As everyone knows the flavor reviews and the flavor review wiki here are one of the best resources to come from this sub. And thanks to 36 awesome people posting their flavor reviews the wiki grew from 332 to 972 reviews in 2017.
About a month ago I asked /u/wh1skeyk1ng if I could help him catch up on the massive influx of reviews that had poured into the sub while life had kept him busy. He was kind enough to bestow upon me the honor of being able to edit the flavor review wiki. After adding 87 reviews I found myself astonished by the number of reviews written this year (and admittedly a little ashamed at my lack of contributing to that number)
In an attempt to give back I created a spreadsheet that I hope will be a sort of companion to the flavor review wiki, to allow people to sort the reviews by reviewer, date, upvotes, comments, word count and eventually (as I find the time) flavor profiles and anything else that might make searching for a review easier and more effective. While putting this together I decided to highlight some stats to honor the top 10 contributors this year.
> ^A ^quick ^note ^on ^word ^count: ^Only ^the ^words ^written ^about ^the ^flavor ^by ^the ^reviewer ^were ^counted, ^no ^testing ^setup, ^second ^opinions ^or ^descriptions ^from ^the ^manufacturer ^were ^counted.
- #10 /u/chewymidget is one of the most frequent first responders in the New Mixers thread and has the distinction of being the only person on this list, and possibly in the world, to test and review multiple fried chicken concentrates. He reviewed 8 flavors from 4 flavor houses for a total of 2,734 words or about 11 pages of flavor descriptions.
His most upvoted review is also the most upvoted review of 2017 Real Flavors Fried Chicken earning him the flair “The Colonel” and his most discussed review was Real Flavors Watermelon
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#9 /u/ChemicalBurnVictim is a resident tobacco expert/genius and special guest on the Noted tobacco series with some pretty comprehensive notes in the 3 Part Tobacco FOTW: Aromatics, Non-Aromatics and Tobacco Additives. He produced 11 reviews, covering 4 flavor houses with 3,114 words or about 12 pages of flavor descriptions.
His most upvoted review was Inawera S’Desert Ship and his most discussed review was Inawera Little Space Drop
- #8 /u/wh1skeyk1ng Along with all his moderating duties found time to write 15 reviews, covering 7 flavor houses with a total of 3,397 words or about 14 pages of flavor descriptions. /u/wh1skeyk1ng is also the curator of the review wiki and has a total of 60 reviews under his belt.
His most upvoted and discussed review was The Infamous TFA Honey
- #7 /u/HashSlingingSlashur Is a prolific recipe creator and popular seller in the DIY_classifieds. He reviewed 21 flavors covering 10 flavor houses with a total of 5,430 words or about 22 pages of flavor descriptions.
His most upvoted review was Real Flavors Sugar Cookie and his most discussed review was Real Flavors Strawberry
- #6 /u/T_Mace A resident tobacco specialist with 23 of his 27 reviews being posted in 2017. Every one of them tobacco, covering 6 flavor houses with a total of 5,007 words or about 20 pages of flavor descriptions.
His most upvoted review was Inawera Am4a and his most discussed review was Flavor Art Black Fire
- #5 /u/PerennialPhilosopher Had his idea of a review request thread killed (before he’d ever posted a review) with the consensus that “if you want to see it reviewed, review it yourself” he promised to do just that and actually followed through, dropping 25 reviews on us, covering 7 flavor houses with a total of 4,799 words or about 19 pages of flavor descriptions.
His most upvoted review was Flavorah White Chocolate and his most discussed review was Flavorah Milk Chocolate
- #4 /u/mlNikon Is one of the co-hosts of the podcast Noted “your personal walking, talking, flavor notes” and one of the most active members of the DIY or DIE discord. She’s written 26 flavor reviews covering 9 flavor houses with a total of 4,880 words or about 20 pages of flavor descriptions.
Her most upvoted review was One on One Marshmallow (Vanilla) and her most discussed review was Liquid Barn Lava Cake
- #3 /u/Leilani_H has the distinction of not only being the newest reviewer to grace the sub but the 3rd most active reviewer of the year, all within a two week period of time. Her reviews broke the mold and also broke the word counter, because they might be about 50% ✔symbols and 😶 emoji’s. Her unique style is somehow both clinical and abstract. If she keeps up the pace in 2018, /u/ConcreteRiver might have a run for his money. She submitted a total 33 reviews (17 in one day) covering 8 flavor houses with a total of 11,105 words (and symbols) or about 44 pages of flavor descriptions.
