Hello agains Reddits!
Guess what!? I'm back with another ice cream vape; Mint Mocha Shake.
I've been working on this recipe since I very first started DIY and it has remained elusive to me. Trying to balance the mint, coffee, and chocolate has proven to be a challenge. All three of these are very aggressive flavors that just want to dominate whatever you put them in. I'd say I've mixed up about 12-15 different batches so far, often order small batches of flavors just for this.
I'm going to tell you right now, it's still not perfect. That's why I'm posting this. I'm calling out to you fellow mixologists for some help.
This is what I have come up with so far, and it seems to be the best iteration to date. I've been vaping it off and on and I like it. It just needs a little more TLC.
Mint Mocha Shake|% ---|--- Vanilla Bean Ice Cream TFA|3.5 Vanilla Swirl TFA|1 Double Chocolate Clear TFA|1 Dutch Chocolate Mint CAP|2 Coffee Flavor TBD|? Cappuccino CAP|0.75 Meringue FA|0.25
VBIC/Vanilla Swirl/Merginue - We are going to stick with one of my favored, tried and true ice cream flavors. This combination keeps the juice nice and creamy. Lots of vanilla. We need lots of vanilla for the reason I mentioned earlier. The chocolate, mint, and coffee and going to totally dominate the flavor profile if you don't beef up the cream base. This is why I chose Vanilla Swirl over Vienna Cream. We need that extra flavor to go along with the mouth feel. Vienna feel flat on its face for me in this recipe. As always, we are sweetening with Merginue at a low percentage.
Double Chocolate Clear/Dutch Chocolate Mint - Oh. My. God. Dutch Chocolate Mint is soooo delicious. A nice creamy chocolate with the perfect amount of mint. So one of the challenges I faced here was how much to add. Do I keep it lower and supplement with Cool Mint CAP or make it strong and let the chocolate over power the other flavors? Ultimately, I landed halfway in the middle and enriched the chocolate with DCC. This stuff goes great with VBIC anyways, much more forgiving of a flavor, and it adds some complexity to the overall chocolate. DCC is more of a base note chocolate with Dutch Chocolate to be more top note. On failed note, I also tried Spearmint. Blegh, no. Never again. It just tasted like a chocolate breath mint.
Cappuccino - *...sigh...*Easily the hardest part of this equation. Coffee. I have a strong feeling I just don't have the right coffee flavor yet. Coffee Clear TFA tasted like dumpster juice out of a Starbucks trash can. This flavor immediately went into the trash can. I had to boil out my RDA to get the rancid flavor away. CAUTION: If this post successfully gets only 1 person to not use TFA Coffee (Clear), then it has done it's job.
Tiramisu FA wasn't quite bold enough, the flavor was wrong, and had too much going on. I just need a cup of joe, not a bakery dessert. This is when I landed on Cappuccino CAP. The taste is fairly authentic, but it's still not all there. If I go too high, I get that Starbuck's dumpster juice flavor and it gets overwhelming. Go too low, the chocolate and mint take over. If I ever find the perfect coffee flavor, I think this will make for a good background note to a more authentic cup of black coffee type base flavor.
Caramel - The nice drizzle you get on the inside of the cup and across the top of the whipped cream when you get one from Panera. So tasty and fits right into this flavor. 1% seems about right. Didn't have to play with this much. At this level, it's just an after-taste that dances around on your palate when you exhale.
Possible Contenders for that perfect coffee flavor:
- Coffee (FLV) - Flavorah tends to be top notch and I have a feeling this will be the missing link. I'm hoping other people can confirm this. I don't want too dark of a coffee roast on the flavor. Perhaps a lighter Breakfast blend.
- Mocha (FLV) - I like the idea of bolstering the chocolate and coffee at the same time. After all, this is a Mocha shake. However, I'm reading this has some coconut notes in it which I'm not fond of putting in this recipe.
- Mocha (INW) - Same as above. I would order this without second thought, but it's out of stock at BCV and they have the other 30 flavors I need in my cart already.
- Net Coffee Extract - Just thought of this one. Don't know why it never occurred to me. I will get this going tonight and report back once it's done and tested.
Edit: The more I vape this with CAP Cappuccino, the more I'm convinced it's not going to work. At all. I took it off the list. I'll update once my new flavors get here.
