So, hey there people. I'll keep this one as short as possible or it'll never get written up.

The theme for Mixer's Club was to remix a recipe and bring it up to date using current flavors. I was definitely hurting for an idea and decided to use the opportunity to work on an idea that I got from u/ID10-T on Noted. Referring to this recipe from u/Fear prapple bacco , ID's point was that it was a great idea/concept but that he got some off notes from FLV Pralines. At around the same time I was working on a kernel of an idea that I had pitched to Sanctum once to pair FLV Turkish with sweet cig and FA Fuji for an apple bacco. Looking over Fear's recipe, it was kind of a no brainer for me to commit to making this happen. Here's mostly (briefly) how it shook out:

Starting with those three, I kinda liked where this was starting out. Sanctum recommended adding a little MB Shape up pear to make the Fuji fuller and stand out a bit. I tried that and was like, oh man this is easy; in the bag! I can just layer in some Sweet and Smoky tobacco to cover the top and bottom notes and ditch the Red Burley from the OG. This addition played out even better than expected and all that was missing was a replacement for the nut/toffee.

I started to slowly try out some flavors to see what stuck. I chose the wf salted caramel as a place holder without really committing to trying out other flavors, it was jsut that good. The issue was finding a praline replacement. I started with FW Butter Pecan, then PUR Butter Pecan and then I started to panic. Realizing I was in over my head and likely was never going to find the right flavor without vaping 200 mLs of failure, I reached out to ID and asked him for ideas. Without hesitation, he replied FW Pralines and Cream.

Of course, I didnt have it but I trusted that this man knew what he wanted and I placed that rare bcf single flavor order. FW Pralines and Cream is mostly praline with maybe a hint of cream, kinda like the nut part of the flavor you get off the nuts in the ice cream of the same name. It is really quite delicious and I'm glad to have gotten it. So here I go again, just trying out everything without the fruit to make sure it's all balanced right. What ended up coming out was, in my opinion, a very tasty tobacco forward ry4.

Naturally, I thought this was the end. I decided to drop the fuji/shape up combo on top and -- blammo -- something was wrong. Some days it tasted great and some days like heck. I sent it out to MC because of deadlines and I sent a sample to ID. Feedback was nearly universal in that something was off but it was hard to pin down. ID was the one who said there was likely a clash with the sweet cigarette. I wasnt about to give up my dear SC so I tried to swap out the Fuji (sorry FA Fuji, sweet apple of my eye) for the OG granny smith and was less pleased. Finally I sat and pondered. The theme was to update a recipe and all I'd really done was to add Sweet and Smoky. A good addition, but hardly something 'new'. And then it occurred to me, JJ had sent me a sample of FLV Mild tobacco ages ago and I immediately thought at that time that for sure this would pair well with Apple of some kind. After a miserable attempt to make FLV Mild the star, a straight 1 to 1 swap with sweet cigarette was made and here we are:

Prapple Bacco 2021

| % | Flavor | |--|--| | 3 | FA Apple Fuji | | 2 | WF Caramel (Salted) | | 1 | FLV Mild Tobacco | | 4 | FW Pralines & Cream | | 1.25 | MB Shape Up Pear | | 0.75 | FLV Sweet and Smokey Tobacco | | 2 | FLV Turkish Tobacco |

Final Thoughts: I had a really interesting time making this but when things got rough, I asked for some help and got it. I know this would never had gotten finished if I hadn't had the help and feedback from ID, Sanct and the peeps in MC. I hope you enjoyed looking this over and don't mind the bare bones dry af comeback post. :)

The coolest part, though, is to see u/TeslaDelMar take the recipe and rework it! You can see his recipe in the October Monthly Recipe Thread along with his other two recipe drops and the other lovely submissions.

keep mixin and keep sharing (guilty of not here, gonna make an effort to change that!), -i