Henlo.
This is going to be a quick one, but it's worth taking a crack at if you dig floral mixes. I finally got around to messing with some of those FLV tea flavors that came out a while back, and here's the first attempt at something with it. I like how this turned out, will likely keep tweaking shit on this to bump up some aspects of it. As always, recipe and notes below.
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RECIPE
florazona ( ATF Link )
- FLV Green Tea at 1.4%
- FLV Citrus Soda at 1.25%
- FLV Rose Essence at 1.5%
- FLV Pink Guava at 0.75%
- CAP Hibiscus at 1%
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NOTES
FLV Green Tea / FLV Citrus Soda - this is our base, and I do quite like the combination of these two flavors to build out a standard citrus green tea. During tests, I found that the sweet spot for FLV Green Tea is around 1.5%, it can be pushed a bit higher than that, but at 2%, we start to note a lot more vegetal off notes that detract from the overall profile. First attempts were at 1.25%, and I wanted a bit more of that green tea, so I pushed it to 1.4% and liked where it sat in the mix. For me, it's perfect, but I could imagine pushing it a bit higher to make it more tea forward. Here, we just get a nice mix of that herbal green tea flavor with a hint of sweetness, while the addition of FLV Citrus Soda brings us closer to that Arizona Green Tea territory. Added sweetness, a bit of candied citrus notes, and something quite pleasant and light.
FLV Rose Essence / CAP Hibiscus - I personally love this combination, and I use it a lot. However, in this application, we're not entirely going for that syrupy red sweetness you tend to get from using CAP Hibiscus, instead we just amplify the floral aspects of the green tea. It's almost like you made green tea, but instead of regular water, you used rose water. It's not overpowering at all, but this whole recipe was a study at playing with the subtle nuances of these flavors. FLV Rose Essence is quite weak by FLV standards, so there's a lot of wiggle room here. Play with adding more or less depending on your enjoyment of the flavor, and add more or less CAP Hibiscus almost like you would a sweetener, because that's what it's being used as in this mix.
FLV Pink Guava - my new staple in a lot of recipes. I love this shit. It's like a new addiction. The way it adds just the right amount of tartness and tropical fruit flavor is a great addition to almost every mix I make. Something I've noticed in my tests is that it works so well with things like FLV Citrus Soda or VT Fizzy Sherbet to amp up that mouthfeel to suggest a "soda." Since we can't get ACTUAL effervescence, this adds a touch of bitterness that could be used nicely if trying to make some sort of sparkling water profile.
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TASTING NOTES
This recipe is nice. It could likely use some tweaking, but y'all know I hardly go back to old recipes to make them better if I like them from the jump, and I have already gone through two 30mls of this stuff. The inhale is fruity and bright, with just a slight bit of throat hit from the floral flavors. On the exhale, we get a bit more of that green tea coming through that lingers on the palate for a bit. The mix of fruit, citrus, and tea here feels nice, but I would like to get a bit more green tea out of this. Since right now, it sorta feels like I took a tropical flavored soda and added a few splashes of Arizona Green Tea. It's quite nice, but I reckon there's room for improvement. There isn't much change with a few days, but I do notice the hibiscus coming through a bit more, so it does seem to get sweeter as time goes by. But that may very well just be the flavors all becoming more homogenous.
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That's it. Quick and easy. Just wanted to play around with something outside of my normal wheelhouse, and this was a fun little test that brought out a new recipe I do enjoy a fair bit. If you mixed it, let me know what you think. If you didn't, that's cool too. If you're part of the Kocanda downvote army, hope you get some enjoyment out of clicking that little arrow today. Cheers.
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I like your explanatory notes and agree on Pink Guava completely!
Nice tip on the FLV Pink Guava adding to the "fizz" of the FLV Citrus Soda. Have you tried this on any other "fizzy" flavors like VT Fizzy Sherbet or VT Blood Orange Champagne? I've got a combo of FLV Citrus Soda and either of the other two that really cranks up the effervescence.
I'm also a big fan of rose flavor, but I've never tried FLV Rose Water. Is it something with a lot of versatility? Or am I going to be using this in a limited range of profiles? I can't see it being used in a lot of bakeries or something. Mostly beverages, fruit mixes, or maybe some candies?
Thanks for continuing to post awesome notes. I'm working on my first first flavor reviews to hopefully post next week. It helps me to read how other people describe flavors so I can get an idea of how to word things.
I've worked pretty much exclusively with VT Fizzy Sherbet in the past because I like it a lot more than FLV Citrus Soda, but for this recipe I had already blown through all my VT FS lmao. But yes, it still works really nicely pairing FLV Pink Guava with VT Fizzy. I'd say in there, you actually end up with a lot more of a flavor boost instead of a "mouthfeel" boost with those two. Pink Guava ends up making Fizzy Sherbet just a delicious base for a bright, potent, tropical soda. Sometimes I just mix those two together for a simple two ingredient banger.
FLV Rose Essence is REALLY weak for a FLV concentrate. I would say that it's quite versatile because it sits in the background very nicely to just give the subtle nuances of rose water. It's not offensively floral or anything. And when you push it up too high in a mix, you kinda lose it anyway and get some bitterness. So it is definitely meant to be an accent. I wouldn't really throw this in with like, creams or bakeries though. I could see it being pretty weird there. Anything fruity, candied, or beverage based will be great though.
Thank YOU for taking the time to read my notes and for commenting. Glad my stuff is helpful to people.