Overall - TLDR; Just do it. https://www.chefsflavours.co.uk/
Flat rate £5 pound shipping outside of UK. Right now 1 British Pound = 1.65 Canadian Dollar. 1 British Pound = 1.29 US Dollar
6 days from order placement to delivery in Toronno, Canada
Background
I've tried to stick with my main Canadian rebottler for 2 main reasons. He's great, reliable, very accommodating and I'm in his general vicinity .... weekly.
Sometimes I do have to order from elsewhere and I have purchased from other Canadians, but just not that excited. I'm in Toronto, and from out West has taken near two weeks using the most cost effective shipping. After BullCity decided to ship to us Canucks, I worked with a Jeff there for that 'most cost effective shipping' method again, and they now have regular USPS for us, which gets to my place lickety split, less than a week. BCF's great, BUT as an example didn't carry some of the other DIY pre-made concentrates or Jungle Flavors or Flavor Express. Which led me to Chef's. I had to try 'em out, even if we're an ocean away.
Website TLDR; Functional. Some oddities
Uncluttered and the first option is Concentrates which is a mixture of standard flavor houses, and pre-mixed concentrates, jumbled together. I went to look for my big 5 immediately. Hotay, TFA/TPA is identified as Perfumers Apprentice (In all fairness that's how TFA self identifies). Flavor Express as Express Flavors. No Hangsen.
My top 2 flavors to order was a no-go. FLV Mango was out of stock, and I was longing for TFA Honeysuckle, but using 'honeys' as a search said nope. That's OK, Mango is now in stock and Honeysuckle is 'Honey Suckle'. I did get FLV Alpine Strawberry at a good price, 10ml for ~ £4.
They do carry the FA UK offerings such as the elusive FA Custard Pi which is a special UK blend. Also Jungle Flavors. And I've already mentioned Flavor Express. Many of the diyordie, divine (dazcole), and ejuicemakers concentrates (kopel and ckemist) are also listed here. I don't understand why these last offers are in the Concentrates section as some are also duplicated in the 'One Shot Concentrates' where I imagine they truly belong
Ordering TLDR; Painless. You can do a 'show all' by vendor then a quick search for what you want. Majority I ORDERED were 10ml, and the only size option.
My order was 5 FLV, and 1 CAP to test Chef's out. You can put items in your wish list by size and go back later to add to your basket. The only way I've found to get back to my wishlist is to go back into my Account details and select it from there. Personally I'd like that displayed more prominently right at the top of every page. If the item is out of stock in your Wishlist it appears but in a slightly greyed out fashion, so a quick look and you know if you're ready to place your order. You can also sign up for email notifications for when an item becomes available.
The 10ml bottles themselves shows they were all rebottled by Chef's with a batch date in the lower right hand corner, and the dates were all relatively current (early to mid June this year). Chefs logo is the most prominent displayed item on the FLV labelled bottles, but I got a big Capella on that 1 bottle. The FLV labels appear to be straight paper (eek) but the oddball Capella bottle had a coated texture.
Packaging and Delivery TLDR; Loose rattling bottles, invoice enclosed, quality cardboard, no leaks.
Plain thick cardboard, with the most lovely blue Royal Mail for the postage. With only 6 small bottles, they were just rattling around in it, but nothing had leaked. The invoice was included, with a 'packed by Rachel' on the invoice itself. I imagined her walking from bin to bin naming out loud each item as she did the packaging. 6 days deliver from across the Atlantic to my door. £5 GBP shipping for outside the UK, no quantity or restrictions noted.
Overall I'm more than satisfied and my current wishlist is up to 11 items. I would've posted pics, but I have a hard enough time with Reddit Formatting.
How bout a u-s vendor returns the favour and offers us Brits a flat rate 5 quid shipping ;-) . Can't get hold of jungle flavor biscuit and wouldn't mind a few of then german flavors . Ironic considering both these concentrates are manufactured in europe .
Chefs haven't updated their JF stock in a long while disappointingly
Chef's is pretty great. Their stock on their oddball stuff and small flavor houses rotates quite a bit, which is always slightly frustrating, but overall I've been pretty happy with them. Shipping on the west coast of the US has taken me 2 to 3 weeks, for that $6.50ish depending on the exchange rate.
I'm glad you noted the weirdness with their labeling. It's always a fun surprise to see whatever weird variations you get for stuff ordered from the same flavorhouse at the same time. And their prices on rebottled FLV are the truth.
A little logo would've sufficed. When hunting for a flavor, all I'm looking for is a name.
While having a conversation in a Chefs group, I'm told they won't stock FA flavors with Diacetyl, yet they stock Cap VC1. Like what's up with that.
Oooh, that's a bummer. I didn't even think to check that.
I've made several orders with them, the labelling has been pretty inconsistent but apart from that no major issues. Interesting that you got yours so quickly, I'm in the UK and find 5 days pretty standard for them, I guess it's down to set days for shipping rather than daily.
You had me at TLDR! Thanks for this. Much needed I've been wanting JF for a time now. ^ByTheWay,YourFormattingIsTight:)
Tanks man. 2nd order now placed, and I notice I always forget one item. Wishlist now back at 2. FA Soho still out of stock
Ya I make huge lists and still somehow forget stuff. Or I make an order and then check this sub and fuuuuuuck, realize I need to start a new list lol.
> My top 2 flavors to order was a no-go. FLV Mango was out of stock
2nd order placed as soon as this became available, along with 10 other concentrates.
14 days later I ask if they can see the delivery status as there's no tracking on my end. Hoping for a simple yes/no, I get a long winded BS answer about delivery times, and no simple yes or no from Sophie.
At day 20, it finally arrives, and sure as fuck, they mistakingly send a 10 ml Inawera Mango, and NO Flv Mango (only 30ml ordered).
Back to the site, I choose FLV Mango from the dropdown, blah blah blah, pointing out it was the only 30ml item, and missing, with pics of the INW. The response from Sophie ............ which item is missing. So far, batting a big zero on how they handle mistakes, and still waiting for another update.
Is this normal /u/ceedee99uk ?
Which conversation is this? Your reply should arrive soon but we don't control the border so please be patient.
Hehehe just kdding. Thanks for looping me in on this. Good to know. Maybe it's just Murphy's Law and they generally have good customer service but I'm being hopeful.
If you have more than one FLV to order, you might just order directly from their site. I can tell you first hand that the guys at FLV are an absolute delight to work with in terms of customer service. Really good dudes.
They have apparently placed an order for Hangsen so it should be in soon. I order almost all my concentrates from them now, but I am based in the UK.
They seem like a good bunch and any problem I have had has been sorted very quickly. +1 for chefs