Hello DIYers!

A while back I got into a little recipe challenge with a friend of mine: make something good, with the weirdest concentrate we could find. The weirdest being FA Zen Garden. Well, actually there were some weirder ones, but most of those were discarded as being too gross. TFA Mary Jane, looking at you. I kept forgetting to order Zen Garden, though, so after finally getting my hands on it, this is what I've come up with.

Challenge Mode: Zen Garden

• 3% Hangsen Pineapple

• 3% CAP Golden Pineapple

• 1% TFA Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

• 1% FA Fresh Cream

• 0.2% FA Zen Garden

• 0.5% Koolada (optional)

Pineapple: I have finally branched out from TFA Pineapple. Hangsen and CAP are both decent on their own, but together they form a nice sweet, well rounded pineapple flavor that isn't all top notes. Adding a little bit of TFA Pineapple on top of Hangsen + CAP also gives good results, but not what I wanted for this particular recipe -- I wanted something more smooth, like a sweetened pineapple puree.

VBIC + Fresh Cream: Just a little bit. Fresh Cream really bulks up the pineapple flavor, and VBIC tips the whole thing over into smoothie/gelato/sorbet territory. Right where I want it.

Zen Garden: It's basil. It's fucking basil. Bright, green, magical and savory basil. After a 10-day steep, it's also not as strong in this mix as I expected it to be based on smell and tongue test, so in my next batch I'll probably boost it up to 0.5% and see how that works out. Zen Garden adds a really unique kind of complex, leafy back note/exhale that's very different from any of the tea or natural mint flavors. It does remind me a very, very little bit of green tea, but not as earthy.

Koolada: Entirely optional. Honestly, I don't even notice it in the batch I'm vaping right now, so I'll probably leave it out next time.

Pineapple-basil gelato is one of my absolute favorite summer treats, so once I figured out what Zen Garden actually is, I had to try to recreate that sweet pineapple and leafy basil flavor as a vape. Also if you've never had pineapple-basil gelato, I urge you to find some and try it, it's fantastic.

EDIT: I missed a paragraph in my copy-paste. This recipe absolutely needs to steep. 10 days minimum. Before the 10-day mark it has some really funky, grassy off notes and an unpleasant bitterness as the wicks start to dry out. Something in the pineapple concentrates (I assume) has a slight tendency to gunk up cotton and coils, as well.

Cheers!