Here's my recipe. Surprisingly, it tastes like a chocolate covered marhsmallow treat. It's not bad tasting but it is off the mark for the PB cup I'm trying to create.
Cocoa (Jungle) 3.5%
Cream Fresh (FA) 1%
Hazelnut (FW) 0.5%
Marshmallow (FA) 1%
Peanut Butter (TPA) 2.5%
Sweetener (Sucralose) (FW) 1%
I was inspired to build this recipe because I really like the accuracy of JF Cocoa and TPA PB. I tried these as single flavors and liked them but would never vape them as a standalone. When I tried Marshmallow alone, I got very little flavor but a nice mouthfeel so I was interested in trying to use it to add body to other flavors. Here it seems to be very prominent.
The problem with JF Cocoa is that its too realistic! It really tastes like cocoa powder and not like milk chocolate. I'm thinking perhaps a vanilla custard or TPA sweet cream paired with cocoa could trick my brain into thinking its milk chocolate. Maybe even some TPA Cheesecake Graham crust could help.
I'm thinking that boosting the PB to 4% or above will help because it should be one of the stars of this show, not a supporting actor but I feel like I'm off track with the chocolate.
Thanks for your suggestions!
Ditch the cocoa. It's flavor doesn't apply to the profile. Use FLV Milk Chocolate. Ideally a mix of FLV Milk Chocolate and TFA Double Chocolate Clear. If you are buying those flavors now, buy TFA Peanut Butter DX. DX flavors are usually a no no, but PB DX is the exception. It's damn near perfect.
If you get those you can get rid of Cream Fresh.
What are the DX flavors? I’ve never used any but have always wondered
Thanks for the suggestions. I guess I'll have to try FLV Milk Chocolate; it has so many rave reviews. I think the PB I have is the DX version. It is really very accurate. I'm thinking to try TPA sweet cream and using ethyl maltol instead of the sweetener on my next try. I gotta get rid of that marshmallowy flavor though, maybe it's hazlenut that is the culprit as I have never actually gotten a marhsmallowey flavor from FA marshmallow. Thanks for the tips!
EM is NOT a sweetener. It's a additive used to mute flavors (specifically off notes you may not want, but if you don't have those the EM will hurt your recipe somewhat.) TPA sweet cream brings a cheese note that I don't recall ever encountering in a Reese. Some AP or graham cracker in tiny amounts may give the gritty feel that Reese PB (which is mainly PB blended with granulated sugar) has.
what about Cheesecake Graham cracker? I have both GC and Cheese Cake GC. I find TPA cheesecake GC doesn't taste anything like cheesecake when I mixed as a standalone at 5%. I still like it as an accent in recipes that call for it.
I might get flamed around these parts for mentioning this but a cream with some butyric acid might help with getting that Hershey milk chocolate taste.
No, I think that's actually quite clever, and relevant!
Which creams have butyric acid? I have a bunch of creams and custards. Please advise
TFA Flavours with butyric/butanoic acid https://shop.perfumersapprentice.com/specsheetlist.aspx?cas=107-92-6 Maybe Dairy/Milk or one of the Sweet Creams?
TFA Double Chocolate Clear is very sour to me as well due to the hexanoic acid, worth looking into if that's what you're aiming for.
Try something more like this:
FLV Milk Chocolate: 1% FA Marshmellow: 1% Capella Peanut Butter: 5% TFA DX Peanut Butter: 1% FA Fresh Cream: 1% Capella Cake Batter: 1.5% FW Sweetener: 0.5-1%
Reasons: FLV milk chocolate tastes a lot like Hershey's chocolate syrup
Capella peanut butter is a surgery Hershey's peanut butter type taste
The TFA DX Peanut Butter is better than non DX and will give it a better authentic peanut butter taste than just using Capellas
Capella Cake batter will give it the extra buttery grease it needs
FA Fresh Cream will cream it up a bit.
FA Marshmellow and Sweetener is for added sweetness and mouthfeel.
> Capella peanut butter is surgery
Great recipe SVC! Another option could be to ditch the greasy cake batter and up the TFA DX Peanut Butter to 3%. This is what I would do - just for personal tastes etc.
To be honest, I haven't had peanut butter cups in well over 2 years, so my memory of whether it's greasy at all or not is a little faded. But I just think that would go well in the recipe. Capella vanilla custard as an accent might also be a good addition to this recipe too.
You suggestion of 3% TFA is solid as well, but that peanut butter is quite strong and may overpower the Capella at that percentage I feel like a middle ground of 2% may work better.
If you want your pb cup to taste like coffee then you can use cap pb.you cant get around that burnt note.
Been working on something similar. I prefer darker chocolate, so I use FA Cacao
TFA Peanut Butter 4% (don't have DX)
TFA Bavarian Cream 1.5%
FA Cacao 2%
FA Fresh Cream 1%
TFA Brown Sugar 0.5%
TFA Acetyl Pyrazine 0.5%
Trying some meringue as an additive
WIP
AWESOME! I have all of these except brown sugar. I'm thinking of using TFA sweet cream (perhaps at 2%) instead of FA Fresh cream, what do you think?
What should I substitute for brown sugar? Sweetener?
I'd split the small batch and try with/without cream. I ended up testing with a little more AP and higher PB.
If you have salted carmel or plain, it could add the same depth. Might play around with saline, as the real 'pop' in Reeses comes from salt. Think it's hard on coils though.
Still a WIP, let me know how your testing goes! Waiting in my glycerin to arrive. Taking forever
I initially tested TFA PB at 5% as a standalone and it was really fantastic. I ended up dumping a few mLs left over because it really tasted like eating PB right out of a jar. The flavor was dead on, but I just couldn't go through a whole tank of this one flavor.
I find 0.5 AP is the max for me and it forces at least 1 week steep or else I get some real nasty harshness out of it. I do have TFA Caramel and it works really well in my "The Kennedy" clone which is like a pistachio cookie.
I'm new at using TFA and CAP creams so I'm currently steeping some BC and VC as single flavors to get an idea of how I want to use them. Why did you choose BC over VC, any specific reason?