Hi, vape friends!
It's officially Hot As Fuck in my part of the world, so I'm feeling less like vaping super-heavy custard and more like vaping fruit.
I had a good flavor fuck-around session last weekend, finally discovered the joy and speed of mixing by weight, and came away from it with a recipe to share.
Papaya Twist
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5% FA Papaya
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2% CAP Golden Pineapple
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2% TFA Orange Mandarin
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3% INW Coconut
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1% TFA Key Lime
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1% TFA Marshmallow
Going for something a little more mellow than the usual pineapple-heavy tropical fruits mix. This is pretty rich and dark, for a fruit-only recipe. Good for a shake 'n vape, but after 48 hours of steeping it's changed a bit and become nice and robust.
Papaya: The meat and potatoes. FA Papaya is a fairly accurate flavor, right down to the slight earthy, pulpy flavor of optimally ripe papaya flesh. It's a little bit spicy at the end of the exhale, sweet on its own, but not quite sweet enough to carry the entire mix, so I found it some friends.
Pineapple: It wouldn't be tropical fruits without this. Since the papaya concentrate is a little lacking in sweetness, I chose a sweeter pineapple. It doesn't stick out in the overall flavor, but like garlic in spaghetti sauce, the absence of it would be obvious. For a sharper, more tart pineapple, substitute half or all of it for TFA.
Orange Mandarin + Key Lime: A few more sweetness boosters, and a slightly tart edge from the Key lime. Orange Mandarin plays really well with the papaya, boosting that deep orange 'tropical' flavor. And of course, papaya with lime is a classic. Lime Tahiti fell out of consideration pretty quickly, as it would probably be too bitter and lime-zesty for this mix.
Coconut + Marshmallow: INW's coconut is more like coconut milk than coconut flesh, and it works well with marshmallow to give everything a smooth, well-blended flavor without much harshness. My favorite smoothie combination is papaya, lime and coconut water, and this recipe gives a good shout-out to that.
I had intended to throw some TFA Philippine Mango into this mix, but completely forgot I'd bought that until after I'd shaken it all up and vaped a bit of it. It doesn't seem to suffer for the lack of mango, though. I'm not even going to bother trying to work it into a later revision.
Koolada would be a fine addition, as with any fruit blend, but I opted to leave it out of the first version so I could get a taste of just the fruit.
You weren't kidding when you said lime & coconut was your jam
I just got FA Papaya and TFA Papaya last week to compare them and haven't had a chance to try them out yet. Is 5% a good place to start with FA Papaya?
I was most definitely not kidding.
5% seems like a good starting point for most FA fruits. If the papaya starts to taste a little bit soapy, you could probably drop it to 3-4% in this recipe and it'd still come out on top.
Thank you very much. I'm apparently extra-sensitive to "soapy" so I think I'll give a standalone 3% a try first before I do anything else with it. I'm still missing a flavor for your recipe but saved it for later.
PSA for anyone newish seeing this highly skilled mixologist TheCatHimself recommending 5% as a good starting place for most FA fruits, I think an emphasis needs to go on "most" because I definitely would not suggest trying FA Mango, Passionfruit, Blackberry, or Black Cherry that high. Probably wouldn't want to do it with Mangosteen or White Peach either but not sure about those. Also either of the Lime Tahitis and Orange might be OK standalone that high but wouldn't recommend putting that much of them in most mixes because they'll bulldoze right over most other flavors.
What can I sub golden pineapple for
Any other pineapple concentrate would probably work fine. Mango, dragonfruit, strawberry or raspberry might also be good in place of pineapple but I haven't tried any of those.