Thank you to everyone who participated in last week's Flavor of The Week, Pecan.
As always, the purpose of this thread is to gather the community to explore a flavor and its many uses. And it's also to have FUN!
Post recipes containing this week's Flavor of the Week, as the star or in a supporting role, with or without development notes. Talk about other people's recipes that use it. Compare and contrast different manufacturers' versions of the FOTW. Ask for help using that flavor in general or to achieve something specific, offer advice, brainstorm ideas, consider substitutions, suggest pairings... really anything at all as long as it's on topic.
This week's flavor is: Pomegranate
Past FOTW posts can be found here
Prepare yourselves, next week's FOTW will be: Pear - as suggested by /u/CheebaSteeba
The week after that will be: Custard Apple Fruits (INW & FLV Cherimoya, FLV Soursop, FLV Guanabana)
The week after that will be: Berry Blends (for example: FA Forest Fruit, CAP Harvest Berry, TFA Mixed Berry)
EDIT:
The week after that will be: Kiwi
The week after that will be: Pineapple
(thanks to /u/HashSlingingSlashur for pointing out that Kiwi and Pineapple have never been used for FOTW! This is a situation that needs to be rectified!)
The week after that will be: Blackberry - thanks for the idea /u/Coop34
The week after that will be: ??? You tell me. Take this opportunity to suggest one that interests you (or send me a PM to do that). Otherwise I'm going to pick something like passionfruit, papaya, or peanut butter, just because I'm still in a P mood.
I usually use the TFA one, havent tried another, a bit floral but not too much, i enjoy it :)
TFA to me is the best Pomengranite, a good mix of candy and natural fruit. I use at around 3% in a mix, if not for the floral notes would be one of my favorite concentrates. TFA Pomengranite Deluxe and LA Pomengranite are useful aswell, FA Pomengraite for a more natural bitter taste.
Here's a nice straight Pom juice recipe..
TFA Pomengranite- 3%
TFA Pomengranite Deluxe- 3%
FA Blackcurrant- 2%
FA Jamacian Rhum- 1.8%
TFA Sweetner- 1%
What would you say is the difference between TFA Pomegranate and TFA Pomegranate Deluxe?
TFA Pomengranite is more candy like, but a great one when used right. I've taken it up to 4% and made it work although gets quite florally, any lower than 3% and that great candy taste doesn't come out enough. Deluxe is a bit more natural tasting and closer to FA's version, has a nice refreshing juiciness to it and very little floral notes, rate it slightly over FA's. FA's is good if going for a natural fruit, doesn't really have any off notes or harshness, good but not quite a stand alone flavour. LA's is another good candy one and reasonably strong, would recommend around 2.5-3% in a mix.
I like TFA Pomegranate a lot. Overall a pretty balanced flavor, a bit sweet, a bit tart, a bit juicy, it tends to overpower other flavors though.
I go through a decent quantity of it, mostly with this simple TFA berry recipe.
Also, basically the only recipe I've come up with on my own that's halfway decent is based on TFA pomegranate:
All TFA
Pomegranate 4%
Strawberry 6%
Dragonfruit 2%
Mango 2%
Marshmallow 3%
Of course I have no real clue what I was doing but this one seems to have come out ok. (Suggestions for improvement welcome)
Ingredient|% :---|---: Bavarian Cream (FW)|2 Fuji Apple (FA)|0.5 Pomegranate (TPA)|4 Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (TPA)|2 Vanilla Custard v1 (CAP)|6 Vanilla Swirl (TPA)|1.5 Whipped Cream (TPA)|1
Flavor total: 17%
Ingredient|% :---|---: Ethyl Malthol 10% (TPA)|0.3 Koolada 10% (TPA)|0.3 Mango (TPA)|0.3 Papaya (TPA)|5.3 Peach (Juicy) (TPA)|5.3 Pomegranate (TPA)|5.3 Strawberry (Ripe) (TPA)|0.3
Flavor total: 17.1%
Yummy, that Pomilla custard makes me wish I had TFA Pomegranate to mix it up and give it a try.
What's up with the all odd %ages in Peapompap? Would it really make much difference if someone were to leave out the 0.3 Mango or Strawberry Ripe?
