Well, lots of different Melons were fun to get our hands on last week but moving along...
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: FLORALS.
Past FOTW posts can be found here
The week after that will be: Strawberries
The week after that will be: Soda/Pop/Cola/Coke
The week after that will be: Oats/Grains/Rice
The week after that will be: Almond/Amaretto
The week after that will be: Jackfruit/Dragonfruit
The week after that will be: Frostings/Icings
The week after that will be: Waffles/Pancakes... Bacon?
The week after that will be: Stones
The week after that will be: Apples
The week after that will be: Aromatic Tobaccos
The week after that will be: Non-aromatic Tobaccos
The week after that will be: Tobacco Additives
The week after that will be: Marshmallows
The week after that will be: Champagne
The week after that will be: Cake/Pandoro
The week after that will be: Blue Raspberry
The week after that will be: Maple
The week after that will be: Fig
The week after that will be: Hazelnut
The week after that will be: Persimmon
The week after that will be: Pumpkin
The week after that will be: Dairy: Milk/Cream/Whipped Cream/Butter
The week after that will be: Banana
The week after that will be: Apple
The week after that will be: Vegetals
The week after that will be: Gummy Candy
The week after that will be: Lemon
The week after that will be: Caramel
The week after that will be: Lime
The week after that will be: Cereal
The week after that will be: Orange
The week after that will be: Cheesecake
The week after that will be: Cherry
The week after that will be: Cookies/Graham Cracker/Pie Crust
The week after that will be: Coconut
The week after that will be: ??? You tell me. Please take this opportunity to suggest one that interests you (or send me a PM to do that).
I feel like this older post from nearly a year ago: "Some notes on florals" by /u/hocuskrokus should be required reading.
But there are a few flavors not mentioned there, new flavors that have come out or come to light since then, and many new recipes and pairings being enjoyed and used. What are you hippies doing with flowers these days?
I really need to revise/revisit this
Adding FLV Hibiscus, TFA Hibiscus, a bunch of INWs, general advice, more notes about overall uses and pairings based on 11 months' more experience with them, "as seen here" recipe examples?
TFA Cherry Blossom: Lovely flavor that has a slight cherry notes and a bit of floral body. It's not perfumey if used at the proper percentage, IMO. I use it at 1% or lower, depending on the recipe.
TFA Honeysucke: Amazing flavor and grossly underused. It's hard to describe if you've never tasted honeysuckle nectar but it's spot on. It's got a light sweetness, lovely aroma in the vapor and is also not perfumey if used at the proper percentage. I use this around 1% in general.
FA Violet: I have never tasted violets IRL so I'm not certain how accurate it is. It is a nice flavor and is not perfumey to me as low as you go low. I would start at 0.50% but I am a super taster
FA Lavender: Accurate to lavender without tasting like potpourri. It tastes more like a lavender tea. Very nice. Again would use at about 0.50% Works well with creams.
FA Rose: Accurate rose flavor and is a tad perfumey IMO. I don't know that it's honestly avoidable if it is to be true to tasting like Rose because rose is perfume-y. 0.50% or less and would definitely add cream or another smoothing agent.
MOL Pink Lady- this is not a stand alone flavor but I would definitely class it as a floral mix. It has rose, hibiscus, maracuja and guava. It's very feminine, is the best way I can describe it. The rose isn't too strong and the other ingredients blend nicely together. Very good and definitely stand alone. Not sure what you could/would add to this?
INW Purple Rain: described as "violet and vanilla". Again, I don't know what violets taste like but this one is definitely more candy- like than the FA Violet. (I also have TFA Violet candy which I have not mixed with yet) This is very good but does require to sit. S&V it tastes like straight up potpourri and I almost pitched it. Definitely go low 0.50%-1%. I wouldn't dare go higher. This would probably pair nicely with cream as well.
