Long time lurker, first time poster.

History - I’ve been vaping for over 4 years and tried way more flavors than I can remember or have reviewed. Took a while to find my ADV and even longer to narrow down what I really wanted. I can elaborate more on my “journey” but it’s likely not relevant. I arrived at strawberry milk and Placid. Placid is somewhat of a white whale, strawberry milk is far more common. I also really like Kilo’s Honey Cream or Dollar Ejuice Club’s Honey Milk. These 3 flavors get it done. I vape around 1k ML of Placid a year.

My background is with JuiceDB and doing reviews so I figured maybe these strawberry milk recipe reviews would be helpful for me to refer back to and maybe others looking for their unique flavor. My intention is not to throw anyone under the bus or criticize them. These recipes are well reviewed mostly and what I want in a flavor isn’t always what someone else wants or enjoys.

I started with the Nicotine River starter kit. 15 flavors plus 4 more I added on. I recently ordered another 15 flavors to make more recipes and will probably end up making another 10 flavor order soon to branch out. All flavors were mixed by weight on the AWS and using 45mg PG Nic at Max VG. I’ve been using ATF and EJR. Mostly EJR as I find in the interface a bit easier to use with my flavor stash inputted and being able to add missing flavors to a shopping list easily. ATF seems a bit harder to figure out and less intuitive. ATF has better recipe layout, organization, and consistency and I always try to cross click on ATF to get mixers exposure since Skiddlez brought it to my attention.

First, I’m picky as hell. When I say strawberry milk, I want a specific taste. Something close to Boosted, Captivape Strawberry Milk, or Dollar Ejuice Club’s Strawberry Milk. A deeply milky SM with a prominent strawberry and no dominant custard notes.

Flavor Stash

General Strawberry Milk observations - Quite a bit of overlap in the flavors used for the milk base across recipes. Some slight variations but common flavors are TFA Meringue, TFA Bavarian Cream, TFA Vanilla Swirl, and TFA Cheesecake Graham Crust. TFA Sweet Cream or CAP Cream Fresh were less common but notable. Common Strawberries are TFA Strawberry and TFA Strawberry Ripe often in combination although CAP Sweet Strawberry is up there too along with Strawberry RF.

Shame Note - I didn’t follow advice in the side bar for tasting flavors individually and making notes (shame.gif). I figured starting out I’d find a recipe I can make/semi-enjoy and go from there but it hasn’t worked out that well. It’s on my to-do list eventually but I’ve pegged a couple standout flavors already like Sweet Cream, NY Cheesecake, and Vanilla Swirl.

Katchup Milk

• Originally favorited because Captivape. This was mixed at the TL;DR summary percentages
• At two weeks out this was pretty weak on the strawberry and slightly dry. The cream was decent but tasted like it would mix a bit better with more time.
• At 1 month it’s decent but nothing really stands out. The strawberry is more mellow than I’d prefer but more present than at 2 weeks. The cream has mixed together well. It’s still dry on the exhale/aftertaste. Flavor overall is decent but well muddled and lacking definition. It’s not Captivape but it has some leanings and is enjoyable overall. Need to try toning down the dryness or add something to make it more juicy/palatable.
• Notes - I reread the thread and mixed a variant on the percentages with slightly more strawberry and slightly less cream based on recommendations from the creator in their thread. The variant is better but needs tweaking. I'm at 10% strawberry and 3.75% cream and I added 2% strawberry ripe while keeping the CAP strawberry at 8%. Might try adding a different strawberry and sweet cream or vanilla swirl.

Strawberry Cereal

• I like Captivape’s strawberry cereal as it’s quite similar to their SM at least last I had it years ago
• At 2 weeks out this was very strong on the dry cereal grain flavor. More berry cereal flavor than I’d prefer. Less emphasis on the strawberry aspect as it’s definitely a background note at most.
• At 1 month it’s sort of bland tasting. More dry cereal than anything. Most fruity notes are subdued and blended together where you cannot tell them apart. Strawberry can be tasted on the exhale as well as cream but the inhale flavor isn’t great. Mostly dry berry cereal with a light aftertaste hint of something better.
• Notes - Probably won’t do anything with this. If I did...maybe drop the berry cereal to 1% and adding in CAP Sweet Strawberry from Katchup Milk. Might be worth exploring but the berry cereal as is isn’t working for me at all.

