Banana Split v 1.0 can be seen here
So after letting that one sit for a few days, I realized that the recipe still needed focus. After my newest order of flavours came in, I got to testing and experimenting to improve this mix. As always, flavour notes below.
Banana Split v2
- TFA Strawberry Ripe at 6%
- TFA Dragonfruit at 1%
- LA Banana Cream at 0.75%
- TFA Banana Cream at 2%
- TFA Vanilla Bean Ice Cream at 3.75%
- FA Meringue at 1%
- CAP Sugar Cookie at 2.5%
- FA Marzipan at 0.75%
- FA Caramel at 1.25%
- CAP Sweet Cream at 0.75%
Flavour Notes/Adjustments
TFA Strawberry Ripe/TFA Dragonfruit - so I removed the TFA Strawberry from this recipe and simply pushed the Ripe up to 6% and found a much better strawberry note. With both versions of strawberry in the mix, I noticed too much of that flavour pushing through, when I really only wanted it to be a note. And, I wasn't happy with the "candy" sweetness it was creating. Finally, dropping dragonfruit helps keep the fruity tartness to a minimum, while still pushing strawberry notes and balancing out the creams.
LA Banana Cream/TFA Banana Cream - so in a few other attempts between v1 and v2, I was implementing LA BC heavily in hopes that it would create a stronger banana flavour. Unfortunately, LA BC is much more of a candy banana flavour IMO. But, leaving it in there at low percentages plays nicely with the creaminess of TFA BC, while still allowing that sweet banana flavour to shine on the exhale. Best of both worlds.
TFA VBIC/CAP Sweet Cream - pushing VBIC higher was exactly what this needed. While VBIC does overpower at high percentages, especially after a steep, I feel as though the dragonfruit and strawberry combination will help keep it from destroying the mix in time. As a shake and vape though, these two play so nicely with the strawberry to make a smooth, sweet, and slightly fruity ice cream base for the banana to sit on top of.
CAP Sugar Cookie - after FINALLY adding this flavour to my arsenal, I realize that this is definitely the answer people were looking for in a substitution for FW Yellow Cake. It's fluffy, sweet, sugary, and adds a really nice body to bakery/dessert recipes. Think of those sugar cookies you get in the store that have the massive amount of frosting on them. Super soft, cakey, and sugary sweet. Works really well here to give some form to the ice cream base without adding MORE creams. Also seems to help bind the fruits to the cream.
FA Marzipan/FA Caramel - so, I was using FA Almond in the previous attempt, and while I liked the flavour it added to the mix, it wasn't noticeable enough to really make sense. And, when I tried to push it higher, it just started to change the overall profile of the mix to something more nutty. What I like about Marzipan is that it adds the sweet almond note I wanted in there, while adding even more smooth creaminess to the overall mix. FA Caramel still doesn't seem to be doing much, and I pushed it to 1.25% in this mix, but when I mixed without it, I definitely noticed something missing. So while you don't really get a caramel flavour, I still think including it in here is helping the recipe overall.
CAP Chocolate Glazed Doughnut - so I should probably just invest in a straight up chocolate flavour concentrate if I plan on making any sort of dessert vapes that call for chocolate. I liked the note of chocolate on the inhale you get with CAP CGD, but the exhale is too much. You lose all of the banana and ice cream aftertaste that I wanted in here, so I removed it entirely. Just not the right flavour for the mix.
Ratio and Steep Time - 70VG/30PG seems to work better than the 80/20 from before. While the extra sweetness helps, having a little more PG in here seemed to help the fruit flavours pop against the creams a bit better. This is pretty good as a shake and vape, but after letting the other attempts sit for about 3 days, everything balances out a lot better and the banana notes become a little bit more realistic. While this recipe is different, I think the same 2-3 day steep time will suffice.
This recipe is getting somewhere, if you mix it up, be sure to let me know what you think! Cheers.
Great notes and a great looking recipe! Thanks for sharing. INW Chocolate Strawberry would probably work great here. I like your idea of using LA + TFA Banana Cream together. Not sure why I've never tried or even thought of that!
The mix of both banana creams really works nicely. It's a great way to allow that nice banana flavour to survive the steep. Granted, adding the LA Banana Cream does create a need for a steep to allow it to mellow out, I think it creates a better overall flavour profile.
INW Chocolate Strawberry seems like a pretty good idea here, might need to pick it up to help push the strawberry a little more and add that little touch of chocolate I want. Thanks for the suggestion!
Finally a recipe without an excessive amount of BC. That pure banaba taste makes me nauseous.
Yeaaah, honestly, TFA BC is the only banana cream flavour I actually enjoy. Adding LA BC does do something interesting, but that addition is fickle and too much of it ruins the banana profile in here.
