THESE ARE ONLY MY OPINIONS AND CAN VARY DEPENDING ON WHO YOU TALK TO.
Most people buy mostly TFA (The Flavor Apprentice) flavors when they start because they are the cheapest and they have the most variety.
My problem with this company is their flavors are either hit or miss for me (Cheesecake for example tastes like warm vomit) The majority of their fruit flavors are on par for me (Blackberry, Dragon Fruit, Grape Candy, Grape Juice, Kiwi Double, Orange Cream, Rainbow Drops, Rainbow Sherbert, Strawberry, Strawberry (Ripe), Watermelon). I use these anywhere from 6-10% stand alone and they are all pretty true to the flavor, so if you are just looking for simple fruit I recommend these. If you are looking for a simple fruit and cream, you can mix these at 6-10% with 3% TFA Bavarian Cream.
Their Additives are nice (Ethyl Maltol, Koolada, Sour), however I don't suggest beginners mess around with sour too much as it is very good at muting flavors without making your juice sour. Koolada gives a nice cooling sensation without that taste of mint that you would get from menthol.
I am not a fan of their chocolates too much, but that is only because they all taste like Tootsie Roll to me and I want more of an authentic chocolate Flavor.
Cereal flavors by them are similar to other cereal flavors that I have tried before. I would use these at 6-8% and it gives a nice cereal with the grainy-ness that you need to really call it a cereal. If you are going for a cereal-in-milk with these flavors, I would do 6-8% of your cereal and 3% Bavarian Cream with a steep time of a week, and that should give you a nice, simple, creamy cereal.
Graham Cracker Clear, Vanilla Swirl, and Sweet Cream are all majorly used flavors in my TFA collection. When I need a little more crunch to a recipe 1-2% GCC is perfect. Vanilla Swirl and Sweet Cream are great to add a bit of creamy-ness to your mix and Sweet Cream also adds a bit of "tang" when used around 1%; perfect for yogurt vapes.
Besides Their Fruits the only stand-alone flavors I would use are Cinnamon Sugar Cookie, and Frosted Donut. These are great around 7-10% if you are just trying to mix something up on your way out the door.
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream is the last flavor I am going to talk about in this post. For some, this is the perfect base for milkshakes, fruit&cream, ice cream cone, etc. but for others it tastes like pepper. My suggestion is to flavor test it on its own before you put it into a mix so you can find out if it is good to you or bad. If you do taste pepper, there are plenty of other VBIC that you can try to get your ice cream base going.
Well that is about all I have to say for now about Easy Flavors to Work With: Flavor Apprentice Edition.
If your opinions differ or you have other flavors to add, please don't hesitate to comment below! Thanks for reading my nonsense!
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I'd say TFA Blackberry doesn't really need to be used over 1 - 1.5%. Shit's hella strong and extremely sweet. That being said, it is a great flavor if you don't over do it. I would consider this to be more of an intermediate flavoring since it's easily over done. I also feel it should have been called Undiluted Blackberry Candy.
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TFA Sweet Cream contains butyric acid and tastes like rubber or vomit depending on your palate over 2 or 3%, but that can go away after a few weeks steep. It also mutes the shit out of most fruit flavors. I've been frustrated with this one a few times.
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I would say TFA Bavarian Cream is the best on the market. Pretty easy to use at any % and super tasty.
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I feel TFA Apple Pie needs mention here, although it benefits from pairing with some other flavors, it is pretty solid in itself and is a staple for most mixers, beginner or elite.
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Another honorable mention IMO would be TFA RY4 Double. It's got the bit of tobacco with sweet caramel and a hint of vanilla that reminds you slightly of a cigarette and is super helpful as a step away from smoking. If you're serious about quitting smoking, I highly recommend this as a standalone from 4-10% based on your preference. Start low and add accordingly if it isn't enough.
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Lastly, TFA Cheesecake Graham Crust is the one most people prefer, and is pretty versatile and easy to work with. I can probably agree that plain TFA Cheesecake tastes a bit funky, but the Graham Crust version is where it's at as far as TFA goes.
Bonus link to flavor reviews wiki where you can scroll towards the bottom of the page and read all about some select TFA flavorings Feel free to submit content if you don't see something, but please follow a format.
EDIT: words and formatting. Probably more to come.
Love the additions! Thanks!
Haha, no prob. Funny thing is, if skiddz asked me to do something like this for his little big project, I'd probably put it off until the last possible minute because I'm a huge procrastinator. However, as I sit here with my Saturday evening glass of whiskey, I figured I'd throw in my two cents. Cheers!
>TFA Cheesecake Graham Crust
Eww i think this is just as gross as the cheesecake thats why i always use their graham cracker clear or cap graham instead... and CAP Ny cheesecake all the way btw
Id like to add tfa marshmallow is a great addon for about any cream to give a bit of a puffier moutfeel and it blends the creams real well like em kinda. I use it in both my cheesecake recipe and my sugardrizzle clone both at 1%. I would say it helps bridge the gap between bakeries and creams if they contrast too much
Edit: it also doesnt impart very much marshmallow flavor below like 3%. Its just a generally sweet blender
Great write up. TFA is a great company to go with, you just have to figure out which of their flavors you should be grabbing. This is a great list of said flavors and I completely agree with everything written.
Good stuff.
Of all the 'cookie' flavorings that get used around here, TFA Cinnamon Sugar Cookie is one that I rarely see. It's one of the first ones I stumbled across back when I started DIY, and to be honest, it's not bad at all, and on par with some of the more popular ones, ie. CAP Sugar Cookie. I probably wouldn't use it as a standalone, but it makes a great base to be built upon, or an accent to a cookie/bakery recipe. Nice write up OP...
You might want to add TFA Meringue. It adds a nice milkiness, but it's hard to use too much and ruin a mix. It's not a particularly strong flavor, but it works great for cereals and adds something extra to VBIC recipes.
Marshmallow is also another easy flavor to work with, plus it adds sweetness and a moist mouthfeel. I use it in just about every recipe, and it's a good sweetener alternative for people who don't want to use sucralose. Toasted Marshmallow is similar but (surprise!) has an extra note of toastiness, so it's really good in vanilla and dessert/pastry mixes. Both TFA Marshmallow flavors are very useful and hard to screw up.
TFA Whipped Cream is my favorite cream and one of my top flavors in general. I put that shiz in nearly everything.
Sometimes it tastes like warm cottage cheese to me. I think my pallet is jacked up haha
This is really important for new guys. I wasted so much money buying crap flavours from TFA that it hurts to think about. I'm glad you made a fairy extensive, and pretty concise kinda guide to TFA, instead of just telling them to fuck off and buy flavourings extracted by gold plated goats from trees in the Himalayas or some other contrived, over expensive bullshit. No one wants to pump money into something they don't know if they'll like or not, and TFA is a really good beginning platform that I still use. I mean, obviously the expensive stuff is good still, but not best for new people if they wanna try it Thanks
No worries! Especially 12.76 for a 15ml bottle of FLV Rich Cinnamon! Like DAMNNN. For people who are starting out they should stick with the big 5 and see if they like it. But there are so many hit or miss flavors that a beginner (like me a few years ago) buys almost the whole line because a lot of them sound good and ended up throwing most of them in the bin.
TY for the information! I agree with pretty much everything you said. That bav cream and VBIC they did a really good job with. Their vanilla custard is also a very forgiving ingredient that I think gets overlooked pretty often due to it's CAP competition.