Good afternoon DIY!

Here we go, something bright and summery for all of y'all considering we're getting into the thick of the warm season. I've been messing with a strawberry citrus vape for a few weeks here, and nothing was working out for me. Straight strawberry lemon just wasn't satisfying. My lime flavours just weren't working for a strawberry limeade. Then it hit me, a pavlova would be perfect here. Pavlova is a dessert from New Zealand that is essentially just a giant plate of crispy meringue, topped with whipped cream and fruit. Simple.

Strawberry Citrus Pavlova

• TFA Strawberry Ripe at 6%
• TFA Strawberry at 1.5%
• FA Meringue at 1.5%
• TFA Vanilla Swirl at 1%
• CAP Lemon Lime at 2.5%
• TFA Nectarine at 1.5%
• TFA Cotton Candy at 1%
• FA Cookie at 0.75%

All The Flavors Recipe

Flavour Notes

TFA Strawberry Ripe/TFA Strawberry - I had been struggling to bump up my strawberry flavours without using the Dragonfruit crutch that I've been known to use in almost every recipe. I didn't entirely like any other strawberry that I've tried as a standalone, but the TFA Ripe/TFA Strawberry combination at those percentages really work. You get the base notes from the Strawberry Ripe of sort of the light pinky fleshy notes. Nice and tart, crisp, and bright. The regular Strawberry imparts the darker red, juicy, sweet flavour notes. Either on their own just don't work for me, but together, I love the authentic strawberry flavour.

FA Meringue/FA Cookie - the obvious base of meringue for the recipe. FA Meringue starts to get a bit of a cereal milk flavour when you push it into higher percentages, but even more noticeable is it's eggy background notes at percentages over 2%. Because I was going for a more airy vape, I avoided pushing this flavour too high, I just wanted that crispy sugary flavour. Using Cookie in low percentages here just helps soak up any residual dense eggy notes while also adding a little extra crunch. The flavour isn't really there in terms of being a cookie, but it just helps give a little more graininess to the sugars.

CAP Lemon Lime/TFA Nectarine/TFA Cotton Candy - here's the citrusy accent notes. In an earlier recipe, I had CAP Lemon Lime at 3% and TFA Cotton Candy at 1.5%, and while it still worked, I was just getting a little too much bite from the Lemon Lime, and the sweetener was muting the other nuances that I wanted to shine, in particular, the nectarine. Even here, TFA Cotton Candy isn't necessary, but it just helps add a little extra touch of sweetness to the meringue base. Finally, that nectarine acts as a light little accent of a sweet stone fruit that I wanted here. It brings an extra bit juiciness to the strawberries, while giving some more body to the lemon lime. A nice little bridge between the two main fruit flavours.

TFA Vanilla Swirl - to prevent loading this recipe up with sweetener, I avoided using any sort of actual whipped cream flavour, and decided on Vanilla Swirl. Using this adds a touch of a creamy flavour without any of that thick mouthfeel, while also adding a splash of vanilla flavour that just helps mellow out all of the tartness from the citrus notes. In a future attempt, I am thinking about throwing in a bit of FA Fresh Cream to bring a bit more creaminess in here.

Ratio and Steep Time - as always, I prefer 70vg/30pg, and the steep time needs about 2 days to let the nectarine mellow out and bring forward the sweetness of the meringue and the vanilla swirl. Still good as a shake and vape, but the citrus notes bring just a touch of scratchiness to the throat hit. But it is in no way all too noticeable, just might affect some of us with a little bit of sensitivity to flavour harshness.

Be sure to check out my man /u/Vurve and I on the Beginner Blending Podcast tonight at 9pm EST where he'll be talking more about his Modest Monday post, I'll be talking more about this recipe, and we'll be having a good time talking about mixing and other bullshit.

Cheers, and happy mixing!