Okay, This has been a recipe I've been toying with since the very beginning. I've went in so many different directions with this recipe it is unreal.
I know this style of juice is overdone but:
This is my Frootloop recipe. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My Frootloop recipe is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. My Frootloop recipe, without me, is useless. Without my Frootloop recipe, I am useless. I must taste my Frootloop recipe true. I must mix my Frootloop recipe better than my enemy who is trying to make a better Frootloop recipe than me. I must mix before him, before he mixes, before me. And I will.
So this is obviously a Frootloop inspired e-juice.
Nostalgia Loops:
Tfa - Bavarian Cream - 1.25%
Tfa - Berry Crunch - 3.50%
Tfa - Fruit Circles - 7.00%
Tfa - Graham Cracker (clear) - 2.00%
Fa - Hazel Grove - 0.30%
Fa - Meringue - 2.00%
Cap - Sugar Cookie - 3.00%
Tfa - Sweet Cream - 1.25%
The cereal base:
It all begins with, Tfa - Fruit Circles. Some detest it, (lemon pledge city) I however chose to embrace this lemon curse. (blessing?) Now, I know @ 7% things may already seem off-putting. But anything lower and the lemon gets lost and you are left with an off flavor.
To help the main grainy cereal note (and aid in the battle agaisnt lemon pledge) I chose to follow the heard and use Tfa - Berry crunch. It is nearly perfect to boost the lacking grain note in fruit circles. @ 3.5% It adds both that extra grainy kick and the light (cardboard) berry note also helps the overall Frootloops, feel.
Also, Cap - Sugar Cookie & Tfa - GCC & Fa - Hazel Grove are used to accentuate and fully form the cereal base. I tried many other options\combinations of various bakery style flavorings and while some where close, none fit properly. The first to ingredients are the backbone of this recipe, these three are the enforcers. Sugar cookie and GCC add not to the grainy-ness, but to the body of the nonexistent crunch I'm looking for. (if that makes any sense what-so-ever) @ 2% GCC & 3% SC They might seem a bit high for additives, but I am fighting lemon pledge city here. Hazel Grove @ only .3% both helps to form the cereal base & cream base while kind of filling in the spaces in a way to not let the overall flavor feel empty. But, without tasting it.
The cream base:
Tfa - Bavarian Cream & Sweet Cream. These two flavorings make up the cream base on their own. I used them in equal parts @ 1.25%. Now this is where it gets a bit weird. I found through trial and error that, the higher I bring the cream, the lemon pledge would in fact die down. But then this even worse chemically, lemon, cream cleaner comes out. It is what I imagine the lemon Vim, glass top stove cleaner would taste like. Not pleasant.
So keeping them low is key.
With the sweet cream, you really have no choice but staying low anyways, so that worked out. I played with the percentages of these two quite a bit, got frustrated beyond belief, tried this combo, and it worked! Although, they didn't work on their own by fluke chance. The 2% Fa-Meringue supports the two creams like a beast. Adding to the overall mouth-feel and also lending a unique sort of sweetness.
Hazel Grove @ .3% might not seem like much, but it is vital to the overall recipe(IMO) I didn't want to taste it, I was looking for something that would fit in and help the overall body of the recipe, but not stand out. This seemed to work perfectly.
I opted to not have any actual fruit additives. They seem to just hold back from being able to fully form the cereal & cream base. And in the iterations I did have fruit, they almost always added a mouth-feel or flavor that didn't fit in well.
Well, If you went through and read all that. Thanks, I appreciate the time you took. This might not be perfected yet, It might always be a work in progress. But it is an amazing juice regardless and I hope some may like it.
Looks like a good recipe and excellent notes! I just can't hande the pledginess of fruit circles though. I'm going to try this out with FE lemon which is my go to at the moment. I also don't have FA hazel grove, but at 0.3% I don't think I'll miss it too much.
Also, did you do any test mixes of this with Cap Cereal 27 subbing for a few of the ingredients - I'm thinking SC & GC. In my own cereal mix testing I've found SC & GC tend to get lost, or perhaps I just can't taste them all that well. FA Cookie at 0.5 - 1% also really helps to bring out a rich malty grain in my cereal mixes after a steep.
Have you tried FW fruity flakes? It doesn't give me the pledge note that tfa does. I know it's a fruity flakes concentrates but it totally works for loops too imo
I have all these flavors, might mix it when I have some empty bottles on hand. I noticed you haven't recommended a steep time, 1-2 weeks I presume?