Hey, I've posted some notes for this weeks episode of Noted below.
Notes for previous episodes are available at:
Flavor Facts: https://link.diyejuice.org/Facts000
Apexified's List https://link.diyejuice.org/fotw
PART 2:
Noted Ep. 175: CRANBERRY (ft. ConcreteRiver)
LB Cranberry Cobbler (discontinued?): Not bad. But the balance is off. Mostly a bready type crust with a little bit of fruit. The cranberry isn't bad. Has a nice tartness. The warmth from the base works well. But it's a little bit floral. Can use for the bakery part. Either boost with another cranberry flavour. Or cover it with another type of fruit. Can cover with any type of berry as the cranberry is so soft. The bakery is very textural. It's doughy, but has some crunch to it at the same time. At 12%, which is the recommended % from LB, the cranberry became pretty floral. At 10% the floral note was much better and still had plenty of bready-ness. 10% seems a pretty good spot for it. If you were going to cover the cranberry with another type of fruit then it might work better a little lower than that. Maybe around 6-8%?
27.16
Bickford Cranberry: Would be ranked lower. Pretty harsh. Not a lot of flavour. Maybe a little tartness. Not really any cranberry, berry or fruity flavour. A bit of a cardboard note. Tested at 4%
29.57
WF Cranberry Cocktail: ID10-T thought it tasted kind of fermented. Maybe it was supposed to be boozy? But the touch of fermentation it has in the finish isn't boozy hard liquor like. It's more a beer or wine type of fermented. He thought it mostly tastes like cranberry juice. Has a little apple juice that is identifiable in the body. Then theres a little citrus that tastes lime-ish. On the finish has a touch of fermentation. Kind of like un-spiced apple cider mixed with cranberry and maybe a little citrus. Even though the cranberry isn't super forward and bold, it's still identifiable as cranberry. Cheeba got the fermented note, although to him it came across a little more medicinal. Emily and Concrete didn't got a fermented note. Concrete liked it, thought it was like a better version of TFA Cranberry. Couldn't find anything glaringly wrong with it. Has a decent body, a little stickiness. Got a touch of lime type bitterness and astringency. But fresh cranberries also have a bit of a lime peel kind of citrus note to them. Thought it had a really nice tartness. Emily thought it was a bit discombobulated. The kind of cooked cranberry with the lime note seemed a little off.
31.42
Nic River Ocean Mist: Supposed to be a cranberry juice. But Emily got more of a grape juice or grape candy. It's kind of similar to SC/FE Grape, which is like a grape Blow Pop. Didn't get any cranberry from it. But it is a good grape and there aren't a whole lot of good grapes. Couldn't identify it as a red, white or purple grape. ID10-T has seen it discussed in relation to grape flavourings before. So may not read as grape to just Emily.
36.56
SSA Cranberry Jam: Really tasty and clearly cranberry. A much better cranberry sauce than TFA Cranberry Sauce. But it seems to put more emphasis on the jammy sweetness than on the cranberry. Not a very intense flavour. Jammy sweet from top to bottom. Very much like canned cranberry sauce. Can tell that cranberries were used to make it but there are no visible cranberries in there. A very coked down and subdued cranberry flavour, with lots of added sugar. Even has the texture of a jam or a jelly. Would not work as a fresh cranberry. Would n't work as an additive to turn another fruit into jam as it is so clearly cranberry. Even though its soft, it's very distinctive. Could probably use as a sweetener, or to tone down another cranberry. Or would work as a base to add another cranberry to. Or if you just wanted to add a more subtle cranberry accent to a mix.
38.48
NF (Nature's Flavors) Cranberry: Cheeba would rank it around number 4. Pretty good. But the main issue is that it's pretty harsh. Nice bright cranberry flavour. Could do with more tartness. Comes across like a more natural cranberry sauce, minus the jammy texture. Does a pretty good job at selling cranberry with a little tartness. Some sweetness. Tested at 4%. Pretty flavourful. Maybe could start at 3-3.5%. May be a bit less harsh?
42.49
FLV Cranberry: Tastes like straight up Ocean Spray cranberry juice. Which is usually what you want for most applications where you're using cranberry. A little tart, quite sweet, smooth, juicy. Not really top heavy, has some juicy base and some body. No off notes, although some people have reported that they get an unpleasant earthy or dirty note. ID10-T tried cranking it up to 3% to try to find it but still didn't get any earthiness. Not a weak flavour, full flavoured from around 1-1.5%. has a really great syrupy body, bery robust. Has good penetration. Could be a little bit tarter. Maybe mixing it with a little FLV Sour Apple would do that? Also if being used in a recipe it can overrun other flavours. So may have to dial it back and be a little careful in balancing it in a mix. If you wanted to turn it into a craisin an untested theory is to mix it with something dark and molasses-ish, but that doesn't taste like brown sugar. So maybe VT Red Dates would push it in that direction? If they blended and didn't separate. If they did separate could add an emulsifying flavour like Smooth? To make FLV into a whole, fresh cranberry ID10-T tried a recipe where they used FA Pomegranate. FA Pomegranate has a bit of a weird woody note that could potentially interfere, depending in what else you're mixing it with.
44.17
ID10-T isn't ready to crown FLV 'king of the cranberries' yet as he hasn't tried VSO Cranberry. There's a lot of people who absolutely swear by VSO.
PART 1:
Noted Ep. 175: CRANBERRY (ft. ConcreteRiver)
(Episode aired 3rd November 2020)
(Ranked from worst to first)
VSO Cranberry and PUR Orange Cranberry are supposed to be very good.