FA Pomegranate is one of my go-tos. I'm new but both of my successes so far involve it, and involve the same formula, Pom, Sweet, and Citrus.
Apple Pom:
FA Pomegranate 3.4
FA Fuji 2.4
FA Lemon Sicily 0.9
It technically needs a few days for the LS to settle down but is an acceptable S&V
Honeysuckle Pom:
FA Pomegranate 3.2
TFA Honeysuckle 3.7
INW Lime 1.2
Yes that's a lot of lime but it really fights against the HS. It also falls off quite a bit as it steeps and HS has to steep.
I only have a few Pomegranate flavors, that I hardly use.
CAP Pomegranate was a total disappointment. Weak at low percentages, and when you go high enough it's weird plastic perfume with a pomegranate after taste.
TFA Pomegranate is alright. I sort of like the floral notes in it, but the candy notes are off putting for me. It reminds me of a tart version of the TFA Swedish Fish flavor, with the weird perfume after flavor.
TFA Pomegranate deluxe is a much better pomegranate and gets the most mileage for the % for me. Tart and still moderately sweet, without being too much of a candy flavor.
I will be allllll up in the coming weeks. I'm a huge pear fan, a lover of weird other exotic fruits. (fun fact: cherimoya, guanabana, and soursop are all from the same family of fruit bearing trees) and all the others you have listed.
This was the only reference to CAP Pomegranate so I'll chime in. I agree, it's either kinda weak or perfumey. Reminds me of Skittles. Pretty tart. That said, I actually prefer it over FA Pomegranate that I find way too green and floral, tastes more like chewing on the leaves than the berries.
I haven't used either much, sounds like I need TFA Pomegranate Deluxe though =)
Should I change "exotic fruits" to "Custard apple fruit family?"
Well no. According to most "exotic" fruits is a pretty wide net. It's really anything that doesn't grow locally and has to be imported, or in other circles it's anything considered outside the normal, regarded as unusual, or a cultural taboo of some sort. Call it what you want bby, I'll still show up.
This is the problem. I'm trying to narrow that net to catch flavors for which there are only one or two concentrates and that are not well known for widely used. For example, pomegranate, kiwi, passionfruit, papaya, lychee - for some, those would be considered exotic fruits. But they're far too common in e-juice and could each "carry" an entire FOTW. But cherimoya, soursop, guanabana, mangosteen? It seems like those qualify as exotic fruits. I think I'll do the "custard apple fruit family" to narrow that one week to those three, and then figure a way to catch some of the other exotics later. Thanks!
So I don't have any pomegranate flavors yet so I will be watching this thread for ideas on which ones to order. I also don't have any pear (which is a terrible shame, I know)
I bought FA Pomegranate to mix up this recipe and something by /u/Philosaphucker that I'm not finding in his ATF portfolio but that I have written down somewhere, but I'm way behind on my single-flavor testing and haven't even opened the bottle yet except to sniff it.
Dude, you need to get some pear in your life. Hopefully next week will help you decide where to get started on that.
Ahh Legion of Doom! I aim to revisit and potentially rework that one before posting on ATF because I have evolved a bit. I shall let you know this pans out over the next few days.
I only have limited experience with a few pomegranates, but here are my notes on the ones I've tried.
LA Pomegranate -- Tastes kind of like a pomegranate jolly rancher. I wasn't necessarily a big fan of this but I had a friend who was and I would typically mix this in the range of 3-5% for him
TFA Pomegranate -- Actually did some SF test yesterday on this one at 5% and I wasn't a fan; IDK if it's malic acid or something else in it, but it's not that great and kind of tastes like TFA Gummy Candy (also not that great)
CAP Blueberry Pomegranate -- Although not a full on pomegranate flavor, it does have a nice sort of pomegranate flavor as well as a somewhat brighter and tarter blueberry (of course it could seem that way due to the pomegranate). I would say not to bring this one any higher than 5% as SF and I would probably start mixing with it at 2-3% (tried at 10% and that was WAY too high!)
Where did you find LA pomegranate? I've been looking for it for a while. Only seen in Amazon.
Edit: Wizard Labs has it.
