Thank you to everyone who participated in last week's Flavor of The Week, Pomegranate, and to /u/PerennialPhilosopher in particular for the horrible pun featured in today's title.
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: Pear
Past FOTW posts can be found here
Prepare yourselves, next week's FOTW will be: Custard Apple Fruits (for example: 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)
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: Cucumber
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 have 4 pears I use fairly often. Pear is one of my favorite profiles to work with, especially when working with florals.
TFA Pear: A straightforward sweet-ish pear flavor. Adds a bit of throat hit if not tamed with a gentle supporting base like honeysuckle or apple. Slightly earthy backnotes. Not great as a standalone, but effective at adding authenticity to sweeter or more candied pear flavors. Also does well supporting other main notes like Apple, Jackfruit, Quince, Peach, or really any other stone fruit type. 2-3% in a mix unless it’s with bully flavors. 4-5% standalone if you must, though it’s better with others.
LA Pear: A bit weaker than TFA, but sweeter. A more candied pear flavor than fresh tasting. Reasonable range as a backnote is 2-3% or 4-7% as a main note. 8-10% standalone if that’s your thing.
FA Pear: A much more fresh tasting pear flavor over it’s TFA counterpart. Very sweet, bordering on candy but only just so. A far superior standalone flavor than TFA, and can do well with similar pairings. Lacks the earthy authenticity of TFA Pear, but also lacks the awkward throat hit/harsh notes that TFA can sometimes have. In a mix, .5% as a supporting note, 1.5-3% as a main note. 3-4% standalone.
INW Pear: The king pear rears it’s fierce head. This pear is juicier than FA, and sweeter than both combined. It’s profile finds itself somewhere between a bright fresh pear and the syrup from a chilled can of pears. A very faint bit of the earthy backnotes I’ve found in TFA Pear, but much smoother. Mild throat hit if not mixed with another “juicy” flavor or cream. I find it a bit more potent than FA Pear, so I start at .25% as a supporting note, up to 2% in a mix, or 3% standalone.
FA Pear is just an absolutely splendid enhancer to bright fruit vapes.
It gives off this very refreshing wetness, similar to INW cactus, but without the aloe flavor.
I'm someone who prefers bakery/dessert flavors, but I also appreciate a good fruit. I combined the two to come up with:
CAP Pear (Stevia) @ 5%
TFA White Chocolate @ 3%
TFA Vanilla Custard @ 1%
If you shake and vape it, the pear is going to be fairly strong. After about 72 hours, the pear starts to settle down, and the white chocolate starts to come through. I really enjoyed it after a week of steeping. The white chocolate really cuts down the tartness of the pear, and the vanilla custard adds a nice creamy feel.
What does that CAP Pear (stevia) taste like? Have you tried any other pears to compear (sorry) it to?
I tried TFA Pear, and for me, it had too much of a floral/fake taste. CAP Pear tastes more authentic, but in my opinion it's gotta be steeped. It has a strong, tart taste and can almost come off as sour in high percentages. You'll feel it on your tastebuds, if that makes sense. Basically, it reminds me of an actual pear.
I've only had luck using it as main flavor. I've tried it in a handful of recipes, but I can never get it to settle down enough as a background flavor except in very low percentages, in which it then just tastes sweet rather than pear-y. It seems to pear (ha!) very well with creamy flavors.
Pear, you say? Seems like a perfect opportunity to pimp my CACTUS-PEAR CUSTARD.
For a fleshed-out, saliva-inducing, juicy pear, I prefer to combine INW Pear with FA Pear in ratios that vary depending on the mix and my intentions (7:8, 1:1, 1:2, ect).
If I do not want pear to be at the forefront of my recipe, then I do NOT open INW Pear because it does not serve as a background flavor at all. One could even say that its floral nature can make it difficult to work with, but I have been pretty successful in pairing it with other heavy-hitting flavors (see Cactus @2%).
FA Pear is a very versatile and lovely tool to keep around. In the aforementioned recipe, I use it to supplement INW Pear and layer the pear portion of the profile. I get the most use out of it at lower percentages to provide a sweet and juicy fruity note to recipes that does not reveal itself to be pear. My favorite examples are Bamanaya and Detox.
All three of the recipes you just linked to are so good!
