Looking for some help on making a decent flavor mix for my fiance. I was attempting to do a sort of grape/blueberry flavor. Part of the issue was obviously the mistake of not getting more grape flavors before attempting this.
The initial mix I made was based on a recipe somewhere (ELR I think is where I had found it) but had subbed 2 of flavors for what I had, but otherwise kept the percentages the same.
MIX 1
Blueberry Jam (CAP) - 2%
Grapeberry Ice (FW) - 6%
Cotton Candy (FW) - 4%
Raspberry, Sweet (TFA) - 4%
Butter Cream (FW) - 2%
Saltwater Taffy (FW) - 2%
After a good shake, it tasted on point and my fiance LOVED it. The next day though it was tasted muted, almost like it had lost flavor somehow. After another day, it only tasted like sour vanilla yogurt. I had posted a question about amping up the flavor in the discord with the recipe I had used. The cotton candy was definitely high compared to what is normally use, and using butter cream was clearly a bad idea. I'm confident the butter cream is at least partially (if not majorly) responsible for the weird flavor it has now.
Anyways, I made note of what others had to say and this time sticking to just the fruit flavors with the addition of the taffy.
MIX 2
Grapeberry Ice (FW) - 6%
Blueberry Jam (CAP) - 4%
Raspberry, Sweet (TFA) - 2%
Saltwater Taffy (FW) - 2%
The koolada/menthol from the grapeberry ice was strong upon the initial mix, which wasn't surprising. After letting it steep a couple days and testing it, the flavor seems relatively muted.
I'm trying to find something that would help accentuate either grape or more raspberry flavor with what I currently have at the moment. Very open to suggestions/recommendations of other flavors to get to help get that.
Flavors on hand:
Blue Raspberry - LB
Raspberry, Sweet - TFA
Saltwater Taffy - FW
Blueberry Jam - CAP
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream - CAP
Jelly Candy - CAP
Grapeberry Ice - FW
Blue Raspberry Cotton Candy - CAP
Cotton Candy - FW
Sweet Candy - CAP
Butter Cream - FW
WS-23 30%
(Reason for so many berry flavorings is I was working on a blue slush recipe for myself.)
That much cotton candy (ethyl maltol) absolutely will mute flavors. Especially when combined with even more sweet (cand/jam) flavors.
If you're aiming for realistic fruit flavor, you've got the wrong flavors. FLV Moscato is a nice realistic white grape flavor without added sweetness, and FA Forest fruit might be worth a try.
I'll definitely have to keep that mind when mixing. And I'm going to add both those to my list for whenever I put in another flavor order.
You can always look at alltheflavors.com to get an average mixing percentage for flavors you might be mixing.
On the site click on Flavors, enter the flavor name, select the name that comes up and it will show an average of what people have mixed it at with all of the recipes that use it on the site. Ethyl sits around 1%.
OP... Grape is kind of a bitch to get just right. Most "grape" flavorings don't stand too well on their own and it's difficult to get the "mix" right when you start adding other flavors. At least that's been my experience.
I've found a couple that I like, although people's tastes vary a lot so these may not be your cup of tea. However, I've personally enjoyed both of these recipes a great deal during the last 3-4 years:
Grape Lemonade:
- TFA Grape Juice - 6%
- LA Lemonade - 3%
- FA Lemon Sicily - 1%
- TFA Blueberry Extra - 1%
- WS-23 - 1% (If you want it "cool".)
Purple Pixie Stix:
- TFA Grape Juice - 6%
- TFA Dragonfruit - 4%
- TFA Sweet & Tart - 1%
- WS-23 - 0.75%
- CAP Super Sweet - 0.25%
Good Luck!
Just wanted to say thanks for the Grape Lemonade recipe. Just made a test batch, and finding it really fresh without being over-powering.
I just made this flavor the other night. I call it blurpleberry. Luckily, keeping it simple was the key. FW Grape 2.5% and FW Blueberry 4%. It feels basic with it being a 2flavor mix, but flavor west has some top notch straight up blueberry and grape flavors. Add a splash of something to sweeten it the way you like....and boom. Blurpleberry punch