Lol ordered directly from LA; was my very first flavoring order aside from the NN concentrates. Got a loooot of stuff I can't use
Thank you for the quality comment for everyone and on a personal note, for the confirmation that FA's version was probably the right choice for my first pomegranate flavor.
Totally off topic, but I've recently given up on TFA Gummy Candy doing what I need it to do and ordered FW Gummy Bear, RF Gummy Candy, and CAP Jelly Candy to see if one or a combination of those will get the job done. Have you tried any of those?
I've tried the CAP Jelly Candy and it definitely adds a sort of gummy quality to a recipe, though I've only ever used it in a blueberry pie to sort of "gum up" the filling if that makes any sense.
Delosi Gummy Bear is so far my favorite sort of like gummy candy that I've tried, but I'll admit it's not exactly in my profile and I haven't messed with very many.
I enjoy TFA and FA Pomegranate together.
Here's a recipe of mine on ATF that uses Pomegranate as a supporting note. It is a Grapefruit, Pomegranate, Vanilla recipe with a bit of a tropical fruit blend thrown in that I was digging when it was a bit warmer than it is now.
Thanks for sharing it! Love the combination of grapefruit and vanilla and that looks great except for one thing, I'm apparently unable to enjoy the very nice flavor of FA Passionfruit because it's throat razors for me. I think there must be something in it that I'm sensitive to. I envy you not having that problem.
Dang that sucks to hear. I actually bought it on a whim when looking for some tropical fruits and I found that it with TFA Dragonfruit gives off a nice tropical taste. I'd say try it but without the FA Passionfruit and maybe go for something like HS Pineapple or maybe CAP Golden Pineapple to still attain some kind of tropical taste maybe?
/u/thedirtyprojector made a nice pomegranate cupcake profile in this months recipe thread, it's called bombcake. Does a good job of separating the bright top notes of the pomegranate with the denser creams and cake. Too lazy to post the recipe up here right now but it's an interesting profile nonetheless.
If you're going Pomegranate I gotta say SJRF's "Andromeda". It is a crowd pleaser for all my vape buddies and probably the #1 juice I make for them.
http://e-liquid-recipes.com/recipe/7562/S.J.%20Andromeda%20clone
- Blueberry Extra (TFA) - 8%
- Pomegranate (TFA) - 3%
- Vanillin 10% (TFA) - 4%
I know Berry is coming up, but I can't wait to share this with you. The Kiwi "Cheesecake" that you like so much? Swap the Kiwi for TFA Blackberry, .75%.
I only recently picked it up, but this is one of those sleeper flavors. I don't know where it been all my life. Very strong tho, stay under 1%! Realistic and slightly sweet, no doubt it's going to blend well with a lot of recipes.
That "berry" one is meant to accommodate some of the mixed berry concentrates that are out there, we'll have to do a separate FOTW for blackberry. As a matter of fact, I'll add that to the schedule right now.
I will definitely do that with the "cheesecake." Remember you said almost any fruit could be subbed for the kiwi, and I basically said that I don't believe you, as I feel it would take something with enough tartness to do that dance with with high meringue % that FA Kiwi does? Well, I believe you about the TFA Blackberry. And I love that flavor. I've seen some hate for it but I think most of that probably comes people who made the mistake of assuming it is similar in strength to other TFA flavors. It's a 1% maximum flavor and a damn good one as far as I'm concerned.
I've got one for you. That Kiwi Bourbon that we both like so much? Swap the Kiwi for 0.75% TFA Blackberry. Add 0.5 to 1% TFA Vanilla Swirl and/or 0.25% TFA Brown Sugar if either/both of those sound good to you, or not, the main thing is you gotta try that KB/TM/Blackberry three-way.
The only Pomegranate I have is FA. I use it exclusively for a mix that u/The_Perrycox mentioned in the March 2016 recipe thread.
2.75% FA Pomegranate
1.50% FA fresh fig
.85% FA Zen Garden
.65% INW Mix mint
1.25% FA Forest Fruit
.15% INW Green tea
5 drops of 50% menthol per 30 ml.
I never found the INW Green tea so in its place I use 2% TFA Mary Jane.