry in anything
Am I the only one that finds TFA Strawberry and (Ripe) ruin bakery flavors? Everyone is loving /u/NotCharlesManson's Stawberry Shortcake Bar, but I just get a mess from the combination with FW Yellow Cake. I had the same problem with TFA Vanilla Cupcake and the DX version. It just becomes an unsettling combination of fruity-savory mush. Like vaping moldy berries.
FA Strawberry is the only one that I can taste without loading up on sucralose.. and actually kind of like, but i find it's got a strong throat hit. I've sort of given up on strawberry now ;-(
I can however taste the strawberry clearly in Wayne's strawberry cheesecake rereremiixxxx but.. 1.5% sucralose :-D
I can't taste Strawberry Ripe, but to me TFA Strawberry tastes like the smell of a nursing home.
I love those little strawberry candies, and wish it tasted like that to me.. but no, boiled cabbage and ammonia is all I taste.
It really sucks. There are SO many recipes that use it.
Use TFA ripe at around 8-10% with some mellower cream flavors. Make a flavor base and let it sit with cap off, open air, for around 15 minutes (for some reason this helps the Ripe settle into more strawberry and less chemical weirdness). Mix with your VG, shake and vape. Most convincing strawberry flavor I've been able to get.
Hmm... I've been tinkering with strawberry flavours too and I've noticed they seem muted.
Is there a way to test to see if my tastebuds are just simply like that? Reason I ask, the mixes I've been testing are so muted but when I add more strawberry it turns into that nasty over-berry kinda flavour really fast and I can't seem to narrow down the precise ratios to get it right on the precipice between "too much" and "not enough."
I mix TFA Strawberry and TFA Strawberry ripe together at a 1:1 ratio. TFA Strawberry gets chemically and nasty before I get a good strawberry flavor from it. TFA Strawberry ripe starts tasting like wet socks and loses flavor if I start upping the percentage (over 5%). I mix them and I get some decent strawberry flavor. YMMV
I've also got the strawberry blues. Can't taste any of about a dozen different strawberries in a vape. Doesn't matter how the vape is delivered, I just get a sense of sweet from the strawberries.
I can, however, taste the strawberries just fine when tasting the e-liquid directly. Just a drop on the finger then licked, I get the full strawberry taste and is how I tell how the strawberry is doing in the mix. No idea what happens when it is vaporized.
After a full year of chasing the strawberry dream, I've simply given up. I've tried Ripe, TFA Strawberry, CAP Sweet Straw, Shisha and non shisha Strawberry, FA and FW Strawberries. It's just not there. I get a general fruitiness, and sweet flavor from them all. But none of it tastes like strawberries at all. I've probably tried 100 recipes with strawberry variants of every kind I could come up with. Super high percentages, super low, middle of the road, and with/out sweetener. It's just not there. I've given it all up now, and just chase florals, stones fruits, and other oddities. While it saddens me, as strawberries are one of my favorite fruits, it leaves me room to explore what else there is out there. And there is an abundance that I've found that I love instead. Long live the Raspberry king.