Setup: Recoil w/ flavor barrel, Dual 15 wrap 26g 3mm Nifethal 70 coils @.18 ohms. 60w power, 450F temp limit. Full Cotton Wicks.
Testing: FA Zeppola @ %2, 60/40 VG/PG, Steeped 7 days.
This concentrate was provided by bullcityflavors.com, for the sole and express purpose of publishing an honest review for r/DIY_eJuice.
Flavor Description: A dry, fluffy cake donut with a good deal of powdered sugar on top. I could see this passing as a grocery-store bakery take on a beignet.
Inhale is mostly powdered sugar. The drier, dense mouthfeel kind of feels like you're actually inhaling powdered sugar, which is a bit disconcerting. Exhale starts with another good helping of powdered sugar on top with a drier cake donut coming through underneath. Overall effect is really sweet, and moderately dense. Back half of the exhale is primarily that cake donut right in the middle of your palate. Not a lot of low-end oily rich flavor here you'd get from an actual donut, although you do get sort of an oily mouthfeel. Lingering powdered sugar on the exhale. This manages to give you sugar lips while feeling like it's greasing your mouth up a bit. Really interesting.
Off-flavors: So, a zeppole is usually fried, and I'm not getting that. It's much more of a cake donut taste with a strange oily mouthfeel. Also, that powdered sugar thing is pretty intense, but probably workable for the profile.
Throat Hit: Light solo, mostly from the dryness here.
Uses & Pairings: If you want a yeast-risen donut, a little FA Joy will do you. That has the yeast, bready body, and slight touch of oil this seems to be missing for a typical yeast-risen american style donut. /u/ID10-T recommends using TFA Bavarian Cream for some added creaminess and richness, which should also work to round out that noticeable powdered sugar notes.
From there, knock yourself out. I'm sure you can figure out something rich and obscene to do with your donuts.
Also, this is profoundly sweet, and should work as a fairly non-descript sweetener for bakeries as long as it's kept low.
Notes: S&V concentration testing, .5% this is a more like the scent from donuts without much mouthfeel. Same kind of taste, just really faint without much body. Still very sweet, though. 1% really just seems to boost the powdered sugar here, making it a bit dryer and sweeter overall. 1.5%, that cake donut taste is starting come back through, adding some nuance and giving you some of an actual donut as opposed to more of just a whiff of a bakery. Same thing with 2%, the powdered sugar seems to top out at 1% but that donut base is getting a bit stronger. Seems to get a breadier as the wicks dry out. At 2.5, the powdered sugar is a little more under control and that donut is taking center stage. Donut is getting some anise/maple kind of top notes. At 3%, I'm getting some bread out of this but the powdered sugar seems to be muting some of the more "donut" taste. At 3.5% and above, the flavor seems to mute a bit more and gets a bit astringent overall. I'd use this at 1% for a sweetener for bakeries, and probably 2.5% for a donut without added sweet components. I'd bump up to 3% for a donut where you're adding a bit of joy or intend on having a sweet glaze or fruit filling or whatever.
Overall this is good, although a bit dry and definitely heavy on the powdered sugar. Doesn't give me a zeppole per se, but seems like a really good donut base.
Second Opinions:
User Boogenshizzle has great notes on ELR. Seriously, go read them. Percentage testing and everything. I disagree mainly in that I get a lot of sweetness here, but super useful.
EDIT: /u/ID10-T saved me from recommending a vanilla yeast infection from a combination of FA VC1 and FA Joy.
> This concentrate was provided by bullcityflavors.com, for the sole and express purpose of publishing an honest review for r/DIY_eJuice.
Fuckin sick dude!
The best thing I've found to bring the "fried dough" taste and mouth feel to a donut recipe has been some IWN waffle.
Generally 1-3 drops per 30ml or .25-.5% of a 10% dilution. The strength will depend on the other flavors used in the given recipe as well as how much of that flavor you're really looking to get out.
Just ordered this my self , can't wait to play with it.
I just got it , any one have suggestions for using it with cream and fruit .
Go to ATF or if you prefer ERL, or hell, even Dot1mL if that floats your boat, or all three if you want to be very thorough, search recipes by flavor, see how others are using it.
Is it just me or has there been a massive increase in doughnut recipes lately . Not seen the likes since bronuts was released
Weren't very many concentrates to help replicate the flavor very well. TFA Frosted Donut tastes like dirt to me. CAP Glazed Donut does get funky and takes away from the authenticity of a real donut. I personally like it but it's far from being authentic. I've tried almost all of them and none of the bases for a donut, so far, have really satisfied me. I just ordered Zeppola today so i'm hoping I can make it work.
I got this on a whim that it would help with making a better churro with that "fried" flavor, but I didn't get any of that with it, just the cakey-powder sugar goodness. I haven't used it much but I'm glad to see it making its way around and hopefully somebody can do more than I can with it.
Thanks for the notes. Grats on getting stuff sent from BCF! Do you get any play-doh taste from this, like many do from CAP Glazed Doughnut?
> you want a yeast-risen donut, a little FA Joy will do you.... Actually, that and maybe a touch of CAP Vanilla Custard v1
Don't do this, combining VCV1 and FA Joy. Looks good on paper, tasted good in my head, but IME those two concentrates have a bad reaction to each other. It's almost like Joy contains real yeast that gets into that VCV1 and grows there, creating a flavor that I describe as Vanilla Yeast Infection. I haven't tried Zeppola, but I'm thinking that adding FA Joy and VCV1 to it is an either/or deal.
Bhahhaha one vanilla yeast infection 3mg please
Seriously. Love VCV1. Love FA Joy. Wanted to make a real donut juice. Just a plain glazed donut. Combining the two seemed obvious to me, but the result was so disgusting. Vanilla Yeast Infection for real. /u/ConcreteRiver, try this before recommending it to people. I think you'll want to edit your post once you do.
I got a light cinnamon roll/ brown sugar taste out of this at 3%. A little "doughy", but I'd almost call it more of a bready or cakey texture. It really reminded me of a much lighter version of FW Cinnamon Roll, which tends to carry a lot of that "sugar lips sensation."
Interesting, BCF gave me this one to sample too, but I'd say you covered it well.