Edit #2 Going to give FLV Mocha and Creme de Menthe a try next. If it's as good as everything else from them, then I think I'll finally have this recipe nailed down.
If you care to mix this up and give it a shot, you can find it over here:
One time FLV Coffee @ .2% overpowered one of my TFA RY4(notD) mixes. Was like, 4 or 6% RY4, a drop of MF Caramel, 1-2% vanilla swirl, & maybe 1% peanut butter. Coffee was almost all i could taste, it was rediculous.
But yeah, FLV Coffee is good shit. Dark roast, though. Perfect cup of black coffee.
Also, get FLV Creme De Menthe, silly.
Do I really need Creme De Menthe if I already have Dutch Chocolate Mint? It's sooooooo good. I drip this stuff in my coffee in the mornings.
I might get FLV Coffee for the hell of it. Maybe it can balance the darkness of the roast against the creams and chocolates.
Isn't Dutch chocolate mint on the discontinued list for cap?
Edit: it is discontinued
FA Capuccino and FA Dark Bean are two fantastic coffee flavors. I don't typically use dark bean over 0.75%, and typically hover closer to 0.5%. Dark Bean will quickly take over a recipe. I don't have CAP Dutch Chocolate Mint or I would give this a shot right now. Definitely going to order it at your suggestion though, thanks!
Edit: If you decide to try Dark Bean, I would dilute it down, I've been planning on doing that just to more accurately measure it. One drop too many is like 10 drops too many of your average strength flavor.
> Oh. My. God. Dutch Chocolate Mint is soooo delicious.
Hate to rain on your parade, but [DCM is about to be discontinued.] (http://www.capellaflavors.com/blog/spring-2016-alternative-and-discontinued-flavors/)
I do agree, it is delicious. Shame.
If you're looking for a good coffee flavor I would like to suggest "Cafe Coffee" by Flavor West. The only problem I'm having with this is the Coffee gets overpowered by the cream notes during steeping. I had a mix that used Cafe coffee and Hangsens Australian Chocolate and after steeping for two weeks the coffee flavor disapeared completely along with the chocolate and all that was left was the Ice cream and it was not good either. I liked it as a shake and vape but not after steeping. I'm still working on that recipe so this post will be helpful for that. Thanks for posting.
I use FW cafe coffee at 3-4% as per /u/skiddlzninja 's reccomendation
I was not aware of /u/skiddlzninja's recommendation's. I tried it at 3.5% and that was when the flavor completely dissipated along with the Australian Chocolate and just left a muted mess after steeping for two weeks.
I changed my recipe to using Caramel and Meringue instead of Sweet Cream and It is much better but I need to use more coffee flavor than the one for Mint Mocha Shake but it did steer me in the right direction. I think for my recipe I need more coffee flavor and less Vanilla Bean Ice Cream as the ice cream seems to take over the coffee and the chocolate and I want them to stand out. I know that Cafe Coffee is the right coffee flavor and at the moment I'm trying Milk Chocolate by FW but I still haven't gotten the recipe right yet. It is an illusive flavor I'm searching for. When I have something that is close I'll post it here with my notes so all can see what I've come up with.
I really like FLV mocha and I dont pick up any coconut notes in it. Of course taste is subjective so It might be different for you. I think it could definitely work here but the worry is it might get overshadowed by the mint. Might need to mess with percentages a bit to get it just right.
Why no mention of FA Coffee Espresso? Against it altogether or never tried it? I just ask because it's what I mainly use for coffee, and I've had no problems with it so far.
I have tried INW Mocha once before, very creamy and light coffee, can easily be emulated by other coffees + cream IMO
Never tried it. It wasn't on my radar. Last time, I tried to make this, FLV wasn't really a thing yet. Now that they are so popular, it was my first thought.
Have you tried Caramel Cappuccino? Two drops per 10ml might just be what you need. Also, a mint shake without Koolada? Put some of that shit in there!
I've been going back and corn between using Cool Mint CAP, which does have koolada in it. Naturally, whichever version I finalized, would have koolada.
Nope haven't tried Caramel Cappuccino yet. Pretty sure I'm going to end up going with FLV mocha and coffee, then take the better off the two.
/u/Vurve do you even sleep? You're on top of this shit. This looks amazing and puts my hypothetical recipe I had in my head to the gutter. Time to order all of these and be broke.