A few months back I mixed around 2 liters of various recipes. During the mixing I ran out of my old bottle of INW Creme Brulee and replaced it with a backup bottle I had on my shelf. The backup bottle was purchased in October 2019. Anyway tons of these juices turned into drain lube and I tracked it down to the replacement Creme Brulee. Complained to vendor who said they weren't aware of anyone else having problems. They sent me another bottle. Also bunk.
I purchased 60ml from a different vendor and it was fine - same as my original bottle. It was the last of his inventory so I'm sure it was very old stock. Original vendor told me they reordered another liter from Inawera. It arrived last week and they mailed me a fresh bottle to try. Arrived yesterday. Also bunk. :(
Can anyone confirm if INW reformulated it? It now tastes like a petroleum tire fire and is completely unusable.
They are the Masters of sneaky reformulations. Sounds like they've done it again.
I don't know how they expect to keep customers if they keep doing this. It used to be a stellar flavor. Do you know if VT Creme Brulee is any good?
Haven't tried it myself but /u/ID10-T talked about it here: > "This is probably the creme brulee I would use if Inawera's got reformulated or ruined or was no longer available..."
BTW I found that through Flavor Facts because /u/OdieDoodah was awesome and has timestamped links to the Noted episodes for all the flavors they've talked about.
> Masters of sneaky reformulations.
That and also/possibly bad batches. There was some rank INW Grape floating around out there that had Grack fans in an uproar. It got to the point /u/philosophucker came up with (or just posted) an alternative solution. It had TFA Blackberry and FA Black Currant instead of the usual INW Grape and CAP Sweet Strawberry. I've tried it and it was pretty good. None of my INW Grape ever tasted bad so maybe some people just got really old stock(?), or it was indeed a "bad batch".
I bought a bottle of INW Creme Brulee in early 2018 and can confirm that it has always tasted like marker pens, petrol and rubber.
As for an alternative, Vape Train Creme Brulee is simply caramel with aniseed, no custard/creaminess.
Vape Train Creme Caramel is the same, minus the aniseed.
Both require fleshing out with a custard, so if you already have a nice caramel you should just use that.
The burnt part is achievable by using either an old gunked up coil, or closing off the juice flow and having a lovely dry hit.
Great info on VT creme brulee and creme caramel. I wasn't aware of the aniseed even after watching the excelllent Noted episode linked by /u/Apexified. I love licorice and anise but that limits its flexibility so I will have to grab both of those.
It isn't an 'in your face' anise, it is subtle, probably added to try to emulate the burnt sugar taste.
Much like when ice-cream manufacturers add coconut flavouring to their product to increase creaminess and the longevity of the taste in the mouth.
Yeah, VT Creme Brulee is pretty good. Never SFT it but it did the job well enough in my custard mix. Definitely didn't have to pour the shit out. Sucks about INW, I liked their Creme Brulee as well. Anyhoo, I predicted a while back that INW wouldn't ever reformulate Wonder Waffle..
😲 I've gone through the same thing with commercial juices (country clouds cornbread pudding) but thought the flavor concentrate industry was going to be a bit more stable. As a newbie are there any other brands I should be leary of? Or is this a random thing that pops up like a pimple the day before prom pics?
AFAIK I've seen a few reformulations but it's never a surprise because they let their consumers know. But INW will do it often and never tell anyone
Thanks for the info. I'm about a week away from being able to brew up my 1st bottle of e-liquid and I'm just beginning to compile a small stock of flavors so being aware of stuff like this is very helpful. I guess as long as the changes are announced its not the end of the world but to have someone just try and sneak this past people unannounced seems like bad business IMO.
Yeah, they don’t tell you. A lot of other companies announce it. They just wait for you to find out when you’re mixing a big batch and end up having to chuck the whole lot out. It’s very rarely improved when they change them either.
I try not to use INW if I can help it for that reason. Although there are exceptions- Custard and Biscuit mainly. If they ever reformulate them I will cry!
It's really only Inawera that seems to do this. Others usually add a "DX", "II", "2", or changes the name entirely so there is no confusion.
I noticed that when I looked in the flavor review section here and on several sites selling flavors and silly me thought that was the way all of them did it. I'm so glad I decided to come to this group to try and iron some of the basics of it all out first😃 I honestly feel bad for other Vapors who are just diving into DIY right now and not doing some homework first. I can't thank everyone here enough for the guidance❤️
They claim that creme brulee hasn’t been formulated, do you have a batch number or did you throw it?