Her most upvoted review was One on One Corn Bread and her most discussed review was Inawera Sesame
- #2 /u/mysticrosell contributed an astonishing 87 reviews, 76 of which are for Purilum. Other than being the second most prolific flavor reviewer she is probably most well known for posting a dozen or more reviews at a time. She covered 7 flavor houses with a total of 17,760 words or about 71 pages of flavor descriptions.
Her most upvoted review was Purilum Golden Pineapple and her most discussed review was Chef’s Flavors Welsh Custard
- #1 /u/ConcreteRiver Is the undisputed champion of flavor reviews. In 2017 he wrote 331 of his 393 reviews which is probably as close to a review a day as anyone will ever come, assuming he doesn’t outdo himself in 2018. Those 331 reviews encompass 21 flavor houses and weigh in at an astonishing 192,000 words or about 768 pages. He hasn’t just written the book on flavors, he’s written a massive book.
His most upvoted review was Inawera Shisha Apple and his most discussed review was Flavorah Vanilla Bean
In addition to writing reviews, in the last 6 months he has produced 49 flavor review videos on his youtube channel (14 hours of content) and has made appearances on a number of DIY shows, including Noted, MixLife, and Fresh03's SaturDIY'ing just to name a few.
Shout out to all of this years reviewers: /u/182plus44, /u/Arpeggiator8472, /u/automaticfailure, /u/Boogenshizzle, /u/Boondoc, /u/cloudstatevapor, /u/drawaes, /u/ihatetoridethebus, /u/keed_spills, /u/kindground, /u/Kitu5, /u/Lampburglar, /u/matthewkocanda, /u/mrgruszka, /u/nwpulverizer, /u/ohm-society, /u/RamboUnchained, /u/SophisticatedHack, /u/Synysterjesterx, /u/twisted_dick, /u/vape_account, /u/VAPORMARK, /u/Zermacht
Honorable Mentions: /u/Chrisdvr1 who wasn’t active enough this year to make the top ten but has contributed 77 reviews total and /u/CheebaSteeba another co-host of Noted with 35 reviews.
And last but not least a special shoutout to /u/ID10-T not necessarily for his 5 flavor reviews but for FOTW and the Noted podcast. 3 days after I nominated him to bring back Flavor of the Week it was up and running. 66 weeks later, not a week has gone by without a FOTW and a wonderful/painful pun title to accompany it. The Noted podcast is now 30 episodes in, with every one of the episodes tied to a FOTW. The threads and the podcast are entertaining and informative and like /u/ID10-T himself, one of the best things about this community.
> I spent far too many hours putting all this together so hopefully it was at least somewhat interesting. But either way it was my way of honoring/paying respect to all the people who contributed reviews. Thank you all for your time and effort! >
Speaking from the experience of managing a measly five reviews, I can tell you that the amount of time that goes into doing all of the testing for and writing of a /u/ConcreteRiver - style flavor review is significant. A mind-boggling amount of time and effort went into writing these reviews and I know I'm not the only one who has found them enormously helpful.
A huge thank you for taking the time to recognize the top 10 contributors this way and to everyone who contributed.
This is a stellar write up man. Appreciate you taking the time to gather the data and put it all together like you did. I also have to ask out of curiosity, how many different flavors do you have now, and how many would you say you actually use? :)
The Flavor Wiki started out as a neat little project and kind of grew into a monstrosity that takes increasing amounts of time the longer I put off updating it. Thanks again for catching that up recently.
/u/ID10-T, I wanted to say that I totally enjoy reading FOTW every week, and that it is very useful with all of the little tidbits pertaining to specific flavors from all different manufacturers. It's a handy all inclusive (insert "X" flavor here) thread that helps decide what to order and how to use it, as well as some suggested recipes relative to the topic. Thanks to increasing community participation in these threads, they have become something I really look forward to checking out every week.
I think if I had realized how much work it was going to be I might not have taken it on but once the ball was rolling it was hard to stop. I'm hoping you'll let me link to the spreadsheet in the flavor wiki so I have an incentive to keep it updated but of course that's entirely your call.
My collection has swollen to about 1250 flavors now and I must emphasize collection, because it's obviously not humanly possible to use all those flavors on a regular basis. I justify it by only spending what I make selling juice, so as long as I'm breaking even I can convince myself I'm not just a hoarder but a collector ;)
I've used most of them at least once and single flavor tested a not-quite-insignificant percentage of them.
