Well, hello again.

It's been quite a while, hasn't it? If you listen to the Beginner Blending podcast, you'll know why I have been pretty silent as of late, but if you don't, I'll give the tl;dr version.

I recently moved out of my baby momma's house, and the whole process of moving and trying to furnish an apartment when you're in a pretty shitty financial situation is not fun. On top of this, I've been struggling to find a job that actually supports my son and I in a good way. I am not unemployed any longer, but I basically only get part time hours right now, so the living paycheck to paycheck struggle is real. But, I'm working on getting better, mentally and financially. So with this, here's the recipe to Applebacco, something new I'd been working on for about a month that's really getting good.

Applebacco : a sweet caramel apple with notes of mild tobacco, brown sugar, and almond.

• FA Soho at 9%
• FA Fuji at 3.5%
• FA Stark Apple at 1.25%
• TFA Brown Sugar at 2%
• FA Caramel at 2%
• FA Marzipan at 1%
• TFA Vanilla Swirl at 1.25%

All The Flavors recipe link

Steep Time / Flavour Notes

Steep - necessary one week steep time to really come together and mellow out. It works as a shake and vape, but there is some harshness and the flavours don't meld together as nicely as they do after a week.

FA Soho - what to say about this wonderful flavour? It's a nice light tobacco flavour with notes of caramel, vanilla, and a touch of an overall "bakery" taste. At low percentages, you really can't pick up on anything. I've found 7.5 - 10% is the sweet spot for this flavour. At 10%, it's a little too much for this recipe, and you start to lose the punch that the apple flavours bring to the mix. 8.5 - 9% is my favourite range for this recipe, and after a week, this flavour steps back to let the other flavours shine on the inhale, but you get this beautiful woodsy and sweet aftertaste on the exhale.

FA Fuji / FA Stark Apple - you already know how much I love Fuji. It's crisp, tart, and full of delicious green apple/honeycrisp goodness. My first few attempts at this recipe only used Fuji, but I found that adding in the Stark Apple brings some nice depth to the fruit notes. The super sweet red apple notes from Stark really give the Fuji some more intricacy. Try throwing some Liquid Amber in this if you want the apples to take a step back, but be warned, you'll really lose the separation of flavours by doing this. It does work for the recipe, but it makes everything feel too balanced for my liking.

TFA Brown Sugar / FA Caramel - I used these to play off of the bakery notes found in Soho. The Brown Sugar actually complements both the apples and the tobacco here, and pushes the tobacco slightly into a more full flavoured realm, which is great. The Caramel still isn't too noticeable to me in any mix I put it in, but it does add a nice little blending effect to the mix as a whole after steeping. Not really like Liquid Amber blends EVERYTHING together, but the Caramel just adds smoothness and sort of binds all of the flavours to each other.

FA Marzipan / TFA Vanilla Swirl - Just accent notes. Nothing much to say here. They aren't noticeable, but it's noticeable without them. I added these in here to boost the accent notes within Soho. I loved how I could slightly pick up on vanilla and almond in the solo tests of Soho, so adding these in here boosts the sweetness of the recipe naturally, while also upping those accents within Soho. Just a nice boost of flavour without having to up the percentages of the other flavours.

Well, that's it. Be sure to follow on All The Flavors, be sure to listen to the Beginner Blending podcast every Monday night at 9:15PM EST. And keep mixing, keep fucking up, and keep having fun.

Much love to all of you. And hopefully I won't disappear for another month.

Cheers!