THE PROFILE:
Ever since a good friend took me to a restaurant and showed me Taiyaki I've been obsessing over Taro. This shit is magical. I needed to vape it. I went online and looked at some recipes and stumbled onto this recipe for Taro Mooncakes. I think they look delicious. So, I set off on a quest to make something like this. After several attempts, I learned that it doesn't exactly translate to vapor very well. Between the density of the cake and the earthy undertones of the Taro, it was just too...dark and heavy. Didn't sit well. Decided to take it in a different direction.
After lots of pondering, I figured I'd go with something that always seems to work. Custard. Who doesn't like it? Sweet, creamy, and plays well with others. I decided on the main notes I wanted to hit.
- Cream
- Coconut
- Taro
I already had a custardy "base" of sorts laying around from a failed flavor before. I call it creambone. It's inspired from different "stones" I've seen throughout the DIY communities. It's nothing terribly original, but it does the trick. I keep a 30mL of this on hand for whenever I want something to be creamy.
Here's the recipe for Creambone.
Flavor | % ---|--- TFA Bavarian Cream | 27.00% FLV Sweet Coconut | 5.00% TFA Marshmallow | 14.00% CAP Vanilla Custard | 20.00% TFA Whipped Cream | 15.00% FA Meringue | 1.00% TFA Sweetener | 5.00% CAP Vanilla bean Ice Cream | 3.00% PG | 10% Total | 100%
You can totally remove the sweetener if you desire. It definitely makes a difference, but I know most of you don't care for the stuff.
BAVARIAN CREAM: Boy do I love this stuff. So delicious. Definitely a crucial ingredient to any good custard vape if you ask me. The bold creaminess backed by a mild vanilla really makes it a great compliment to most fruity and creamy vapes. This is the backbone of this flavor.
SWEET COCONUT: Very strong coconut. I prefer this over TFA because I think it has more of a natural shredded coconut flavor whereas the TFA alternative is more like a perfume. A little bit of this stuff goes a long way. You can definitely taste it in the final product. I think this is an important accent to the Taro's earthiness.
MARSHMALLOW: This is pretty much only here for mouthfeel. The other flavors included in this base are too strong for you to really pick up on the marshmallow. It just gives it a fluffier, fuller mouthfeel.
VANILLA CUSTARD: I don't think I need to justify using this one in here. Everyone knows how magical this shit is. It's perfect. It makes everything better.
WHIPPED CREAM: Light vanilla cream accents to back up the custard. This is just an enhancer to CAPCUSTV1.
MERINGUE: Honestly, I don't know if it's doing much here. My idea was to give it somewhat of a "Baked Alaska" profile. You could probably drop this, but I haven't tried it without.
VANILLA BEAN ICE CREAM: Strong vanilla to make sure it's loud enough to be heard over other notes. Also adds a certain peppery note that I enjoy. Hard to describe, but it's a barely there kind of thing.
This is getting longer than I planned.
Now that we have the base made, we need to perform one more crucial step. Taro might be the strongest flavoring extract I've ever used. Holy shit. Using it at 0.3% is incredibly powerful. We've got to make a 10% dilution.
Flavor | % ---|--- TFA Taro | 10.00% PG | 90.00% Total | 100%
Finally, we can make this fucking juice! The nice thing about this one is that once you've made the bases, it's dead simple to throw together. Here's the recipe.
Flavor | % ---|--- Creambone | 8.00% Taro 10% | 1.00% TFA Strawberry (Ripe) | 3.00% FA Fuji | 1.00% TFA White Chocolate | 1.00% Total | 14%
I'm gonna be perfectly honest, I don't know how to do the clever math to turn all the bases and everything into a single recipe. I developed the recipe this way and have just stuck to doing it that way. However, if you enjoy taro taiyaki, you're probably gonna love this flavor. My favorite part is how different it is from every other juice I make. It's the ultimate vapors tongue killer.
TARO 10%: Even at 10% this stuff is strong. Tread lightly with Taro. If you spill it, the smell WILL linger. If you're really into it you could bump it up to 2% in the final recipe, but I'd advise against going any higher. I honestly don't have enough words to describe how strong this stuff is. A dab will do ya.
STRAWBERRY (RIPE): Everyone loves this stuff. This gives it a little fruity brightness just to keep the flavor balanced. What I find interesting is that it seems somewhat anonymous in this mix. It's not obviously strawberry. It's just...fruity...barely...Hard to describe.
FUJI: This is to back up the strawberry. I think this is a major role in the anonymity of the fruitiness. Again, very mild in the final mix. I think it's important to state again that this isn't a fruit vape. These notes are supporting roles. I think that if you didn't know they were there to begin with, you'd never guess.
WHITE CHOCOLATE: Another very potent extract. I think it plays very well with the coconut in creambone to balance out the custard base. Again, definitely not a star flavor, but an interesting little something to add. Honestly, I don't think it tastes all that much like white chocolate. It's just smooth and somewhat creamy.