TFA Violet Candy- haven't mixed yet
TFA Rose Candy- Haven't mixed yet
FA Ylang Ylang- don't remember (if you have experience with these flavors, LMK)
FLV - elderflower is amazing, 1.5 - 2.5% works wonders with lemonade/koolada/citrus summery mixes
I agree with this wholeheartedly, I'd use it a little lower but to each his own! FLV Elderflower I think is a perfect introduction to florals since it's so palatable and sweet I think a lot of people will be able to appreciate what sort of direction floral vapes can take you
I didn't like floral flavors in my liquids until I started my Tea fetish and then I found that the most important thing about floral flavors is pairing. It is not something that goes well in any recipe and takes a lot of balance to find the spot where you can match the "perfume" with the taste you need on your recipe.
These are my two recipes of tea with Jasmine and Hibiscus. The T-Red feel that needs a little tunning to be exactly what I want and the T-White after a steep is delicious but I have a problem with the flashpoint of the Jasmine and don't know if it is my batch of something normal with that particular brand.
Note 1: This recipes were made with the flavors available in Argentina, which is not much and probably could be better. Feel free to destroy it and give me your opinions to improve it.
Note 2: English is not my mother tongue; please excuse any errors on my part
T-White https://alltheflavors.com/recipes/42581
6% (TPA) Black Tea 0.5% (INW) Cactus 0.25% (TPA) Coconut Extra 2% (TPA) Green Tea 2% (FA) Jasmine Natural
0.75% (TPA) Pineapple 1.5% (TPA) Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
T-Red https://alltheflavors.com/recipes/27837
5% (TPA) Black Tea 1% (CAP) Cool Mint 4% (CAP) Hibiscus 3% (CAP) Italian Lemon Sicily 1% (TPA) Strawberry (ripe)
Super interesting man, I wish I had TFA black tea to try some of these ideas! I definitely agree in that a successful floral recipe will be one that is paired well. There is a very fine line between a delicious floral note in a recipe and your grandma's perfume!
INW Purple Rain is a great vanilla with violet notes and TPA Passion Fruit is a floral mess but that's about my experience with florals.
I'm really interested in that Purple Rain. What % range do you use it?
I have to agree. It's a really stellar flavor and dangerously under represented
Uses and pairings, please, Your Holiness?
Anywhere you can fit in lavender or violet. Non eggs creams, vanilla, light pastry. Raspberry, plum, dark berries. Mild citrus, but stay away from ultra bright lime or orange. Does pretty well at bridging dark fruit with basil and smoky flavors like oakwood or wood spice. I'm away from my notes but I'll try to follow up this weekend. Edit: a word and a Bonus recipe
Any suggestions for a really light rose or rose water flavoring that would work well with tobaccos?
I think they can work really well together maybe with a very light cream note.
Second FA Rose. Just go low with it. (percentage wise)
Yeah, was going low with it anyway but being FA I'll probably go even lower. Probably .5 or so to start out but I'll run a couple testers first to see how it is on its own before mixing anything.
Does it tend to stick around even after a long steep time or does it fade?
I really want to get into florals. Unfortunately I have no experience with them whatsoever so I'll just come back and lurk when there's more comments.
As someone who is a tobacco guy, I think you would like florals if you can find a good mix for you. Tobacco is dark earth where floral is bright earth. Very refreshing and inviting in the summertime! I think one of the easiest ones to start messing around with is FLV Elderflower since it's sweet and fairly palatable.
Ok I'll start there. I've been putting off florals and teas for far too long. I know both would appeal to me. Your dark/bright earth analogy sums it up perfectly. What's a good starting % for Elderflower? Any other FLV florals that come to mind? If there are, I have them, unopened in a drawer somewhere. Open to other brands too. It's time I step out of my comfort zone. If you have any recipe suggestions, I'll buy what I need to get started. Thanks for the message :)
I would say 0.25%-0.5% for FLV Elderflower. The only other one I have experience with and enjoy is FLV Yakima Hops; maybe not what you'd typically think of as a floral, but it has floral qualities while also providing some really nice body to a vape.
/u/HocusKrokus is kind of my go to for a mixer with floral vapes. I'd say check out his Sakura Sweets for something a little introductory to florals in general or his Springtime for a bright floral-forward vape
Welp. Figured I would throw out a recipe here. Can give some small notes as well, don't have many with me.
