Yay, recipe time! With the influx of new DIY-ers I thought it wise to roll out another of my more simple recipes. I chose one that's gone through several distinct revisions, to try and illustrate my development process -- so, fair warning, this one is going to be long. You can stop here and skip to Version 3 of the recipe if you want, I won't judge.

The recipe itself is a citrus cream with a little splash of strawberry. I chose orange and lemon as my citrus flavors, they seemed easier to work with, while still offering lots of different options for extract flavors. As usual, I'm mixing at 70 VG/30 PG and 3mg nicotine, with tasting notes taken after a 24h steep time.

Citrus Strawberry Cream v.1

• 6% FW Blood Orange

• 6% FA Lemon Sicily

• 3% FA Strawberry (Red Touch)

• 2% TFA Vanilla Swirl

Result: meh. A hot mess. Too much vanilla, wrong mouth feel, not enough citrus, zero strawberry. I thought at first the lack of strawberry flavor was just my problem -- I can only taste strawberry about half the time, depending on extract -- but nobody else I offered this one to could taste it either. Even at 2%, the vanilla from Vanilla Swirl seemed to dominate the recipe, and the citrus flavors tasted muddled. Far more orange than lemon, and at that concentration the Blood Orange got all bitter and pithy tasting. Bleh.

Version 2

• 6% FA Lemon Sicily

• 4% FA Strawberry (Red Touch)

• 3% FW Blood Orange

• 2% CAP Sweet Cream

• 1% TFA Greek Yogurt

We're getting somewhere. The cream base is just right; some Sweet Cream to smooth everything together, some Greek Yogurt to bump the citrus tartness forward, and no vanilla. This ain't no creamsicle.

The citrus is more in balance here, too. Blood Orange still tastes slightly bitter but it's within the range of being a pleasant bitterness, and the orange pith/orange peel notes are almost gone. Lemon Sicily is distinct enough to be recognized as a bright lemon flavor, over top of the cream and orange.

I still can't taste the damn strawberry, but a few other people can almost taste it. Poor Red Touch needs some help. I was at a loss for what to do with it at this point, because Red Touch was the only strawberry extract I had on hand that I knew I could taste.

Version 3

• 6% FA Lemon Sicily

• 4% TFA Orange Mandarin

• 3% FW Blood Orange

• 3% INW Shisha Strawberry

• 3% FA Strawberry (Red Touch)

• 2% CAP Sweet Cream

• 1% TFA Greek Yogurt

Now we're cooking with gas!

Orange Mandarin + Blood Orange + Lemon Sicily: A big, well-balanced ball of citrus flavors rolling around in cream. Orange Mandarin helps to tame some of Blood Orange's bitterness and bring some sweetness to the overall mix. as well as a nice syrupy orange-confection flavor. The orange and lemon flavors remain distinct from each other and sort of elbow for position as the most dominant flavor in the recipe, which I really enjoy. One inhale will taste lemony, the next more like oranges.

Shisha Strawberry + Strawberry (Red Touch): Shisha Strawberry is magical. Like, holy shit it's magical. A rich, robust strawberry flavor, not too sweet, not candy-like, and I can actually taste it! This is exactly what the recipe needed. The two extracts combine to give a smooth strawberry exhale with cream and a hint of lingering citrus, mostly lemon. I'm surprised the strawberry isn't overpowering at 6% overall, but very pleased with the result.

Sweet Cream + Greek Yogurt: Remember when I said I use CAP Sweet Cream in every recipe I have that includes cream? I wasn't kidding. The Greek Yogurt here adds just a hint of tartness to help push all that citrus flavor forward, and fill in the missing parts in the body of Sweet Cream. The result is the kind of cream flavor you'd get from whipping cream that's sweetened and thickened up, but still runny enough to pour off a spoon.

I'm pretty happy with where the recipe is sitting now. The fruits are roughly where I want them to be, with the exception of the lemon. While it's nice and forward, I think it could do with a hint more complexity; maybe some INW Lemon Mix. Most of my impulse to tinker with the recipe is in the cream base. I still need to get my hands on some FA Fresh Cream and see what swapping that in for Sweet Cream does to shake things up, and I want to try using a little more Greek Yogurt without turning it into a yogurt juice. However, I've gotten this recipe to the point that if laziness takes over and I never touch it again, it's still a satisfying, tasty vape.

Happy mixing, folks!