CAP Cranberry: Ranked lowest as there were no vomit inducing flavours this week. It's just very meh. It's thin, sweet, not tart- like you'd want a cranberry to be. No real off notes. But not particularly tart, not as full as other many cranberry flavours. Just meh. If % is pushed to high it starts to get a bit medicinal and perfumey on top of the deeper, sweet, almost cranberry- but not quite, darker, red fruit body.
6.47
TFA Cranberry: Not great. Emily prefers CAP Cranberry to TFA. TFA has more tartness and a bit of bite, like a fresh cranberry. But there's some weirdness. Emily gets a green note, kind of like how INW Rhubarb is a bit green. ID10-T found it a bit minty and yet warm at the same time. Like it's simultaneously warm and cool. According to TFA ingredients list it contains a lot of ethyl alcohol and some menthol. Concrete found it boozy, like rubbing alcohol. Booziness disappears after a steep, but the warmth remains. Emily thought it was a bit astringent before a steep.
8.54
TFA Cranberry Sauce: Cheeba thought it was pretty good. ID10-T thought it just wasn't a cranberry. Tastes like a very red candy. But has no real off notes. Concrete thought it tasted like a worse version of FA Blackcurrant. ID10-T thought it was like a worse version of CAP 27 Fish- it's sweet, waxy, blatantly red. But not cranberry. More like a currant than cranberry, it's even more like cherry than cranberry. Only very slightly tart. Thick, but not quite gummy. TFA Swedish Fish and CAP 27 Fish are better so don't know what to do with it. Has the exact same gummy sort of body as FA Blackcurrant. Although TFA Swedish Fish is notoriously harsh and TFA Cranberry Sauce is smooth.
10.55
CdD (Club Der Dampfer) Cranberry: Not very authentic to a cranberry. Tastes more like a red grape, tart and sweet. Not a bad red grape. The tartness up front is a lot like red grape skin. The body tastes specifically red, as opposed to a white or purple grape.
13.20
FW Cranberry: Has a Sweet Tarts feel, but also has a natural element. Something a little floral about it, not in a perfumey way, but in a natural way. Tastes like cranberry more than any other type of berry, but it still isn't quite right. A Sweet Tart kind of body. At 4% Emily found it a little astringent and harsh. At 3% ID10-T found it slightly harsh. But not at all at 2%. But after he had been vaping it a little while he thought it started to get slightly soapy, but he is sensitive to that soapy off note. Emily didn't get any soapiness. ID10-T tested at 2% and 3%. Emily tested at 4%
15.07
LA Cranberry: Clear in colour, no food colouring. Not bad. Like a cranberry hard candy. Very sweet, candied cranberry. Hard candy texture. Kind of like a cranberry Jolly Rancher. Pre WF a lot of hard candy flavours tended to be a bit astringent and hairspray-ish. This has a little of that hairspray type off note, even after steeping for 6 days. But maybe 5% was too high? Could use it for the hard candy note at a lower % (maybe 2-3%) and boost it with something else? Tested at 5%
16.48
OOO Cranberry: Cheeba thought it tasted like straight up red liquorice, didn't get cranberry from it at all. ID10-T thought it tasted like FW Cranberry, but more cranberry-ish. Although more like a reddish-purple berry than blatantly cranberry. Same Sweet Tart body, but a little less powdery. A little less distinctively Sweet Tarts.
18.36
Herrlan Cranberry: A little floral, a little oddly warm. But very tart, a little sweet and does taste like cranberry. Starts off pucker-y tart, acidic. Then a little harsh and warm. Maybe a little floral. Then has a sweeter, softer base and the cranberry flavour comes in. Overall it does have a slight medicinal quality. But in the same way as cranberry juice. Tastes like cranberry juice. But cranberry juice is very forward and bold. But Herrlan Cranberry, besides the tartness, is pretty soft. Takes a back seat to the tartness. Could use to add tartness to something else. But needs help from a more in your face cranberry flavour.
19.55
HS Apple Cinnamon Cranberry: Flavourful, but soft at the same time. Cinnamon a little sharp. I bit like the cinnamon note in CAP Cinnamon Danish Swirl, but not as metallic. A bit more bite-y than something like FLV Rich Cinnamon. Definitely more cinnamon cranberry forward with less apple. But the apple provides a nice sweetness. Overall it didn't seem unbalanced. No one flavour really rises above the rest. It's all one muddled flavour. But it is tasty.
22.10
HS Apple Mix (May be the same thing as HS Apple Cinnamon Cranberry?) ID10-T had HS Apple Mix. Maybe be the same thing as HS ACC? Tasted the same as Emily's description of HS ACC but the apple note was more prominent. The apple is soft, more like a cooked apple or apple juice. A touch of cinnamon. Not really a bakery cinnamon, a little sharp. Didn't really get cranberry from it. More of a red fruitiness. Overall its quite dry. Very reminiscent of powdered apple cider mix. HS Apple Cinn. Cran. also has that powdery, apple cider mix feel. So seems like they're the same flavour? Concrete thought it was very autumnal and very balanced. The apple is good. The cranberry is maybe a little sharp as a SF. But still a pretty solid cranberry.
23.44
Recipe: Mustard Cider by fizzmustard
25.07
FLV Apple Cranberry: ID10-T ranked it below HS Apple Mix. Pretty disappointing. FLV has some really great apple flavours and FLV Cranberry is really great. But FLV Apple Cranberry doesn't use that same cranberry note. It's tart, but everything else is wrong with it. It's sharp, a little floral, thin, a little harsh. It's deep and lacks the brightness. Very harsh to those sensitive to harshness. The apple part is good. Pretty potent. 0.75% is plenty of flavour, but also pretty harsh.
25.32