FA Pear can work sweet juicy magic for sure but IME it's somewhat the opposite of INW in that, if you do want pear to be in the forefront of your recipe, FA simply cannot do it alone. Thank the fruit gods for INW.
Also, you gotta try SC Pear. It's the LA Watermelon of Pears.
Your experience mirrors mine in that regard an that is a good point to note. LA Watermelon of Pears? Damn right I need to try this!
The LA Watermelon of Pears. A candy pear, not a natural one like INW Pear. So much tastier than TFA Pear, which is just too sharp and earthy and odd by comparison. Sweeter even than FA Pear. It's way juicy, it has this literally mouth-watering wetness to it that I really enjoy. Off notes: Alcohol. Not overbearing, very mild. Disappears after a steep. Doesn't take much of the flavor with it. Optimal single-flavor % I'm guessing is around 5 to 6%. Lower in a mix. I don't think there's such a thing as Jolly Rancher pear, but if there was, this might be it. Or maybe Pear Kool-aid, since Jolly Rancher might imply a sourness that's lacking here. /u/mlNikon would probably call it pear blow pop without the gum and that would be an excellent description, in my limited experience. I'm not entirely sure what I'll do with this one. Probably try it in place of TFA Pear for anything where a candy-type pear would be appropriate, maybe try it in place of LA Watermelon and SC Grape. Packs on Dak to go along with Stacks on Deck and Gropes on Dock?
I don't really care for the way Pear taste on it's own, however I consistently see it used as an additive to a lot of apple recipes and others and it works great for that.
Examples: Awesome Apple Pie by Botboy of course (TFA Pear)
and the recent Anubis Nectar (FA Pear)
I have a pear caramel recipe I'll edit in here in a bit. It's a juicy pear with subtle notes of caramel.
Caramel (FA) 1.25%
Marshmallow (FW) 0.25%
Pear (TPA) 1.25%
Pear (FA) 0.5%
I personally make my juices 90vg/10pg or higher so that is what I've tested this as. It is pretty damn good in my opinion, but I'm trash at describing flavors so I rarely post recipes here. The inhale is pear and the exhale is caramel. The marshmallow I believe adds just enough sweetness to the vape. INW Cactus may be able to fit in if the recipe isn't juicy enough. I vaped it a couple hours after mixing and it tasted pretty good, and the flavor held up in a week steep but I vaped it all before I could get to two.
I vape on a rda around 60w usually, but since that was stolen I also tried it in a rta and it held up.
It is a very smooth vape and its kind of a more odd but simple profile. The inspiration for this juice was Pearamel, by Teardrip Juice Co.
Here's a recipe I've been working on for quite awhile now, it's right in the wheelhouse of your recipe. I feel, after about 15 iterations, it maybe good enough for a sole recipe post. I'm going to mix your's up and see if I can make mine more simple.
*TPA Brown Sugar - 0.5%
*FA Caramel - 0.65%
*FA Liquid Amber - 0.5%
*TPA Marshmallow - 1%
*TPA Toasted Marshmallow - 2%
*TPA Peanut Butter - 6%
*INW Pear - 1.25%
*TPA Pear - 1.75%
If you like a sweeter pear, drop TPA Pear to 1.25%, and add FA Fuji 0.25% and FA Kiwi 0.25%. Also, add TPA Kentucky Bourbon 1.5% if you like to live wild (thanks coop34!)
On another note, anyone ever notice TPA Pear and FA Kiwi are extremely similar?
I mix in large batches so that I'm prepeared for the future.
We would make a great pear.
Thanks for the credit. I'm quite fond of your pearsonality, and thanks for pearing with me on the bad puns. This is going to be great when I make my next flavor order! If I could only have one pear flavor which should I choose? INW pear?
I've gone through more than 4oz of TFA Pear chasing down the elusive "spot-on" Placid clone and through all of those attempts I never thought to try a different pear concentrate. It's probably been more than a year since I've made any effort on that quest but now I might have to give it another shot with "The LA Watermelon of Pears" just for fun.
/u/ID10-T were you ever on the Placid bandwagon?
Fellow Placid chaser here. LA Pear, while very good, just isn't it. It's delicious, but goes too candy to keep that sort of sharp grit Placid has to it. I haven't ordered the stuff in ages and have landed quite a few clones that at least scratch the itch.