Have you tried INW Milk Chocolate? Ive mixed it in several percentages getting a feel for it. Its interesting. At 5% I get a pretty realistic sundae syrup. A tiny bit of spicy on the back end that would probably mellow with marzipan or cream.
How different is INW milk chocolate to just their chocolate? I picked up the non milk kind and it smells like heaven but haven't figured out a recipe for it yet, this might be it though!
And then I found this post. Interesting to see you took this in some of the directions I was thinking. Great minds.
We seriously need to just make a recipe together from the ground up. We already seem to be on some sort of telepathic mind connection.
But yeah, I think this version of the recipe is a huge step in the right direction. Implementing marzipan is my favourite part of it right now. Pushes that almond flavour on the back end in just the right way.
I actually have all these. I'll mix it up tomorrow. It honestly looks a lot better than the first one. You're killing it every since the podcast :p
Awesome! Be sure to let me know what you think. It's still far from perfect, but it's getting better and it's definitely better than the first. And yeah, being a guest on the show really kicked my ass into gear and made me want to stop making just mediocre juice. It's cool that people are interested in my recipes. It's a great feeling, and thank you for the kind words.
Awesome notes! Gonna mix this up in a few days.
Just curious. Have you fiddled with TFA Bananas Foster? I haven't messed with it much but it smells nice.
As for chocolates, I'd suggest checking out TFA Double Chocolate Clear and Flavorah Deutch Chocolate Cake. They're difficult to nail down, but once you crack the code they're dope.
Mixed up 120ml of this on Friday.
It's been my ADV since. I'm getting to where I'd much rather prefer a subtle bit of notes than anything overpowering and this is perfect.
can taste banana can taste strawberry marzipan is so unique and just makes everything pop VBIC is delicious and
I highly recommend this recipe.
Thanks!
Wow thank you so much! That's what I've been striving for with all of my recipes as of late. I was subtlety and a well rounded vape as opposed to something that really punches you in the face. I've found over the last year of vaping that the flavours I've vapes and enjoyed most are the ones that were smooth and mild. I think those are the best ADVs. Sure, a strong and overly flavourful vape is great from time to time, but I'm trying to pull out 3 or 4 smooth and ADV quality eliquids to release as a sort of personal line.
So long story short, thank you. I'm glad my attempts are working, and I'm so happy you enjoy it.
Hey dude!
Sorry for my original reply seeming all choppy, boss was looking over the shoulder.
I remember when I started out mixing everything punched you in the mouth that I tried out. I liked it like that. I think it was due to still having no sense of taste from smoking. Now being ~8-9 months w/o a cigarette I think my palette is much more sensitive.
When it comes down to me finding an ADV and trying to keep around 3-4 big bottles of quality recipes around so I can switch every day or so to avoid olfactory fatigue this one fits perfectly in the mix.
I sort of knew after looking at all of the flavors and the total percentage that it was a safe bet to mix up 120ml of this without feeling like I wouldn't like it.
My vanilla custard, my strawberry banana bombies clone, this, funfetti on occasion and a gambit for a little acetyl are my go-tos and I will be letting many friends sample this recipe for sure.
I've been watching your threads get more concise and detailed over the last month or so and I'm thoroughly enjoying adding your username to a list of redditors I search for recipes by.
So in short, thank YOU for your contributions to this community!
EDIT: One more thing, I shake and vaped this and enjoyed it but as you said the banana notes come out after a few days.
Honestly, I know exactly what you mean. When I first started vaping, all I wanted was something to keep me off of smokes, and when I first became active on ECR, it seemed like everyone was all about the creams, custards, and ice cream flavours. For whatever reason, those flavours just sucked to me at first. So I actually picked up more mentholated fruit mixes, which was weird for me because when I was a smoker, I hated menthol cigarettes (American Spirit light blues were my go to for about 8 years, ugh).
Anyway, once I felt like I got my sense of taste and smell back, I realized how amazing those fruit and cream, ice creams, and even some of the custard vapes truly are.
ANYWAY, back story aside. You posting about my Banana Split recipe made me realize that I had my V2 bottle steeping over the weekend. I really thought it was still lacking a lot until I just tasted the 3+ day steep on this. And hot damn, it's WAY closer to a final recipe than I thought. I think the strawberry needs to be pushed a little more, but that marizpan really is shining through now, and that banana ice cream note that I was going for is almost perfect!
So, thank YOU for reminding me to taste this again after the steep and realize that it's a lot better off than I initially thought. Have a few ideas to make it perfect and I'll probably mix it up tonight so I can post up the final recipe in a few days.
It is incredibly humbling and flattering to know that my efforts in the DIY community is being noticed. I was talking to Vurve about this earlier, how I was worried that maybe I was posting TOO much, but comments like this make me realize it's actually positively received.
Cheers!