Steep Time: 1 Week It's shake and vapeable, but the cream really doesn't come out until after about 5 days. I think it's worth the wait.
Sorry if I broke any formatting rules. This was my first stab at this. I think it's a pretty cool flavor. Definitely not for everyone, but for those that enjoy it, I think it's a unique experience you won't find in a vape shop.
-SteepingTakesTimes
EDIT: I forgot to mention I always mix 50/50.
DOUBLE EDIT: Obligatory thanks for the gold. :)
Such an incredible first submission. The notes are impeccable, and the recipe itself is so complex and unique that I almost don't believe it's your first. But either way, taro is a fickle thing even in cooking, vaping it seemed impossible to me. This is going into the bank of recipes I need to try.
Thanks for posting, and please continue posting quality shit like this.
Edit: had to come through for /u/tranceinate and gild this. Had some extra gold lying around ;) so give trance all the praise for this.
Thanks for the gold! I'm pleased to be getting such a positive response. And just to clear things up, I didn't mean to imply this was my first recipe. Just my first I'm proud enough of to share. I definitely plan on sharing more in the future, but it takes me time to refine my recipes. As you might be able to tell I'm a little meticulous with my mixing.
I have other "finished" recipes, but I don't think this subreddit needs another strawberry cream or fruit loops. There's too many already, which just makes it harder to find the real gems. The way I see it, if I'm gonna contribute it better be either truly outstanding, or new/unique.
Thanks again for the gold. Sorry for rambling.
Not a problem, you deserved it for that recipe. And yeah, I assumed it wasn't your first given the notes and understanding of flavours, I guess I should have specified with your first posted recipe.
And I really like that mentality of not posting everything you come up with. I tend to do that as well unless I'm struggling with something and need some help. I've a decent strawberry cream type recipe but, like you said, what's the real point in posting it? The only SC recipe I've seen recently that deserved it's own post was that Cliché recipe that skiddlz posted recently. But that's because it was tight and had that rotating element to it.
I definitely wouldn't mind you sharing your strawberries and cream or your fruit loops. I can't taste some strawberries anymore so it's nice to have some new ones to try!
/praise's Canadian Matt
You're the one that coughed it up so all praise to you & OP for this glorious thread!
BTW only my warcraft friends call me trace -_-
Also! Why does the Internet constantly think I'm Canadian?! Is it because my last name looks like Canada at first glance?! Hahaha. I live in Indiana.
Holy shit.... I want to get on this taro kick. That sounds amazing! I'm not going to make it a week to try this out. I have some taro and just couldn't get it to not suck.
Though I guess I should wait, I mean steeping takes time (see what I did there...)
For your first submission: this is seriously beyond excellent. I wish all first submissions looked like this. Great job, yo! I'd gild you if I could, & this is making its way into my list of recipes to one day maybe order/try
Thanks a bunch! I've been lurking for years. Finally made an account so I could contribute. I've learned a lot from this sub and feel like I need to bring something to the table.
I tried to take my time and be thorough. Good notes are important to me. :)
I love that name, "Creambone". That's a hell of a recipe and a really respectable first post man, keep it up! I've got everything except Taro. I'll have to try this out when I get around to ordering more.
Holy crap, I finally have something to do with my Taro flavoring. I bought it on my second purchase order from Wizard Labs because I always make a point to buy something weird every purchase I make.
Never came up with anything because it was so strong and I wasn't very experienced yet (see note: I purchased from Wizard Labs)
Once I do the math and get this all compiled down to a single recipe, I'll try this out.
Also, my Mr. Tranceinate already pointed out, amazing write up. You obviously read the sidebar. You have an upvote from me sir.
That is different. I think I'd be the only person in my circle of friends/juice moochers who enjoys it, if I mix it, but that isn't going to stop me.
Yeah. It's definitely one of those profiles that is very hit or miss. At risk of sounding prejudice, I've found that only my Asian friends or friends that are very familiar with Asian culture/cuisine enjoy it. Everyone else finds it strange and off putting. It kind of makes sense because you don't ever see it in Western food, but dammit, I think it's awesome!
If I don't tell them what's in it, they might go for it. Luckily, I lived in Hawaii for a while when I was younger, so I got exposed to a lot of weird food like taro and Spam, so I know what I'm getting into here.
Great post. How would you describe the flavor of taro itself?
Technically speaking it is a relative of the sweet potato. It's earthy and very sweet. Hard to describe. If you have an asian market near you, I recommend picking up something with Taro in it. If you've ever had a pepperidge farm pirouette, you can get something just like those. Basically a sugar wafer tube with taro filling. Totally awesome!
I've never had the flavor concentrate, but actual taro is comparable to sweet potato (although a lot of people who don't like sweet potatoes are partial to taro root...interestingly). It's very nutty, with notes of vanilla. It's very versatile in terms of cooking; lending well to sweet or savory dishes.