Hey, thanks! I'm happy to hear you're enjoying FOTW. I hope people are using them as a resource and not just a fun weekly thread. There's a link to the whole collection in the sidebar and in the text of every FOTW post for that reason. They might not be as detailed and focused as a stellar flavor review, but they might help you decide which flavor reviews you want to read or re-read. Like the flavor reviews, it's aimed at helping people figure out what they might want to use and how they might want to use it.
Thanks to everyone who contributes flavour reviews and FOTW. The ease of finding the right flavour for the job now, compared to when I started DIY, is fantastic and has definitely saved me a few quid on bad purchases.
I, unfortunately, don't have the knack for describing flavours very well but I'm grateful for those that can.
Thanks for the name drop 😁 2017 crazy busy. Hopefully things slow down and I'm able to get back dreading flavor reviews.
Dreading flavor reviews is the best. You should get on that.
There was a few reasons I stopped reading them. First and most important time. Went through a nasty divorce the beginning of last year, between moving around, and spending time with the kids, I had to take a break from flavor reviews. I'm sure you can relate to exactly how much time will use reviews take.
Second didn't seem to be a lot of feedback coming in anymore. Which was kind of the point.
Thanks for the shout out and great write up!
You don't really know how much time it takes to do flavor reviews that would be useful for others until you start writing some. I'm glad there are a lot of others who have more time than me to write them up.
If I had the palate that some of these people have I'd write a review here and there, but sadly it's not. I do want to say thank you to each one of you for all the hard work you have put into all of these notes. You don't have to do any of this. You could just do your own thing and say to hell with everyone else, let them figure out what I did. Instead you shared the most important thing with all of us, knowledge. I wish everyone of you reviewers a great new year!
I'd like to do my part to help though. If anyone of these top 10 would like a free flavor (one they haven't reviewed or been wanting to but haven't) I'd be willing to pay for a bottle. Just PM me the website to order and your address and I'll send it over as soon as it arrives. It's not much but it would make me feel better showing my appreciation. Thank you again!
Wow! This is incredible. Thanks for the honorable mention, but especially thank you for bringing some light to all of the people who have dedicated the time to help bring all of this information together in an easy to access place.
It's been a crazy year for me, and I hope to be more active next year. As low key as I've been this year, the DIY E-Juice Flavor Review wiki is still my top resource when researching which flavorings I should use in my mix, so a big thank you to all of those that contributed the 600+ reviews this year and to anyone who has submitted one!
Interesting. And embarrassing. I've meant to do a number of reviews, but just never seem to have the time.
I need to make time this year.
Wow! Kudos to /u/apexified for all your time and effort breaking it down! Amazing!
And a huge thank you to all that have contributed anything in these forums that has helped anyone think outside the box a bit...amateurs to the pro's. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Now let's get even more up this year with a bunch of new reviewers as well. The train is rollin' jump on for the ride!
And thank you for all the reviews! Especially all the Purilum as they were and still are pretty new, so you were definitely pioneering without a lot of second opinions to reference. Reading your reviews was a great way to get a feel for how they do in general, which is really helpful considering how often they seem to be releasing new flavors.
I rely on the flavour reviews I find here very heavily. That said, all of you that produce organize or manage these: thank you so much!
I know flavour is heavily subjective, but I think I have a similar palate to a couple of our reviewers.
Thanks again and happy new year!
Thank you /u/Apexified for this and for you and /u/wh1skeyk1ng's contributions to making the flavor review wiki and DIY_eJuice reddit stronger.
A big shout out to all the great reviewers, veteran and new mixers who continue to help guide me through this DIY journey. I have learned much and I respect and understand the process of mixing and SFTing much more. I will be sure to do my part monthly to post 3-4 week steep flavor reviews.
Thank you for the shout out and may the DIY Flavour Gods bless all your taste buds. 💖
You're welcome! And I'd also like to say that even though I am fully in support of the standard review template, I'm really happy that you found a way to convey the information in your own way. I think that will encourage other people to try reviewing that might have been discouraged by not being able to fit their notes into that standard template.
OH! Thank you so much. That is encouraging. Also I am very happy that your taking the time to doing so much work. It's a big job and my hat goes off to you and your friend. I hope that more people provide solid reviews and will not feel intimidated by how others write theirs.
We all learn, write, walk, talk, dress and taste different. As long as they do their best with the skill level that they have, that's well and good! By doing so, they will become better with words, with writing, with tasting. You never lose skills gained. You only improve.