Preface: I didn't see any Mango Lassi recipes in this sub via reddit search or google search, so I thought it might deserve its own post. This is a profile that I've been working on for some time now and although I don't think it's perfect, this is where I've landed on it. If anyone has some ideas on where to take this, or is able to mix it up and provide feed back it'd be much appreciated!
Mango Lassi
Steep Time: 1 week
20PG/80VG
- INW Mango @ .5%
- TFA Phillipine Mango @ 3.5%
- CAP Creamy Yogurt @ 3%
- CAP Greek Yogurt @ 2%
- FA Fresh Cream @ .5%
- FA Meringue @ 1%
Notes
A Mango Lassi is a middle eastern creamy yogurt drink blended with mango; this recipe does a good job of representing that.
Much experimentation has brought me to the mango mix of .5% INW and 3.5% TFA Phillipine mango. The Phillipine Mango does a nice job of bringing sweetness and juiciness to the mango profile, but lacks some of the brightness. INW Mango brings out that brightness and really rounds out the mango -- any higher on the INW Mango and it will get too floral.
I've messed around with the yogurt/cream base a bit and out of what I've tried this seems to be the best. CAP Creamy Yogurt gives it some nice creaminess that we want, but lacks some of the tartness and CAP Greek Yogurt gives some of that body and tartness we want from this profile. TFA Sweet Cream (which is kind of low on the "dairy" spectrum) brought out too much of a dairy note, which I want to avoid. Other vanilla-y creams don't mesh well with the mango flavor.
Overall, I feel it could still use some work, but I think this is a really good spot for this recipe.
Bear in mind that I haven't tried it yet, because I need to order CAP Creamy Yogurt. But you asked for ideas on where to take this and I have one:
Take it to Koolada-town. Maybe in Punjab or wherever they drink hot yogurt, but here in America we blend our mango lassis with crushed ice.
Good idea sir! I'll give that a try. My lady goes to this Bikram place where I guess they do a hot yogurt dance
Aw shit...I thought about this when I was at an Indian place the other day. Thanks for sharing it. Im going to try one out too, making some subs for what I've got.
I've been working a mango lassi for a few months, but with cap sweet mango and tpa mango, any comparison to your preferred mangos? Also, cardamom is a very often used spice used in mango lassi, try it. FA cardamom is very realistic and plays wonderfully with mango!
Not OP and may never be as good a mixer as he, but I think you could make an even better lassi with CAP Sweet. However, I find it to be almost too sweet, like overripe fruit, and yet somehow is also "dry" at the same time. Philippine Mango has more of a mild, nectary sweetness. TFA Mango is almost useless to me, but it does bring some of that tropical earthiness you expect from a mango. Two problems with all three of these flavors is that they lack the hint of sort-of banana-like creaminess that mango flesh has (no doubt compensated for with the yogurt in this) and more importantly, they lack those, sharp, bright, almost-but-not-quite tart notes that make mango so magnificent. CheebaSteeba's use of INW Mango aims to make up for that. In small amounts, there might be another mango (FA?) or some other fruits with those kind of profiles that will do the same thing.
SC Mango has all the qualities of a perfect mango and tastes AMAZING for the first day or two after mixing but fades into a much flatter profile after that. I've not tried it after more than a couple of days but with a half-life like that I'd not be surprised to find it completely gone in a week. And that's a standalone, the only way I've tried it so far. It might not be able to hold it's own in a mix at all.
TLDR; Mango is hard
What % are you using the cardamom? I also think it's very realistic, but I've been working on a couple of things with it and finding that even 0.3 is overdoing it.
INW mango is very realistic I don't get any floral notes from it and I use it at 3%, it lacks the body and the sweetness of a tropical mango, I use FA Cantaloupe Melon and White Peach to bring the body thats missing in INW mango.
I agree it's super realistic. I tried it solo at 4%, 3%, 2%, 1%, .5% and .5% was the only one where I didn't get any floral notes from it; maybe I'm weird lol. Ooh that's a really good idea with the peach & cantaloupe, will be interesting to check those out in conjunction!
> TFA Mango is almost useless to me, but it does bring some of that tropical earthiness you expect from a mango
This is the only reason I like TPA Mango. The peppery earthiness is why I like actual mango to begin with, but I seem to be the odd one out on that. Similar to TPA Rasin's bitterness I've found a few uses at low %'s for TPA Mango due to that earthiness. It's easy to steam roll over with other flavors though.
I love and hate both Cap sweet and TFA Mango, but they do play well together but indeed lack that tropical top note sweetness. And like I answered to OP, I had cardamom at 0.5% at some point and couldn't taste it behind the mango and the lassi after a few days.
Haha, maybe I needed to let the cardamom steep. I gave it a taste and was like, "NOPE!" toss. I have one other recipe in which I used cardamom and I felt like it got stronger as it steeped so I figured it would have the same effect here after steep. I was thinking of dropping it even further (I have a dilution so it's ok lol) because I really want that cardamom note in there.
Along with the peach and cantaloupe ideas others have mentioned, your (insightful) comment about that "sort-of banana-like creaminess" mangoes have makes me think a scant amount of tfa banana cream might do well in a mango profile. BC is easily overpowered by other flavors, so there's little danger of it actually tasting like bananas.
So I just got CAP sweet mango in and doing some single flavor tests I don't think I like it, lol. You're right in the note that it tastes over-ripe. I don't get as much sweetness as I would have liked from it. I would imagine it might make for a nice mango tone to the mix though. What % do you typically use it at? Other ideas to pick up the missing pieces in mango so far are cantaloupe (just got FLV Cantaloupe in and this stuff is great), maybe apricot.
Right now I'm in the middle of reevaluating everything I've done with mango in the past. Previously I mostly used it at 3% or below in a combination with around 6% TFA and 1% FA Mangoes (TFA for earthiness, FA for brightness with a slight creaminess behind it, and hoping to balance over- with under-ripe). I did go up to 4% in a couple of mixes hoping to get more sweetness out of it.
In the future, I'm probably going to keep using it around 2%... along with, for starters, something like SC Mango 2.5%, INW 0.5%, and FA 0.5%. I haven't figured out how much TFA Mango and/or Philippine Mango is going to go with those, if any. I'm also going to stop pre-mixing them together into a mango base, from now on every recipe gets it's own mango mix with different ratios.
I've tried FA Cardamom at both .0625% and .125% and it was just overtaking the mango too much. Would be nice in a sweet lassi though!
That's odd, I have it at 0.5% in mine and can't taste it after a few days. Maybe my mangoes or other differing ingredients handle the cardamom a bit different.
I would say you're right about dif mangoes reacting to cardamom differently. I've tried for a mango lassi a couple of times and failed--the second time because of approximately 0.5% fa cardamom. I've never had fa cardamom taste so strong or so weird and spicy--almost peppery--as it did with INW mango.
I've been wanting this juice for a long time. Nat, I have everything but the phillipine mango... About that: I have fa, fw and inw mangoes. I've only stayed away from phillipine fearing it might taste more like the small pithy mangoes you get in, say, PR--"horse mangoes" they call them. The flavor is totally different to from the giant, sweet, supermarket mangoes you get in the US. Is phillipine mango spicy like horse mangoes, or sweet and juicy like the big ones? Edit: read onward, below and found this (for me) good news - "Philippine Mango has more of a mild, nectary sweetness..."