Mother’s Unicorn Milk

• I'm apparently part of those few that taste TFA custard like pepper, at least early on. Probably why I never enjoyed most custards.
• The custard here is way too prominent for my tastes and tastes peppery. I can see why those who like the custard flavors would like this. The custard overshadows some of the added flavors. It's been awhile but I don't remember unicorn milk tasting quite like this and it's definitely not mother's milk. Some ohmage to strawberry custards of several years ago that's very custardy.
• At 1 month, holy turn around. I get why this is popular now. The custard only has a slight peppery bite on the exhale but it’s very slight. This is a really tasty flavor. Nice amount of strawberry and a very rich custard exhale. Slightly eggy and a nice amount of vanilla. Tastes more like Unicorn Milk now albeit a little heavier on the custard aspect. Still I went from shunning ever using TFA Custard again to maybe using it in small amounts. Proof a long steep can have a significant impact.

One Milk to Rule Them All

• This one was chosen because it’s rated highly on ELR. I had read some promising things about strawberry shisha as well so went ahead and grabbed some.
• When mixing this it has a strange smell to it. Probably the Dairy Milk and partly the Shisha. 2 weeks out it has a sharp flavor kind of like powdered milk. Almost kind of grainy in taste if that makes sense.
• A month out the strawberry is more prominent but it still tastes strange to me. I don’t think it’s the dairy milk so much as the strawberry shisha now. It has this earthy flavor that combined with the milks just tastes off. Kind of like powdered milk; kind of like a strawberry nutrigrain bar. Not terrible but not something I can vape for any length of time. Definitely a flavor for a more peculiar pallet.

God Milk

• 2 weeks - This is a solid flavor. A bit more dragon fruit than I'd like, or better said more pronounced than I'd like. I never was big on dragon fruit at least as a primary element. While the dragon fruit isn't a primary flavor it's definitely noticeable enough. The core strawberry and cream is very solid and worth experimenting with. Definitely a solid flavor overall.
• At 1 month this really excellent. The dragon fruit has calmed significantly. You can still taste the element right after the strawberry but it’s far more blended in and has less of that dragon fruit bite to it. Nicely creamy and flavorful. Definitely easy to see why this one is popular.
• Notes - I made this same recipe sans the dragon fruit to see how it would work to build from. After revisiting it at 1 month though I might just try adding some NY cheesecake to it or sweet cream to suit my flavor preferences. Without the dragonfruit it definitely tastes like it's missing something. Another lesson learned, every flavor contributes to the whole and you can't always just axe what you don't like.

Spot on Boosted

• It's not spot on Boosted. Doesn't really taste anything like boosted. It's a milky strawberry flavor that's more milky than sweet but with sweet notes in the aftertaste. I also get some of the golden butter aftertaste as well. Not bad but there is nothing pulling me to it or setting it apart from less complex recipes. Just tastes sort of average for something so complex.
• At 1 month it almost has a strawberry jelly sort of flavor to it. A little more depth to it. More of a light cream than a milkshake. It’s definitely missing the malted aspect that Boosted has and is richer in strawberry flavor as well. A little dry on the exhale along with a slightly earthy element I cannot place. Similar to One Milk to Rule them all but way less pronounced. Maybe that is Dairy Milk a bit after all. The golden butter aftertaste has subsided a bit, but a bit of the butter still is present in the overall flavor. Just less dominant. It smells similar to DEJC Strawberry Milk but the flavor isn’t there. I think CAP NY Cheesecake might be an element I’m missing in my ideal strawberry milk based on the smell.

