|Brand|Flavor|Percent| |:-|:-|:-| |LA|Watermelon (Clear)|4.00 %| |TFA|Strawberry (Ripe)|4.00 %| |FA|Kiwi|3.00 %| |CAP|Grapefruit|1.00 %| |FLV|Sweetness|0.50 %| |INW|White Grapefruit|0.25 %|
Flavor Total: 12.75 %
Recommended steep: 14-20 days for the grapefruits to meld and the watermelon to come out and play
I guess I’ll start out by first explaining the stupid non-descriptive name. Hungry Hippo Safari began as an attempt to clone Hippo by Safari Juice back when I first started mixing and was still vaping some store- bought. Hippo was a sweet watermelon-grapefruit mix and until now I was calling my version Drunken Hippo. I’m not evil enough to release a booze-less recipe with the word drunken in the name so I’m going with Hungry Hippo Safari. Maybe someone can make a boozy version and call it Drunken Hippo.
Safari Juice seems to have disappeared sometime after Nov 2018. It’s too bad because I liked their entire lineup and they sold 30ml bottles for $5 USD each. They could ship from Canada or the US which meant that Canadian customers had to pay in USD but didn’t have to worry about customs fees. You can see the archived version of their website here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20181122213439/https://safarijuice.com/
Here’s a picture of their lineup:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XEBPO5sD6O0/maxresdefault.jpg
And some ancient YouTube juice reviews for the curious:
https://youtu.be/q-EHV_xoFhI?t=352
https://youtu.be/hUto3RJufYk?t=75
https://youtu.be/XEBPO5sD6O0?t=581
So what does it taste like? Well it tastes wet and pink. With grapefruit. That’s about it. It’s a really simple profile. It’s taken me around 5 years to finish but that’s mostly because there was a 2 year gap where I completely forgot about this one while working on other recipes. Last August I remixed the version where I left off and realized this recipe was too good to leave unfinished. So I decided to finish it off and I’m glad I did. It’s quickly become a favorite of mine and is a frequent appearance in my 100ml rotations.
I’ve summarized my (boring) development notes in the table below. The recipe started to come together at V4 when I decided to try the base from yetisuncle’s Kanzi Clone, but with LA Watermelon instead of FA. I own about 6 watermelon flavors now but LA is still my favorite and during the steep it gets better and better. Cheap and good. I like that.
V5 became my reference version but contained too much PG for me at nearly 20% total flavor. The goal from there was to target 10% total flavor without reducing the taste. I also tried FA Kiwi at V5 and slightly preferred it over FW, but FW Kiwi will work almost as well in here.
In total I tried 2 different Kiwis, 4 different sweeteners, and 4 different grapefruits. Flavors that were rejected for this recipe because they weren’t working out are: HS Watermelon, FA Watermelon, TFA Honeydew, TFA Dragonfruit, FA Grapefruit, INW Grapefruit, FW Ruby Red Grapefruit, and Ethyl Maltol.
I knew right from V2 that a touch of INW White Grapefruit was required to really sell the grapefruit experience. But INW White Grapefruit is all top notes. I wanted a 2nd grapefruit in there to fill it out and it took a little while to find the right one, which turned out to be CAP Grapefruit. Once I nailed the right grapefruit it only took one more revision to dial it in and wrap everything up at V14.
That’s all for now. It’s a pretty boring recipe but very tasty. I haven’t tried it with coolants because I think they will mute the grapefruit top notes and defeat the one thing that separates this recipe from other watermelon recipes. But you are more than welcome to play around with it!
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Next recipe to be released will be one of: Peach Pie, Candy Grape, Peanut Butter Apple Caramel, Lime Cream, Realistic Frozen Orange, Radler-ish Adult Beverage thing, or an uncategorizable mystery flavor recipe. Whichever one gets finished first. :) So far I think Lime Cream is in the lead...