Vishnu
- TFA - Peanut Butter @ 5.5%
- TFA - Vanilla Bean Ice Cream @ 5%
- TFA - Marshmallow @ 2%
- FA - Lavender @ .5%
- CAP - Vanilla Custard V1 @ .5%
- FA - Lemon Sicily @ .25%
- FA - Anise @ .1%
Started out wanting to play with florals a little. Long searching found me at a site listing Indian flavor profiles that were prominent in desserts. I found the Lavender/PB/Marshmallow combo and wanted to throw it in Ice Cream. I've never had anything like it.
TFA - PB: One of the main notes here. It's used pretty high, but its fairly weak to me. This high also was a tad dry. I can not say what in the recipe drops that dryness down, I feel its the vanilla custard helping it a little, along with the lemon.
TFA - VBIC: wanted a basic Ice Cream profile. I didn't want to build one up from the ground; didn't want to muddle the florals too much so I went with this. I'm a fan of TFA, but you can sub in CAP at lower %. I can't talk to any of the other Ice Creams, use your experience to play with those. As long as you hit a Vanilla Ice Cream taste, that's what I'm going for here, so you wont change the profile much.
TFA - Marshmallow: This is my choice because to me, it gives one of the better flavors. I wanted a solid marshmallow taste that lingered and this works the best to me.
FA - Lavender: This is the star here in my opinion. I DID NOT try any other lavender types, this was the first one I tried and enjoyed it, so I stuck with it. I made the mistake of trying it WAY too high in the beginning and started working down. Ended up here for a nice, stronger than subtle, lavender flavor that comes through.
The other flavors are more accents and workers. Anise plays well with lavender and the ice cream. The anise melds with the VC/VBIC to give it a slightly more authentic vanilla taste, as well as playing with the lavender to give it a little more depth. Lemon Sicily plays to blend the florals into the mix a little better. VC helps with a slight creamier feel to the ice cream, while lending a little more vanilla depth.
Wow! That's wild, lavender peanut butter. But I've made a honeysuckle almond and yesterday I tried someone's cherry blossom chestnut... I'm starting to think there's really something special going on with nuts and florals together.
I didn't want to believe that this would work, but it totally does. The lavender adds a bright freshness to the peanut butter that really bends it towards like a fresher wetter peanut butter. Like the difference between Jiffy and Adam's natural peanut butter. Great work man.
So I'm new to mixing and DIY, but I would love to see a citrus episode.
Here's a fairly recent Grapefruit: https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/comments/5bthlf/fotw_this_weeks_flavor_is_grapefruit/
It is definitely time to do Lemon, Lime, and Orange again. Will add to the list right now.
Thought I would add FLV Blackberry Blossom here for future searches.
This new flavor is sure to be a hit among the floral lovers /u/HocusKrokus. 1.5% is the only amount I have tried so far, and it is pretty balanced between fruit and floral. More floral and not as dark as TFA Blackberry. Almost like a syrup in the fruit taste. I'm gonna add a few drops to some maple syrup, try that on my next pancakes lol.
[Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/comments/6x0jys/flv_blackberry_blossom/ is a review by /u/perennialphilosopher that nails it perfectly.
Woah strawberry is next week? I need to get some notes together
Moved some stuff around by request. If you see anything on there you want moved around or added, LMK, I'll see if I can accommodate that without making anyone unhappy who has requested something previously.
I'm fine with whatever order things are in. I still need to get notes together for Waffle week
Speaking of getting notes together for weeks to come. Strawberries. Here are some of the ones I don’t have: LB Strawberry, LA Strawberry, HS Strawberry, SC Strawberry, INW Strawberry, INW Wild Strawberry, TFA Organic Strawberry, INW Strawberry Kiss, FW Strawberry, FW Strawberry Kiwi, FW Strawberry Lemonade, INW Milk Chocolate Strawberry, FW Strawberry Banana, CAP Strawberry Taffy, FW Strawberry Shortcake. If I could get two of these, which two should I try, either because they're awesome for because someone has try them and share notes?
How about moving the tobaccos up? I'm just starting to heavily lean toward them and could use the help :-)
On the note of moving tobacco's up, I'd be down to see fig moved up as well with them being around the same time frame.
Fig can play amazing well in the right tobacco mixes. I don't know that I've stuck with a single mix, but I've made a few fig tobaccos and they are really good.