That was actually a reference to /u/ID10-T's description of SC Pear, not LA Pear :)
I've never tried Placid so not really, no. I did enjoy the hell out of one of those "Placidesque" recipes in my early mixing days, though. I don't recall the exact recipe but Pear, lime, strawberry, and honeysuckle is a hell of a combination. Even better than pear, Honeydew, Strawberry, honeysuckle to me.
Considering I have not even broken the seal on my SC Pear, what would you suggest as a starting percentage in a plasidesque mix?(e.g. subbing for 4% TFA Pear)
Pearnana... Not my recipe but I tried it and liked it.
(TFA) Bananas Foster - 5%
(TFA) Pear - 6%
(CAP) Vanilla Custard - 5%
I have a similar one using pear and banana go nice together banana
- (TFA) Pear 5%
- (LA) Banana Cream 4%
- (Cap) Vanilla Custard 5%
In this can be bumped up along with the custard depending how much you want the pear to come out on top I don't even have to be careful mixing this as it is pretty forgiving for slight changes
Djinn's Revival
INW Pear @ 2%
FA Pear @ 1%
TFA Ripe Strawberry @ 2.5%
FA Red Touch @ 1%
TFA Nectarine @ 3%
TFA Jackfruit @ 3%
TFA Marshmallow @ 1%
This is a remix of an oldie but a goodie from /u/whitjinn. I did many iterations of this using TFA strawberry and much higher nectarine (7-8%) but liked this one the most due to the overall balance. The strawberry takes a gentle backseat as this steeps, and the INW pear becomes the star of the show (like other comments suggest about INW pear). I found that TFA Jackfruit is another excellent partner to pear, as it can bolster the pineapple tendencies pear can suggest. I like it as a spike more than quince or honeysuckle (too spicy for me). Jackfruit is tender and mild until aged, and very versatile in terms of %:profile (i.e. pretty linear). The marshmallow is a subtle addition to the mouthfeel, and can be boosted or removed no biggie.
This recipe has always had a fruit roll up feel to me, but more mainly using TFA strawberry and TFA nectarine together. I'll bet SC pear (if candy) would be excellent as a three flavor with those two to make a roll-up type base.
One Pear that I haven't seen mentioned here yet is FW. I really love this pear, and find that it would be a suitable sub for anyone tasting INW as 'too earthy'. It has the same type of natural, big juicy ripe red soft pear attributes with less potential ground notes. 2% can do the trick to fluff up and round out the astringent nature of TFA pear (nothing can soften 6-7% TFA pear but 12 months in the bottle...) where as 2-3% FW spiked with FA is just a dope main. TFA, FA and FW can also work well together with something like 1:2:3 for a well rounded, sweet and natural ripe pear with TFA adding the sharp top notes.
You sound like a pear flavoring aficionado. Comments like this one are exactly why I brought back FOTW. Wow. Thank you!
/u/Apexified I hope when you see things like this, it makes you proud of what you did.
::blushes:: Thank you! I've been reading more FOTW lately and it is really awesome, especially with some of the trickier flavors like grape. This is my first FOTW contribution, so I'm grateful for your words. I worked with Djinn's recipe for a long while when I started out, then got burned out right when I started trying new concentrates. The one flavor that may revive my interest in pear is FLV pineapple.
Been thinking of something like this (literally making this up):
FLV Pineapple @ 2%
FW Pear @ 2%
FA Pear @ .75%
FE Mango @ 2%
TFA Bavarian Cream @ 1.5%
The pears can hang out together nicely. FLV pineapple and FE mango both have a nice thick creamy mouth feel for a fruit flavoring, and maybe something like TFA bavarian cream to boost. Kinda thinking FA meringue instead but imma try the BV first.
Cloud 9 Legends. "Blackbeard Booty" is a Juicy Pear and Creamy Coconut (I Vape at 0 Nic). The taste absolutely blew me away. I got it as a clearance 15 ml, and then immediately tracked down the website and bought the big bottles - easy all day vape
Edit: Honestly Forgot this was the DIY sub; will take my downvotes like a man tho.
Sooooooooooooo can somebody tell me how to MAKE something like Pear/Creamy Coconut, so I can stop throwing money away?!