Mother of Dragon’s Milk

• I didn’t try this one at 2 weeks because I was a little put off by the Dragon Fruit in God Milk at 2 weeks (shame). I’m picky, again, and dragon fruit is an iffy flavor for me.
• At 1 month this is a pretty nice blend of strawberry and dragon fruit. The dragon fruit is pretty evenly matched with the strawberry. The strawberry cuts down on the DF dryness and punch at the end. The cream is mellow and sits behind the strawberry and DF. I don’t get a lot of definition with the cream. The fruit flavors are the star here. The cream adds some depth and a nice mouthfeel. If you like God Milk but want a bit more DF or less of a cream focus then this is for you.

Strawberry Haze

• I didn’t make 2 week notes on these due to summer break so all I have is at a little over a month.
• For a fairly simple recipe this is quite good. The strawberry is nicely present at the front. It almost tastes slightly jam-like. Some creaminess in the middle and the exhale is mostly strawberry graham crust. Could use something to add a thicker mouthfeel and maybe something else to give the cream more depth. Might be worth building on top of this one as well. Maybe some cheesecake or sweet cream flavor and possibly a small amount of another strawberry. This is a winner for good flavor out of few ingredients and one of my favorites so far.

Strawberry Fog Adapted

• For this one I swapped out vanilla custard for TFA sweet cream part for part. No real reason other than it seemed worth a shot since custard doesn't agree with me. So not respective of the original recipie.
• The result after a month is a very creamy flavor. The strawberry is more subtle than I’d prefer but the overall result is palatable and good. I think the sweet cream should be toned down as this has become mostly bavarian sweet cream with a subtle afterthought of strawberry. Still surprisingly decent for a gamble especially if you want a less forward strawberry flavor. Might be worth splitting the percentage for vanilla custard between sweet cream and vanilla swirl or just trying vanilla swirl. I guess that means I’ll play with this one too.

Strawberry Quik

• After 1 month, this is another pretty solid flavor. Initially I find the custard to be too strong but with repeated vaping the custard mellows on my tongue. The result is flavor pretty close to legit powdered strawberry quik milk. For my tastes, it’s not exactly what I’m looking for. I just taste custard too strongly I think. Might be worth halving the custard and adding in vanilla swirl or replacing it all together with vanilla swirl. Really solid flavor though as is and might be what someone is looking for.

Placid V7

• Probably the closest to Placid. The lime is a hair too strong and the honeysuckle stands out a little more. Overall very solid and definitely worth making a big batch in the future. This is sweeter than Placid but overall definitely in the Placid realm. I'd put this between Placid and Crescent City Clouds Rebirth which is a great place to be IMO.
• Might be worth mixing up a batch without sweetener and maybe up the pear slightly. Either way I’ll end up mixing this up and vaping a lot as it is once my Placid stash runs low.

Placid 99% - Recipe has since been edited but I have it saved.

• The bitter wizard here doesn’t work for me. It makes the lime borderline astringent most of the time. Kind of tastes like a lime kitchen cleaner smells. The bitterness just overshadows everything too much and I end up missing some of the finer notes from the pear and honeysuckle. This is Fizzmustards Placid-ish with some tweaked percentages and bitter wizard added.

Fizzmustards Placid-ish

• A simple placid version, definitely an homage. Tastes like a broken down Placid. If you remove the high notes and finesse and just have the core flavors. A bit too limey and it's definitely missing something. I would think this would be good to build off of if you wanted the Placid flavors but wanted to add a different primary fruit like blueberry or even melon.

Future - I already have another lineup of strawberry flavors I want to try along with a few other flavors. Probably will result in another 20 flavor order or so. I still need to do the single flavor testing as well. Time is a precious commodity though that I find myself in short supply of. Money too. I think I can make due on the Placid for now but I need to figure out where I’m going with strawberry flavors first. I do need to mix up the Boosted V3 recently posted by DIYorDie as I have those flavors already.