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|Version|Notes| |:-|:-| |#1|Started out sometime in 2016 with: 3% HS Watermelon, 1.5% FA Grapefruit, 1% FA Strawberry, 0.5% TFA Dragonfruit. Dragonfruit killed the grapefruit.| |#2|2% HS Watermelon, 2% FA Watermelon, 0.33% TFA Honeydew, 1% INW White Grapefruit. Hated the FA Watermelon because it was too dry.| |#3|4% LA Watermelon (Clear), 1% HS Watermelon, 0.75% FA Grapefruit, 0.25% INW White Grapefruit, 1% EM| |#4|5% LA Watermelon (Clear), 5% FW Kiwi, 6% TFA Strawberry (Ripe), 0.25% INW White Grapefruit, 2% TFA Sweetener (holy shit what was I thinking?) Trying watermelon base from Kanzi clone except using LA watermelon instead of FA.| |#5|6% LA Watermelon (Clear), 5% FA Kiwi, 6% TFA Strawberry (Ripe), 0.50% INW White Grapefruit, 0.2% FA Grapefruit, 2% TFA Sweetener Trying with FA Kiwi now that I have some. Bumping watermelon clear to 6%. Bumped white grapefruit to 0.5 and adding 0.25 FA grapefruit. FFS almost 20% flavor! Really liked this one.| |#6|Same as #5 but trying to reduce flavor concentration by half. Yeah still wasn't nearly as good as #5. Seemed too dry.| |#7|Trying 1% EM instead of sweetener. Bottle for #7 still sitting on my desk. EM has muted it to hell over time. No grapefruit taste. Just fruity sweetness. I'm thinking sucralose is probably required for this mix.| |#8|Percentage changes only and retest with fresh base and fresh nic. This was awesome in the Merlin around day 20! Got through all 25ml on one wick (barely).| |#9|Trying Rick’s Sugar Daddy instead of TFA Sweetener, both 1% and 0.5%. RSD works here but 1% is too hard on the wicks.| |#10|#5 with a 33% flavor reduction. Removed FA Grapefruit. This is where I forgot about this recipe for almost 2 years, oops.| |#11|4% LA Watermelon (Clear), 3% FA Kiwi, 4% TFA Strawberry (Ripe), 0.25% INW White Grapefruit, 0.75% INW Grapefruit, 0.5% FLV Sweetness. Decided to try out this old recipe with a new grapefruit and sweetener. It worked out but I felt INW Grapefruit was too realistic and I wanted a more candy grapefruit that wouldn’t clash as hard.| |#12|#11 with 1.75% CAP Grapefruit. Had the right candy note but the mix had that “spicy overflavored hotness” here with CAP Grapefruit at 1.75%.| |#13|#13 with 0.5% FW Ruby Red Grapefruit instead of the CAP Grapefruit. Knuckle was stellar but this mix was too harsh for my liking. Decided to go back to CAP Grapefruit.| |#14|#12 with the CAP Grapefruit dropped to 1%. The grapefruits are finally dialed in with the rest of the recipe and I’m calling it done after vaping 400ml of this version.|
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V.14 with a two year gap. Good job.
I need white grapefruit, I‘ve never seen it used anywhere.
Brut Bubble Wine (FLV) @ 0.5 - 1.5 Might need to touch of Cactus (INW) depending on how high you go.
First time I heard about that one, is it good? Should work fine. I don't have much experience with booze flavors but have some news I haven't tried. Do you think any of these would be worth trying? FW Martini, FA Whiskey, FA Jamaican Rum, RF Aged Bourbon Cream, TFA Absinthe, SM Butter Rum Cavendish, FW Pink Champagne
I like it. Here's the original recipe:
https://alltheflavors.com/recipes/206139#sajin_by_wolfwheeler
I subbed out OOO Vanilla Custard Cheesecake. Added WS-23 and VT Fizzy Sherbet.
Of those you've listed, I've got FA Jamaican Rum. Use it in a rum and coke recipe. No idea how it'll play out added Hungry Hippo Safari. Couldn't hurt to experiment with it.